Light of the World | some more words

I few years ago I wrote some words.  Now I have some further words to the same tune and using some of the same lines.

Light  of  the  world,  of  glory  born,
Focusing  radiance  in  earthlife
pinpoint  Divinity's  form,

Light  of  the  world  in  darkness  shine,
Word  of  God  fleshed  out  in  spacetime,  
love  of  God  tested  in  pain.

For  it's  the  Mystery  of  the  universe
The  Uncreated  makes  a  home  in  created  time  and  space
Saviour,  shine  your  life  in  us
enliven  us  in  bearing  light,  as  wells  of  grace.

Andii  Bowsher  cc2014   8.8.7.8.8.7   10.12.7.12  (cf  Matt  Redman,  O  Sacred  King)

For comparison here's the 'original from 2000, posted in 2004.

Light of the World 
of glory poured 
Word of God fleshed out in spacetime 
Love of God tested in pain 

O gladdening light 
enlightening all 
we embrace love you've made human 
light of truth that sets us free 

For it's the mystery of the universe 
the uncreated makes a home 
in created time and space. 
And now you share your self with us 
pouring Godlife into death 
breaking open life in us. 

Jesus, Splice eternity in us 
encode in us your Godwardness 
and centre us. 

Putting them together, I would recommend.

Light of the World of glory poured Word of God fleshed out in spacetime Love of God tested in pain  

O gladdening light enlightening all we embrace love you've made human light of truth that sets us free 

 
For it's the mystery of the universe the uncreated makes a home in created time and space. And now you share your self with us pouring Godlife into death breaking open life in us.  

Light of the worldof glory bornFocusing radiance in earthlifepinpoint Divinity's form, 

Light of the worldin darkness shine,Word of God fleshed out in spacetimeLove of God tested in pain. 

For it's the mystery of the universe the uncreated makes a home in created time and space. And now you share your self with us pouring Godlife into death breaking open life in us. 

Jesus, Splice eternity in us encode in us your Godwardness and centre us.


Light  of  the  world,  of  glory  born,
Focusing  radiance  in  earthlife
pinpoint  Divinity's  form, 

Light  of  the  world  in  darkness  shine,
Word  of  God  fleshed  out  in  spacetime,  
love  of  God  tested  in  pain. 

For  it's  the  Mystery  of  the  universe
The  Uncreated  makes  a  home  in  created  time  and  space
Saviour,  shine  your  life  in  us
enliven  us  in  bearing  light,  as  wells  of  grace.

Andii  Bowsher  cc2014

8.8.7.8.8.7   10.12.7.12  

(cf  Matt  Redman,  O  Sacred  King)

Sunflower poem

Here's a poem what I wrote on Good Friday ... (and for those who don't know me and British popular culture the grammar pertaining to the relative pronoun in that sentence is not my own, it is used for allusive effect -in this case a Morcambe and Wise reference).


Sunflowers.
Like  doxalogical refractions
the sun flowers forth
in
earth-tethered
green-girdered
growing
aspirants to light
postulants to glory.

Book Spine Poems

Here's one I made earlier ...

 Unfortunately for you, I need to work on the lighting. So the poem goes:
In the Beginning
Chaos
Complexity
Emergence
The Collapse of Chaos
The Cosmic Dance
The Becoming
The Web of Life
The Way the World is
God's book of works

There are other examples here:
2012 Book Spine Poem Gallery | 100 Scope Notes
 I particularly like this one:

I'm starting to wonder whether this could be fun for liturgy too ...

Where the Praan is Matt?

Hat tip to my colleague and friend David Runcorn who introduced me to this -me and the rest of the college- at his spirituality session on friendship last Wednesday.

Music is Praan by Gary Shyman (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfGk6S8-n9E&feature=channel). I was really taken by the tune and the composition. At first I thought it was an Enya number but then it became evident it was far richer than that. And I love the words: translated from Bangla (I gather they are those of Rabinath Tagore) ....
The same stream of life
that runs through my veins night and day
runs through the world
and dances in rhythmic measures.

It is the same life
that shoots in joy through the dust of the earth
in numberless blades of grass
and breaks into tumultuous waves of leaves and flowers.

It is the same life
that is rocked in the ocean-cradle
of birth and of death,
in ebb and in flow.

I feel my limbs are made glorious
by the touch of this world of life.
And my pride is from the life-throb of ages
dancing in my blood this moment.

In [the Word] is Life, and that life is the light of all ...

Eikon within eikon

Starburst begat stardust begat carbon begat protein begat transcriptors begat flesh

A woman's word enfleshes
a word not spoken with human voice

The reflection projects
the archetype

From the inmost germinates
a cosmos reworded

A sound of Word heard not by ear in air
but listenered by participation in flesh

And flesh was made living eikon

(cc) Andii Bowsher

The Word became flesh

I just discovered a poem I wrote a few years back. Some nice touches in it perhaps ...

