Sunday Verses
A Weekly Verse on One Moment from the Week
Welcome to the first installment of Sunday Verses.
Each Sunday I’ll try to publish a poem about something that happened in the week just past. A small record of the times, sometimes political, sometimes whimsical, written while the memory is still fresh.
Since this is the first one, it felt fitting to use the cadence of Hebrew prophetic verse, with its rhythm of parallel lines. The structure will not always be this way. “Verses” is broad. Some weeks may be prophetic, others reflective, narrative, or even a little humorous.
The “plan” is one verse each Sunday. If a week slips by without one, extend a little grace. Even the most dedicated scribes occasionally miss a day at the desk. I’ll return to the record soon enough.
The Gate Was Closed Hear this, O House that gathers in the chamber of the people, you who sit in judgment over a matter of truth. For testimonies long kept in secret, words written and hidden away. and the voices of women were sealed beneath the marble halls. And the people said: Let the truth be brought forth. But the House hardened its heart, and in that hour the assembly hid its sins. Then their hands rose: three hundred fifty-seven against the light. And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Therefore the word returned: For I know your many transgressions and your great sins, you afflict the righteous, you take a bribe, and you turn aside the needy in the gate. And the chamber answered. Yet among the representatives was one in that hour: Brad Knott stood there, and when the votes were numbered, his silence stood alone. Nevertheless voices sealed in hidden records remain, and truth walks the halls long after the vote is taken. For the gate may close in its season, yet every hand raised against light is written down.