The Sleep of Prophets

*** Revised Common Lectionary *** Lectionary Reading: Jeremiah 31:7-9 CLASSIC POEM: A Valediction: of Weeping John Donne Let me pour forth My tears before thy face, whilst I stay here, For thy face coins them, and thy stamp they bear, And by this mintage they are something worth, For thus they be Pregnant of thee; Fruits of much grief they are, emblems of more, When a tear falls, that thou falls which it bore, So thou and I are nothing then, when on a diverse shore. On a round ball A workman that hath copies by, can lay An Europe, Afric, and an Asia, And quickly make that, which was nothing, all; So doth each tear Which thee doth wear, A globe, yea world, by that impression grow, Till thy tears mix’d with mine do overflow This world; by waters sent from thee, my heaven dissolved so. O more than moon, Draw not up seas to drown me in thy sphere, Weep me not dead, in thine arms, but forbear To teach the sea what it may do too soon; Let not the wind Example find, To do me more harm than it purposeth; Since thou and I sigh one another’s breath, Whoe’er sighs most is cruellest, and hastes the other’s death. *** This poem is in the public domain, and may be read in a live-streamed worship service. CONTEMPORARY POEM: The Sleep of Prophets Kwame Dawes SNIPPET: … She carries the sweetness of her pain deep, and her body surrenders even as it sorrows; so each night she lays her head down, she sleeps the deep untroubled sleep of knowing. [ READ THE FULL POEM ]