Creator Christ incarnate
One cell within a girl divides
Maker of the universe
Confined to dividing DNA
How can chromosomes
Code for human and divine?
Yet in this double helix
God and child are intertwined
And nourished by his mother's blood
The Son of God grows in utero.

Why impose on me what you know when I want to learn what's unknown?

I just found this and found it really helpful and inspiring. The tranlation for non-Hispanologues follows.

¿Por qué me impones lo que sabes si yo quiero aprender lo desconocido y ser fuente en mi propio descubrimiento?
El ruido de tu verdad es mi tragedia; tu sabiduría, mi negación;
tu conquista, mi ausencia; tu hacer, mi destrucción.
No es la bomba lo que me mata;
el fusil hiere, mutila y acaba, el gas envenena, aniquila y suprime,
pero la verdad seca mi boca, apaga mi pensamiento y niega mi poesía,
me hace antes de ser.

No quiero la verdad, dame lo desconocido.
Déjame negarte al hacer mi mundo para que yo pueda también ser mi propia negación y a mi vez ser negado.
¿Cómo estar en lo nuevo sin abandonar lo presente?
No me instruyas, déjame vivir viviendo junto a mi;
que mi riqueza comience donde tú acabas,
que tu muerte sea mi nacimiento..

Me dices que lo desconocido no se puede enseñar;
yo digo que tampoco se enseña lo conocido
y que cada hombre hace el mundo al vivir.
Dime, que yo tejeré sobre tu historia;
muéstrate para que yo pueda pararme sobre tus hombros.
Revélate para que desde ti pueda yo ser y hacer lo distinto;
yo tomaré de ti lo superfluo, no la verdad que mata y congela;
yo tomaré tu ignorancia para construir mi inocencia.
¿No te das cuenta de que has querido combatir la guerra
con la paz, y la paz es la afirmación de la guerra?

¿No te das cuenta de que has querido combatir la injusticia con la justicia,
y que la justicia es la afirmación de la miseria?
¿No te das cuenta de que has querido combatir la ignorancia con la instrucción
y que la instrucción es la afirmación de la ignorancia porque destruye la creatividad?
Tu conocimiento nos muestra el mundo o lo niega, porque es la historia de tus actos,
o lo negará porque despertando tu imaginación te llevará a cambiarlo
Deja que lo nuevo sea lo nuevo y que el tránsito sea la negación del presente;
deja que lo conocido sea mi liberación, no mi esclavitud.
No es poco lo que te pido.
Tú has creído que todo ser humano puede pensar,
que todo ser humano puede sentir.
Tú has creído que todo ser humano puede amar y crear.
Comprendo pues tu temor cuando te pido que vivas
de acuerdo a tu sabiduría y que tú respetes tus creencias;
ya no podrás predecir la conducta de tu vecino,
tendrás que mirarlo;
ya no sabrás lo que él te dice escuchándote,
tendrás que dejar poesía en sus palabras.

El error será nuevamente posible en el despertar de la creatividad,
y el otro tendrá presencia.
Tú, yo y él tendremos que hacer el mundo.
La verdad perderá su imperio para que el ser humano tenga el suyo.
No me instruyas, vive junto a mi;
tu fracaso es que yo sea
idéntico a ti

FAntastic; though a strong critique of the instructional mindset, but perceptive, given that the author was young. Here it is in English.

Don't impose on me what you know
I want to explore the unknown
And be the source of my own discoveries.
Let the known be my liberation and not my
slavery.
The world of your truth can be my limitation;
Your wisdom my negation.
Don't instruct me; let's walk together.
Let my richness begin where yours ends.
Show me that I can stand
on your shoulders.
Reveal yourself so that I can be
Something different.
You believe that every human being
Can love and create.
I understand, then, your fear
When I ask you to live according to your
wisdom.
You will not know who I am
by listening to yourself
Don't instruct me; let me be.
Your failure is that I be identical to you.

An abridged translation of a poem in Spanish, originally written by the young son of the Chilean Biologist, Umberto Maturana.

Of course there is the challenge too, to much Christian 'education' which has been adapted from the instructional and mass models of our surrounding industrialised approaches. But if we rethought our educational strategies with discipleship, the emphasis on experiencing the Divine and the example of Christ, the theological valuing of the person and their uniqueness and the example of the very early church in mind, we would be making far more room for personalised approaches focusing on the individual's learning journey. This is actually vitally, crucially, related to the issue of contextualisation and enculturation, ultimately inspired by incarnation. Again, I am struck by the similarity between what is happening in education at the cutting edges and what is happening in emerging church circles.