14 Comments

“Tomorrow’s Bread” would be my suggestion for a title.

The poem has many echoes of Herbert. Love it.

Expand full comment

I keep coming back to this line: “Tomorrow’s bread, simply getting out of bed,”

And thinking about how getting in bed at the end of the day is faith, too, and sometimes (or maybe just for some of us) just as hard.

Expand full comment

It’s all really good to think through and brings out more faith-sightings as I go :)

Expand full comment

Am just getting into Herbert! Another excellent poem/rendition

Expand full comment

I like the phrase, "the sunless city"—it sounds desolate (and it could be, like the dying sun in Charn), but I assume it's pointing to the new Jerusalem where God is the light instead of the sun. It seems to encapsulate well both the struggle and hope of this psalm. "From the Ground" could be a title idea. I like "Tomorrow's Bread" too, because of the "already-not-yet" vibe.

Expand full comment
author

Yes, it seems like a sad image but I meant it as an allusion to the New Jerusalem, which has no sun.

Expand full comment

Love the Narnia reference :D

Expand full comment

Faith a Bible split at the Psalms,

Love this line!!! Great poem and rendition, thoughtful and moving!

Expand full comment

"Prophets Paltry and Ragtag" has my vote

Expand full comment

Oh, and isn't Psalm 118 the middle chapter of the bible, set between the longest and shortest chapters of the bible?

Expand full comment
author

I did a little homework on this and it may not be as interesting as it seems. After all, the chapters weren’t there when the canon was being arranged. They were added in the Middle Ages. Also, the book order of the Hebrew Bible is different than in modern English Bibles.

Expand full comment

Ah, good reminder about chapters, thank you. (And here I get worked up about the order of Narnia books. Ha! Who's sloppy now?) I'm a little torn about rules of repetition. We do have song choruses these days.

Expand full comment

What poet isn't inspired by Herbert?

"Songs on a Midnight Piano" gets my vote

Expand full comment

Either “A kind of prayer rising from the ground”

Or “The bare world brighter than it seems”

Expand full comment