Poem: Mending Wall
Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,
That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,
And spills the upper boulders in the sun;
And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.
The work of hunters is another thing:
I have come after them and made repair
Where they have left not one stone on a stone,
But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,
To please the yelping dogs. The gaps I mean,
No one has seen them made or heard them made,
But at spring mending-time we find them there.
I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;
And on a day we meet to walk the line
And set the wall between us once again.
We keep the wall between us as we go.
To each the boulders that have fallen to each.
And some are loaves and some so nearly balls
We have to use a spell to make them balance:
‘Stay where you are until our backs are turned!’
We wear our fingers rough with handling them.
Oh, just another kind of out-door game,
One on a side. It comes to little more:
There where it is we do not need the wall:
He is all pine and I am apple orchard.
My apple trees will never get across
And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.
He only says, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’
Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder
If I could put a notion in his head:
‘Why do they make good neighbors? Isn’t it
Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.
Before I built a wall I’d ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offense.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down.’ I could say ‘Elves’ to him,
But it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather
He said it for himself. I see him there
Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top
In each hand, like an old-stone savage armed.
He moves in darkness as it seems to me,
Not of woods only and the shade of trees.
He will not go behind his father’s saying,
And he likes having thought of it so well
He says again, ‘Good fences make good neighbors.’
--------------Robert Frost (1884-1963), American poet, four time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry; US Poet Laureate, 1958-1960
Proverb:
I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me.
-----------Matthew 25:35
Painting: Little Green Fields, Gerard Dillon, 1950, Ireland
Prayer: Faithful in All Things
Lord Jesus,
we lift our hearts to You
to be filled with your limitless love
as we walk in your path of peace.
In your mercy,
forgive us our failures,
our jealousies,
our maneuvering against each other
regardless of cost.
Make us faithful in little things,
that we may be worthy of bearing your Holy Name
into the world, O Holy One.
Teach us to always walk in mercy and forgiveness,
compassionate and welcoming to the stranger.
Make us upright and generous,
like a green olive tree in your house, O God,
and make us a blessing to those we meet.
Make us happy to serve others, Lord Christ,
especially the lost,
the forsaken,
and those in any pain or grief.
By your grace,
dwell in our hearts and minds, O God,
and place your hand of blessing on those who call upon You.
Amen.
-------------------- Leslie Barnes Scoopmire
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