FROM CONFESSION, “SALVATION”
I ask you, “Who would live to die a saint?”
To scorch the feet on desert sands;
To strike the thigh with leather bands;
To starve; to kneel in prayer until one faints:
Oh no, I would not want to be a saint.
Neither would I be a martyr,
Boiled in oil, or fried in sulfur,
Or fed to toothy beasts without complaint.
What then? Vivisection? My toe in Rome,
My ear in Bath, my tongue in Paris,
My collarbone the source of bliss
To pilgrims on a pilgrimage? No. Home
Is the place for me. The reliquary
Is for saints: Sinners may write poetry.
So begins Confession: Book III of Colloquies, a Review of Civilization in Little Songs, a sinner’s apology subdivided into four sections: Sacraments, Hagiography, Relations, Tapestry.
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Each of Confession’s Seven Sacraments …
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Should mention, sonnet, from the Italian, sonetto, means “little song” (of the book’s subtitle), a verse form developed by Petrarch that resolves itself into an octet (rhyming abbaabba) enjambed to a sestet (rhyming cdecde or cdcdcd). English readers know the Shakespearean form of sonnet, three quatrains capped by a couplet (rhyming abab cdcd efef gg). Both the Petrarchan and Shakesperean sonnet forms employ iambic pentameter lines. There are of course variations, most of which can be found in Colloquies, each variation serving some formal or colloquial purpose.
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As we were saying … is composed in the Shakespearean form but in iambic tetrameter (four iambic feet, de-dum de-dum de-dum de-dum), that pithy line spoken in the shorter breath of common speech, that is, in hymn meter. And this, as in the hymn, to aid in memorization. Again, I am merely a lay sinner, not a sinning theologian, so heresies were unintended. “Matrimony” will serve as example:
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We two before the world are wedded,
Single in the sight of God.
We two are natured like the wooded
Branches of a single rod.
Together we will leaf and flower.
We together bear the fruit.
Together we complete God’s nature.
We together seed the roots.
We come to God to seek our crowning,
Earn His love and serve His plan.
We come to God to bless the wedding
Of this woman and this man.
We vow before the earth and heaven
To serve our God in Love. Amen.
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The 21 sonnets of the hagiography …
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Should mention that the word, hagiography, is of the Greek (hagios, “holy” or “saint” and graphein, “to write”), meaning a chronology of the acts, miracles, martyrdom, and other episodes of a saint’s earthly life. At its best, a hagiography inspires sinners along a saintly path to Heaven, the nearness to God.
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As we were saying … are in Shakesperean iambic pentameter (hos epi to polu), are anecdotal, less saintly biographies, more agnostic observations by a man middling in spiritual excellence. Even so, these quaint, hagiographic songs offer some theological virtue, a shepherding along the way to God. This Lent, many of the sardonic sonnets are being cast out of the collection (because classively, spiritually, biographically inferior) so that sincere sonnets can be added. An example of a sincere sonnet is, “Saint Theresa of the Child Jesus”:
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The little sparrow gives away her song
Without the slightest notion of its cost.
She chirps in sweetness all the morning long
And dies a little with each note that’s lost.
You cannot see her hidden in the leaves.
She is so tiny folded in the shade,
And yet her voice is larger than the tree
And soars as though it never was afraid.
Even the sweetest songs are sometimes sad,
As though a thorn is pricking through the heart.
But even in her death the bird is glad,
Ready to meet her God when she departs.
For, from the kindest moment of her birth
She spent her heaven doing good on earth.
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Roman Catholic Saint’s Day, October 3; Patroness of Missionaries, Florists, and Gardeners
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The 21 sonnets of “Relation” are diverse in form, variable in voice and opinion. Each is bracketed between the years 475 and 1534, the Middle Christian Age. And each sonnet dilates upon a defining episode of a person’s life or an event’s meaning. Typical of this section’s verses, “Courage”:
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I saw a tiny spider spin a web
Within my humble hut between two beams.
He tried to throw a thread across, it ebbed
Away. He did not have the will, it seemed.
And then the tiny spider tried again,
Again he failed to reach the other side.
Five times the spider threw his thread, and then,
On next the try he conquered the divide.
With each attempt to win we gather strength.
We brace the will with failure and defeat.
We forge desire to win, we win at length.
We stretch our arms to win at war; we meet
Today a mighty army on the field:
The tiny spider taught me, “Never yield.”
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Roibert a Briuis; Robert the Bruce, King of Scotland (1274 – 1329)
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The 21 sonnets of Confession’s fourth section, “Tapestry”, weave observations with recollections and personal opinion. These verses are playful, sometimes silly (as in the angel’s innocence), and each is a commentary on a lingering effect of the Middle Christian Age. The concluding verse of the section, “To Rest in You”, though typically light, is a prayer, serious in devotion:
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A fawn is frightened in her bed,
A sparrow chills in winter’s night;
In life we suffer, in life we dread:
Your love is full, Your touch is light,
We trust in You to do the right.
Each life will turn throughout its course
From bad to worse, then good again,
Each hopes the good the stronger force:
We each will suffer through the pain
In faith our trust is not in vain.
In all the world of want and need
I give myself to trust in You;
I cannot know, therefore I plead,
“Please give me what is best and true.”
I Trust, and I shall Rest in You.
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Here, I might have included the final verse of Confession, “Justification”, but that, I think, is best reserved for those who purchase the book. Sometimes after Lent, Confession will be released in a second, First Edition (only a few of First Edition drafts have been distributed). Meantime, the April and May postings of Annals will dilate upon Vatican II, Modernism (à la Pope Saint Pius X), and traditional Catholic beauty.
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Other books of Colloquies: A Review Of Civilization In Little Songs include
Book I Paideia (forthcoming, 1 February 2025)
Book II Commentary (forthcoming, 1 April 2025)
Book III Confession (forthcoming, 1 June 2025)
Book IV Dispute (forthcoming, 1 August 2025)
Book V Celebration
Book VI Invective
Book VII Secrets
“Colloquies, a Review of Civilization in Little Songs” in seven pithy volumes delightfully tells by portrait, anecdote, vignette, the history of Classive Civilization, Greece, Rome, Europe, America, et alibi.
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