Bright Star

*** Narrative Lectionary *** Lectionary Reading: Psalm 89:1-4 CLASSIC POEM: Bright Star John Keats Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art— Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night And watching, with eternal lids apart, Like nature’s patient, sleepless Eremite, The moving waters at their priestlike task Of pure ablution round earth’s human shores, Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask Of snow upon the mountains and the moors— No—yet still stedfast, still unchangeable, Pillow’d upon my fair love’s ripening breast, To feel for ever its soft fall and swell, Awake for ever in a sweet unrest, Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath, And so live ever—or else swoon to death. *** This poem is in the public domain, and may be read in a live-streamed worship service. CONTEMPORARY POEM: The Clearing Rests in Song and Shade (Sabbath Poem VII) Wendell Berry SNIPPET: The clearing rests in song and shade It is a creature made By old light held in soil and leaf, … [ READ THE FULL POEM ]