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The Father of All Lights

“Every good thing given and every perfect gift is
from above, coming down from the Father of
lights, with whom there is no variation or
shifting shadow” —James 1:17

How much more to please him, then,
__The Father of all lights,
We should—if so then might we shine,
__Attain to brilliance.

And what a shining that would be—
__Accepting discipline,
Which now of course lash-heavy seems,
__But shall be kissing-soft.

From his vantage, advantage point
__He sees and we do not
But the Father declares his love
__And shining we too see

That everything’s invisible
__Except the trash that’s here—
Fit fuel for a fire He will light
__And yes, one day, appear.

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James Sale has had over 50 books published, most recently, “Mapping Motivation for Top Performing Teams” (Routledge, 2021). He has been nominated by The Hong Kong Review for the 2022 Pushcart Prize for poetry, has won first prize in The Society of Classical Poets 2017 annual competition, and performed in New York in 2019. He is a regular contributor to The Epoch Times. His most recent poetry collection is “StairWell.” For more information about the author, and about his Dante project, visit https://englishcantos.home.blog. To subscribe to his brief, free and monthly poetry newsletter, contact him at James@motivationalmaps.com

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20 Responses

  1. Roy Eugene Peterson

    James, “fit fuel for a fire” is a wonderful alliteration and the rhyme in the final verse was so welcome after the blank verse. Your beginning quote perfectly set up the entire poem with the trenchant biblical scripture. That the earth will be destroyed by fire is from another biblical reference about what will happen and would fit so well your quotation.

    Reply
    • James Sale

      First again, Roy!!! Thanks – appreciate your deep Biblical knowledge – so lacking these days – and I know you will enjoy my DoorWay (Paradiso) when it is published, particularly as we get to the end and the book of Revelation comes to the fore, along with several great OT prophets, in my poem! Greetings!!!

      Reply
  2. Brian A. Yapko

    What a fantastic poem this is, James! I love the idea behind it and the very title. With the addition of the one word “all” you not only honor James’ description of God but you turn it into a powerful rebuke of satan as the Father of all Lies.

    Reply
    • James Sale

      Thanks Brian – what a reader you are: that is very subtle, picking up the line that I omit but which invites comparison. Really glad you enjoyed it. Maranatha!

      Reply
  3. ABB

    James,
    A lot of themes tackled in this short piece on the relationship between humanity and God: love and discipline, enlightenment, divine perspective, transformation. The apt use of light imagery serves as a focal point connecting all these things I love the contrast between the ‘lash-heavy’ discipline becoming ‘kissing-soft.’ And like Roy, I the “fit fuel for a fire” phrase nicely concludes things, transforming the light imagery in keeping with the theme of transformation. Another fantastic piece in keeping with being a ‘poet of the lord.’

    Reply
    • James Sale

      Thanks Andrew – yes, you pick up my favourite linguistic feature of the poem: lash-heavy/kissing soft and I am sure I don’t have to elaborate how their metrical difference contributes to their semantic effect. I’m sorry but I am going to have to use this sobriquet ‘ a poet of the Lord’ since I think I am, and should say so more markedly!

      Reply
  4. jd

    I wrote an admiring comment this morning but I must have neglected to submit. This is a beautiful poem which I have taken the liberty of copying into a special book to read again and again. Thank you.

    Reply
    • James Sale

      I cannot want for more, jd, than that I entered in your special book and read again and again. It’s like a return to Elizabethan times when readers felt like that about poetry – and treasured it. I think of Ben Jonson, who said of Southwell’s the Burning Babe that he would have gladly destroyed many of his own best poems if he could have been allowed to write that poem. Such generosity of spirit from such a curmudgeonly poet! But someone reading someone else can be so profound – thank you.

      Reply
  5. Margaret Coats

    James, “fit fuel for a fire” reminds me of I Corinthians 3, where the fire is either to refine or to consume our worldly works. Do we choose to build with gold, silver, and precious stones, or wood, hay, and straw? You make a good choice of foundation here; may it lead to more brilliant shining.

    Reply
    • James Sale

      Good – it’s supposed to, Margaret! For those without a Biblical or classical education, what have they got to build on? How refresh the past? How shine? If we have to ‘invent’ everything from scratch – as contemporary poets seem to want to do – we end up in a position epitomised by Thoreau: “Our inventions are wont to be pretty toys, which distract our attention from serious things. They are but improved means to an unimproved end.” Thanks.

