Haiku From the Night of 25 March 2024

                                  Monday 25 March 2024

         Haiku 1:  Burning Heart                          

        My heart burns with love.
          I see people every day.
          We were made to love. 

Brother Christopher: 
Haiku 2:  The central line provides the implied object of the last line: "we were made to love [people].” The repetition of "love" forms an inclusio with the first line, where the verb, in grammatical contrast, is intransitive. The elision of the object in the last line parallels the lack of an object in the first line. The end of each line modifies the main verb with a two-word dependent clause: burns (with love), see (every day), made (to love).Linguists a thousand years later will now be able to use your dated haiku to determine that by the 21st century, "every" was a two-syllable word as required by haiku meter.The first line presents the personal experience of an individual with the singular "I". The last line extrapolates that to a gnomic, universal principle with the plural "we".

Thank you for the poem. I will get back to reading.

         Haiku 2
    2024 March 25

Oh Lord, bless me now.
I wrestle with you daily.
Give us what you want. 

Interesting. It alludes to Jacob's wrestling with the angel. Line 2 points to a struggle, line 1 to a demand, but line 3 to a surrender to his will, but still a request to have it, suggesting the speaker's will is in line with the Lord's, antithetical on the face of it to line 2.Thank you. You know a lot more about me than I do.
  So thank you. A book we read for class by Pardee comparing Hebrew and Ugaritic poetry was helpful. Also, Provan's book on Genesis was amazing to find wordplays and allusions pointing to a larger thematic structure.That explains a lot.

         Haiku 3
   2024 March 25

Where were we just then?
We lost our way to Goodness.
All is peace in Christ.

 Alliteration of w in the first two lines is nice.

           Haiku 4
    2024 March 25

What do we need most?
Father, teach me how to pray.
Only now, Amen.

 Me:
"I should change that second line to:
"Spirit teach me how to pray." 

Haiku 3

Line 1: in mediā rēs, pulls reader into the dialogue/thought.

Line 2: bad situation. Brought about by mankind.

Line 3: restoration to good situation. Brought about by God in the form of mankind.

The substantival use of "all" is nice. In Ugaritic, there is a separate form for "all" as an adjective and "all" as a stand-alone noun/substantive.Ugaritic Kalīlu (all, everything) vs kullu (all as adjective).         

          Haiku 5
     2024 March 25

Oh, Mama, keep me.
Do not let me go astray.
Help the children sing.

          Haiku 6
     2024 March 25

Plumb the depths of Love.
Drink from sacred flowing veins.
Tell the world tonight.

         Haiku 7
     2024 March 25

When did Jesus come?
When will The Christ come again?
All we have is Him.

                                                  

Haiku 6: nice mix of labials and dentals throughout (on nearly every word).

Consonant clusters with labials and dentals are also nice (plumb, depths,drink, flowing).

I see a problem with Haiku 5. The child is not yet saved. 

I did not pick up on that. Maybe it falls under the entreaty to follow a mother's instruction from Proverbs? It has the word for keeping (in Hebrew often used for keeping a commandment), and reference to paths, which, coupled with the mother, both seem like Proverbs to me.

The last line is kind of weird to me. Perhaps staying with a mother's instruction and her path frees one for full expression, full singing, so to speak?

           Haiku 8
     2024 March 25

Wander the garden.
See a leaflet on display.
Touch the vein, dream deep.

            Haiku 9
     2024 March 25

What a life, pure love.
He came to Earth, lovely.
Sacrifice to die.

Haiku 8. Nice alliteration of d, appearing twice on the outer lines and once in the central line.

Haiku 9. I think sacrifice means "make holy." I guess that original sense was that the death of an animal in place of the offerer makes him holy.

Haiku 9: the contrast of life and death is nice. Love is the thread that binds the two together.

            Haiku 10
       2024 March 25

  Watch the children play.
Ever how we reap the wheat,
      Memory is sweet.

Haiku *10: the wheat, sweet interchange is nice. In Indo-European studies, there is a phenomenon called s-mobile, where a word can have an s in some languages and not have it in others. There are some examples in English, such as crawl and scrawl (look up "scr-" in the Oxford English Dictionary).

             Haiku 11
         2024 March 25

     Lord, give me Moses.
Lead me on to Life in Christ.
     Fuller Love's delight.

           Haiku 12
     2024 March 25

    A flower today.
A love's nesting tomorrow.
Two become one heart.

             Haiku 13
         2024 March 25

      All is done on Earth.
 Call the watchmen in tonight.
     Celebrate with Christ.

            Haiku 14
        2024 March 25

     What a view above,
 The grasp of heaven rising,
     The Lord lifting me.

Germanic alliterative verse had a nice pattern: one feature was that 3 of the four half-lines would alliterate, and one (the last, I think) wouldn't.

Ek hlawigastur holtijar horna tawido.

I, Hlawigastur of Holtijar, made this horn.

             Maybe seven haikus is enough for one night.

We did two nights worth.
Haiku 12 is hard to understand.

                                               
            Haiku 15
        2024 March 25

   They twist the Scripture,
   Difficult to understand.
     Flowing on Spirit.

   Haiku 12 is marriage.

