Marks Wedding Vows

I vow to be patient, I vow to be kind.
And try not to envy, to pride be inclined,
To always be grateful that I have found you,
To overcome rudeness, and selfishness too. 

I'll be not easily angered, forgive if you're wrong,
I'll always protect you, our trust shall be strong,
I'll delight not in evil but in truth never fear,
In hard times to hope always, and so persevere.

These three I'll commit to: to faith, hope, and love,
But the greatest of these is the bond from above:
By the same love that Jesus has loved His own bride,
So I'll always love you and stay by your side.

Derived from 1 Cor. 13, played on ukulele

Under His Baton

He raised His hand to the heavens,
As the silence grew the more loud,
And each face looked so expectant,
In the orchestra and in the crowd.
As His hand approached the zenith,
Each player had taken a breath,
Every heart grew so expectant,
But each hand was still as death.

But the feeble drop of the baton,
Drew forth then a plaintiff tone,
And the song sobbed out in the night hall,
As the orchestra, it moaned.
The unresolved chord, the knife twisted,
The timbre was harsh to the ear,
Still the Master of Song never faltered,
As He taunted the anthem of fear.

But wait, still the baton, it changes,
Its tempo, its gait and its style,
And the orchestra sinks to a hush,
Like a waif that has walked her last mile.
And the tragedy deepens to longing,
That a rescuer might yet be found,
And He rises alive from the cobwebs,
To drive Death itself from the ground.

And the baton, it rises, unweary,
Each eye rises too as it flies,
But this time, it moves with a newness of life,
As it drives out the tears from the eyes.

For the Conqueror rose all-victorious,
And He beckoned the instruments play,
In one great eternal moment,
The song became joyous and gay.

The song rose exultant, majestic,
The mode changed from minor hue,
And the moments of anguish found meaning,
As the time to resolve all was due.
And the Lord of the Cue in His splendour,
Made the final decision in Time,
As the rapture of harmonious cadences closed,
With a flourish that said, "All is Mine."

24/11/2018
Written spontaneously without edit from inspiration by a fellow Christian, and former teaching colleague in Thailand.

By the Death of an Innocent

I never deserved it; it is so unfair;
Unwarranted outcome for a life of despair.
I should be condemnéd for error and sin,
My pathway was reckless and my record was thin.

I tallied the balance of my good deeds and bad,
And as I reflected it made my heart sad,
That my choices were foolish, my conscience was weak,
And the balance sheet showed that the outlook was bleak.

But one thing I trust when recounting my deeds,
A strange moment eternal, that fair justice impedes,
When a victim was murdered at Calvary,
An Innocent died for a sinner like me.

When the eternal day comes and time ceases to be,
The guilt will be covered, and all He will see,
Is what we did for the weak ones, so we did it for Him,
And the balance is settled, the lost can go in.

MJH 15/11/2015

The Nameless Ones

The Nameless Ones

I happened to notice them there,
Hiding behind the skirts of others
As they sat in their allotted corner,
And made sounds that had no.words,
Expressions of another culture,
Where the foibles of their craft was quickly lost,
On the vapid minds of the pretentious,
Who claimed to understand the fabric
Of a conceited Emperor's wardrobe.

They had no names, no claim to be remembered,
As the august throng loudly drowned them
In their useless noise, and heard their sound,
But failed to listen or perceive the meaning
Of the gentle sound that listed nervously
Between the harsh voices of the self-absorbed.
But yet, the indifferent and ravenous audience
Sucked the marrow from their strange forms
So carelessly, and spat it on the filthy floor.

Nobody saw them work for countless years
To show their voiceless craft,
The aching hands, the tireless discipline
Of making sound to please another,
While the gaudy work of two mere years
Was elaborated on with gusto.
And nobody saw them leave:
They only played the music.
But they were leaving too.

An expression of frustration at the disinterest shown towards my wonderful music students when they played at a school Art exhibition. I had to ask the Principal to acknowledge them AFTER the speeches were given. Beijing 2017