for the coming tribulations: gird your loins for battle ... julia ward howe ... pablo neruda ...

if we are to keep our liberty, we shall fight for it. 

these are words which inspire, and prepare.  these are worthy words by which to fight.

john jay @ 07.18.2009

mine eyes have seen the glory

 

mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the lord:

he is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;

he hath loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword:

his truth is marching on.

 

glory, glory, hallelujah!

glory, glory, hallelujah!

glory, glory, hallelujah!

his truth is marching on.

 

i have seen him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps,

they have builded him an altar in the evening dews and damps;

i can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps:

his day is marching on.

 

glory, glory, hallelujah!

glory, glory, hallelujah!

glory, glory, hallelujah!

his day is marching on.

 

i have read a fiery gospelwrit in burnished rows of steel:

"as ye deal with my contemners, so with you my grace shall deal;

let the hero, born of woman, crush the serpentwith his heel,

since god is marching on."

 

glory, glory, hallelujah!

glory, glory, hallelujah!

glory, glory, hallelujah!

since god is marching on.

 

he has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;

he is sifting out the hearts of men before his judgment-seat:

oh, be swift, my soul, to answer him! be jubilant, my feet!

our god is marching on.

 

glory, glory, hallelujah!

glory, glory, hallelujah!

glory, glory, hallelujah!

our God is marching on.

 

in the beauty of the lilies christwas born across the sea,

with a glory in his bosom that transfigures you and me:

as he died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,

while gGod is marching on.

 

glory, glory, hallelujah!

glory, glory, hallelujah!

glory, glory, hallelujah!

while god is marching on.

 

he is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,

he is wisdom to the mighty, he is succour to the brave,

so the world shall be his footstool, and the soul of time his slave,

our god is marching on.

 

glory, glory, hallelujah!

glory, glory, hallelujah!

glory, glory, hallelujah!

our god is marching on.

 

 

~ julia ward howe ~

 

 

the flag

 

stand up with me.

 

no one would like

more than i to stay

on the pillow where your eyelids

try to shut out the world for me.

there too i would like

to let my blood sleep

surrounding your sweetness.

 

but stand up,

you, stand up,

but stand up with me

and let us go off together

to fight face to face

against the devil's webs,

against the system that distributes hunger,

against organized misery.

 

let's go,

nad you, my star, next to me,

newborn from my own clay,

you will have found the hidden spring

and in the midst of the fire you will be

next to me,

with your wild eyes,

raising my flag.

 

~pablo neruda

 

 

your laughter

 

take breath away from me, if you wish,
take air away, but
do not take from me your laughter.

do not take away the rose,
the lanceflower that you pluck,
the water that suddenly
bursts forth in your joy,
the sudden wave
of silver born in you.

my struggle is harsh and i come back
with eyes tired
at times from having seen
the unchanging earth,
but when your laughter enters
it rises to the sky seeking me
and it opens for me all
the doors of life.

my love, in the darkest
hour your laughter
opens, and if suddenly
you see my blood staining
the stones of the street,
laugh, because your laughter
will be for my hands
like a fresh sword.

next to the sea in the autumn,
your laughter must raise
its foamy cascade,
and in the spring, love,
i want your laughter like
the flower i was waiting for,
the blue flower, the rose
of my echoing country.

laugh at the night,
at the day, at the moon,
laugh at the twisted
streets of the island,
laugh at this clumsy
boy who loves you,
but when i open
my eyes and close them,
when my steps go,
when my steps return,
deny me bread, air,
light, spring,
but never your laughter
for i would die.

 

~pablo neruda~