      Reply
  6. D.R. Rainbolt

    Great job using the beginning quote to allow the poem the freedom to cut to the chase from the first line. Your first stanza reminds me of 1 Peter’s call to live from a redeemed identity and the connected reminder that doing so actively realizes sanctification. your second stanza is a brilliant nod to James’s take on suffering. Well done!

    Reply
    • James Sale

      Thanks DR – may I call you ‘Doc’? – love the fact that you have picked up some many allusive references to the NT. It’s deeply encouraging – there is no poet without that reader!

      Reply
  7. Adam Sedia

    This is a beautiful poem that captures the essence of a mere phrase that I’ve read or heard probably dozens of times but never stopped and pondered. Thank you, first of all, for highlighting this little gem from the Epistle of St. James (and appropriately coming from his namesake).

    For me, the final stanza is a real knockout punch. It captures the essence, at least for me, of the impulse behind faith. “Trash” is what we have — moreso now than ever — yet we sense something greater behind it, and one day hope to see it. Thank you for this.

    Reply
    • James Sale

      Thanks Adam – yes, then face to face. Appreciate your finding the knockout punch in this: which comes with the unexpected rhyme, for that’s what rhymes do – they connect what is unsemantically not connected, and something new appears!

      Reply
  8. C.B. Anderson

    As time goes on, James, I begin to appreciate your abandonment of strict formalism more and more. Your rhymes are occasional, and always well placed, and your meter always adapts to the circumstance. This is a challenge I am loath to undertake, perhaps because my relationship with God is formal and not quite personal. So let’s celebrate ecumenism.

    Reply
    • James Sale

      Thanks CB – you sound like my wife: she is appreciating me more and more as the years roll on! Even my defects are turning into sparkling diamonds. Great – thanks! And, I think loose formalism possibly describes me quite well, for following Apollo’s (god of poetry) maxim, Not Too Much, I seek for that Goldilock’s point of temperature. But, I am a great admirer of those who string the bow tighter than perhaps I do; and I certainly prefer it to experimentation too much the other way. As for your relationship with God – now that’s tricky, as the Unnameable and Unspeakable One seems to be an expert on forging the most bizarre relationships with the weirdest of people – who can second-guess His mind? So ecumenism is fine by me and I am happy to celebrate with you!

      Reply
  9. Patricia Allred

    Dear James,
    What I find in your works, and this one is outstanding! Is the magic you have in creating beauty in the midst of a zany and cruel world. You know, James, I could feel God’s hands on my shoulders as I read this.
    But then…His light is forever shining through you!
    Arrogance is absent in your poetry. Thank you as you bless us enormously.. You, James, a lighthouse of God’s ever present love and patience.
    And I always wondered…why your communications
    with me glow? Heavens~how slow I am!
    ~~Patricia~~

    Reply
    • James Sale

      Dear Patricia – thank you for your very warm words. I shall try to avoid arrogance and so shall have to confess that the light is not always shining in me – I am mortal and flawed! However, for all true poets everywhere, we can rejoice when the Muse speaks to us and our words may be able to help, sustain and inspire others. Thank you again.

      Reply
  10. Francis Etheredge

    Distillation, the kind of boiling off that doesn’t so much leave an essence as, in this case, more than the bones of the Christian life – even that life which took on flesh according to the prophet’s word in obedience to God. Thus the almost scarce but well defined run of words is certainly a gift; and, in this case, the poem has certainly excelled in a kind of cascading descent from “The Father of All Lights” to that promised presence, ‘And yes, [He will,] one day, appear.’

    Think too of one love, three fires: the first being that Love eternally enables love to live; the second that Love for whatever span of broiling, burns off whatever impedes and obstructs the flow of love’s return; and, third, and most appalling of all, the possibility of Love’s being lavished upon one who is eternally unable to ignite and remains, as it were, ever unable to arise alight.

    God bless, Francis.

    Reply
  11. James Sale

    Dear Francis, Thank you for this: ‘the almost scarce but well defined run of words is certainly a gift’ – heck, I almost think, man, you want the poem to be longer! I like the way you adjust all your thinking to precise Catholic theology, and extrapolate even more than is in the poem. As an Anglo-Catholic myself these days, I probably fall short of full revelation but trust me when I say: I am doing the best I can… and seeking God to speak through me! God bless you.

    Reply

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