An interactive haiku from Saint Peter :). Peter's name means Rock. I think the cotton patch Bible had a footnote saying we could understand his name as "Rock Jones" or something like that, which technically fit the meaning.
    Ah.  

             Haiku 15
         2024 March 25

   They twist the Scriptures,
  To their ugly sordid ends.
       Wantonly in vain.

A lot of nefarious imagery: twist, ugly, sordid, wanton, vain. The only bright thing is Scripture. From what I've seen, the word for "ugly" often is drastically different from language to language, even if they are related.Even if the languages are related, that is. The words for ugly aren't related, I think.

But, even if a word is related in two sister languages, they can still look unrecognizably different: French "feuille" (leaf) and Spanish "hoja." 

           Haiku 16
      2024 March 25

        A shiny raindrop
Seven fluffy warm sheepskins
   Heaven's gates open wide. 

          Haiku 17
      2024 March 25

   Pulling on my socks,
 I felt a soul next to me.
 I must give some space.

Haiku 16: Cozy imagery. The sheepskins remind me of Joseph's brothers dipping his colorful coat in blood. In the same way that they presented his coat as evidence to their father that he was dead, and they threw him in a pit which the Lord brought him out of, so also Potiphar's wife took his robe as evidence of a crime and threw him in prison (same word as for "pit" in Hebrew) which the Lord also brought him out of.Haiku 17: a quotidian scene of marriage?

          Haiku 18
     2024 March 25

         Iron on the table,
My shield to cover my breast.
     Bronze bow by the door.

In Latin, the word for iron, ferum, can mean either iron, or a sword. The same nuance here in English? Sword, shield, bow - ready to go.

          Haiku 19
     2024 March 25

Lucid language bright tonight.
Heaven's glory out-shining love.
     We weep here no more.

"Gloire" is hard to say in French: glwākh.

            Haiku 20
        2024 March 25

    One love, one white life.
Two in love shall rise in flight.
    Love they consummate.

Haiku 20: two becoming one flesh. The word "consummate" contains the prefix, con/cum, which means "with". Plays well with the contrast of one and two together.

             Haiku 21
         2024 March 25

      The Light of Jesus,
We delivered by His blood,
    Shows the way above.

Line 2: a hanging nominative without a verb? Or, is it the indirect object (the light of Jesus shows us [those who are delivered by his blood] the way above)? In that case, "us" instead of "we" would be expected; but maybe attraction to the previous nominative "light" has occurred (this happens in Greek sometimes)?"us delivered by his blood" doesn't sound as good as "we delivered by his blood."I am on break, watching a nice video on yes and no in languages. Many languages including Latin,  Chinese, and Finnish (and, according to Dr. Hardy, Hebrew), don't have a word for yes. Instead they repeat the first part of the question: "do you live in Rome?" "I live" = yes.

English used to have four ways to say yes and no: yes, no, yea, and nea. Shakespeare uses this system.

Yes and no were used for negative questions:

"Will they not go?" - "Yes, they will go"

"Will they not go?" - "No, they won't go"

Yea and nay are used for positive questions.

"Will they go?" - "Yea, they will go."

"Will they go?" - "Nay, they won't go."

Modern "yeah" and "nah" come from yea and nay.

Other languages like German use a three-form system.

In Korean, to "will they not go," don't they say "no, they will not go."Like German, French also uses a three-way yes-no system with 'si' to answer. "So, you don't live in Rome?" "Si, in fact, indeed, I do."Si for a contrary answer to a negative question.I experienced the 'second no' for German with Micha, whom we met outside of the library and talked German with months ago. After a while of talking, I said in German "my German is not so good." And he slowly said "doch" (contrary to negative question: indeed not). That felt good. It was a magical experience to talk with him in German. I knew what he was saying, but I couldn't form words in English to think about it.Very nice"we" is nominative I read 10 pages today, less than I need to do, but it still contributes. I have 40 pages left to read by Thursday. I am also working on my review as I read.

David is working on his game. It looks cool, like something out of Indiana Jones.

I will get ready for bed now and maybe take a bath.

              Haiku 22
          2024 March 26

   When God makes a Way,
You shout it from a mountain.
   You light the whole room. 

            Haiku 23
       2024 March 26

    On this sordid Earth,
 Honor mother and father
   That thy days be long.

           Haiku 24
        2024 March 26

    What is war on Earth?
    Not listen to the other.
What could be more wrong? 

            Haiku 25
        2024 March 26

        I am hungry now.
Who ate my peanut butter?
     I shall bless my thief.

            Haiku 26
        2024 March 26

      Made in His image,
Love your brother as a man.
     Turn the other cheek. 

            Haiku 27
       2024 March 26

         Nathaniel silent,
My son sat quiet beside me
      As I wrote my verse. 

             Haiku 28
         2024 March 26

         Madison Evelyn:
What, My LORD, is in a name?
   Who might you have been? 

          Haiku 29
     2024 March 26

      Moral Architect,
Creator of the heavens,
  Jesus Christ is LORD.

 

A Laughing Smiley Face to 

          “Haiku 25
     2024 March 26

        I am hungry now.
Who ate my peanut butter?
      I shall bless my thief.”