The Waste Land

*** Revised Common Lectionary *** Lectionary Reading: Ezekiel 2:1-5 CLASSIC POEM: The Waste Land (Excerpt) T.S. Eliot What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man, You cannot say, or guess, for you know only A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief, And the dry stone no sound of water. Only There is shadow under this red rock, (Come in under the shadow of this red rock), And I will show you something different from either Your shadow at morning striding behind you Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you; I will show you fear in a handful of dust. Frisch weht der Wind Der Heimat zu, Mein Irisch Kind Wo weilest du? “You gave me hyacinths first a year ago, “They called me the hyacinth girl.” —Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden, Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither Living nor dead, and I knew nothing, Looking into the heart of light, the silence. Oed’ und leer das Meer. *** This poem is in the public domain, and may be read in a live-streamed worship service. CONTEMPORARY POEM: Longing for Prophets Shirley Kaufman SNIPPET: Not for their ice-pick eyes, their weeping willow hair, and their clenched fists beating at heaven. Not for their warnings, predictions of doom. But what they promised. … [ READ THE FULL POEM ]