This past Advent and Christmas season, the Almond Tree Artist Collective has been engaged in creating works based on weekly prompts taken from Isaiah 40:1-5 which reads,
Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that her warfare is ended,
that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received from the LORD’S hand
double for all her sins.
A voice cries:
“In the wilderness prepare the way of the LORD;
make straight in the desert a highway for our God.
Every valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together,
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
As a pastor, it has been a very busy month, and I have not been able to keep up with the prompts, but now that the holidays have begun, I’ve been able to finish what I started. I believe this is 75% done, but I give you fair warning. This is by far the longest poem I’ve written, and it is my first attempt at common measure (or meter) which lends itself to lyrics that read more like a ballad. (Fun fact: you can sing common meter lyrics to the tunes of “Amazing Grace,” “House of the Rising Sun,” and alas, “The Ballad of Gilligan’s Island.” If you’ve made it this far, you may listen to me read this five and half minute poem via the player below. Have mercy.
I. Comfort
When all the world has been torn down,
When all Her glory, lost,
Speak Comfort, Comfort to the town
Who to the sea was tossed.
Away in chains to Babylon
Her townsfolk, tied and led
Cast from the garden land and home
Into a living death.
We pass through sea, to foreign lands
Where accents strike our ears,
We pine by banks beached on the sand
And salt its shore with tears.
They asked of us to sing a song—
A song we sang in Zion;
We choke on words, weep for the wrongs,
The shame of Judah’s lion.
Speak, Comfort, Comfort, to my own
The Lord says, tenderly,
To Jerusalem cast down
I’ll draw her from the sea.
II. Proclaim
Proclaim to her, say it now,
Mercy comes tomorrow;
He’ll break your yoke, unhook the plough,
Wipe your tears of sorrow.
Speak Comfort, Comfort, day has come
Your ransom’s paid in full;
Your time of service is now done;
The balance paid, double.
It’s finished; Yes, there is no more—
Both debt and due are paid;
Your Hope through Achor’s valley door
Has made for you a way.
Daughter Jerusalem, my son,
Judah, come take my hand;
The blessing lost, I now have won—
Return you to the Land.
IIII. Wilderness
A desert voice, a herald cries,
Prepare, Prepare today
Come, by Him who lives yet dies
Come through the desert way.
Through death, not ‘round, your victory
Not by the coastal road—
A straight highway through desert sea,
The highway of our God.
Elijah, come and turn the hearts
Of fathers to the children;
Desire pierce with longing’s darts
Wound with love, the nations.
Make straight the way from Galilee
The land of the Gentiles,
From nations far beyond the Sea
Return from your exile.
Comfort, Comfort prepare the way—
A highway for our God;
Come by the narrow, Eastern way
Back from the land of Nod.
IV. Justice
From Euphrates’ garden banks
Pack your years of burdens
Return, Return, join with the ranks
Who take to Him their hurtings.
When you come to the desert shore
Fear not the waves of sand,
He shall level the desert floor,
Return you to the Land.
Look not to the mountain’s heights
Where others lay idle,
And give themselves to their delights,
Revelry, unbridled.
He shall bring down the proud who boast
And lift up the lowly;
He shall make of least, the most—
Make the common, holy.
But what of death’s deep, dark defile?
How can we e’er pass through?
Though our descent goes on for miles,
In life, He’ll raise unto.
The valley’s shall exalted be;
The mountains shall be lowed;
Enslaved, her captives shall be freed,
And gentle made the road.
She’ll mount on wings, shall fly amain,
Renewed, soar as eagles
The mountain way be made a plain
Those Not, now made, My People.
V. Glory
And all of them shall surely see
My Glory when revealed;
The Way that passes through the sea—
The stripes He bore that healed.
The glory I’ve to show the world
Is glory not of man,
A banquet banner, love unfurled,
Crowned head, pierced feet and hand.
Will you perceive the love I bear
Or of it be ashamed?
Shall in it boast? Cherish? Hold dear?
Lift up? Deny? Disclaim?
True, the Word the Lord has spoken,
Shall surely come to pass;
His promise shall ne’er be broken;
He shall redeem at last.
Speak Comfort, Comfort, tenderly,
Your Lord shall bring you home;
He shall not burden but gently lead
The mothers with their young.
© Randall Edwards 2023
Here’s my reading of the painting in poetic form.
with backward mutters of dissevering power 