Songs of the Beloved: Life, Love, and Learning

By S. J. Beguely

This book begins with an end and ends with a beginning. The first poem, "The Fisher King," describes our struggles of life and faith and their ultimate end, eternal life in Christ. The last poem, "Good News," describes the first steps in a life of faith and the first breakthrough. In between them the very different works elaborate the long and diverse journeys of many lives, the author's own and those of the many who have touched his life and whose lives he has touched. Everyone is perceived as minor in the world's scheme of things, yet all are marvelous beings worth dying for in God's sight. Many of the poems have a deeply personal touch, some are a little comic, and some go into depth on crucial issues of faith and life, the struggles of Bible students as they go deep into the word, the state of the world, and issues of the last days. Some have a strong historical strain that reflects the struggles of personal histories, but all point ultimately to the eternity that will complete each person's life story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Release date: Sep 19, 2023
• ISBN: 9781666784329

S. J. Beguely

S. J. Beguely is a retired secondary teacher and head of faculty who also trained at The Bible College of New Zealand, now Laidlaw College in Auckland, completing an honors degree in biblical theology. He has authored school textbooks and has written many in-depth materials for church teaching and training programs. Beguely is currently working on a unifying biblical exegesis of the narrative of all the last days' scriptures.

Book preview

SONGS

OF

THE

BELOVED

Life, Love, and Learning

S. J. Beguely

Songs of the Beloved

Life, Love, and Learning

Copyright ©

2023

S. J. Beguely. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers,

199

W.

8

th Ave., Suite

3

, Eugene, OR

97401

.

Resource Publications

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

199

W.

8

th Ave., Suite

3

Eugene, OR

97401

www.wipfandstock.com

paperback isbn: 978-1-6667-8430-5

hardcover isbn: 978-1-6667-8431-2

ebook isbn: 978-1-6667-8432-9

version number 08/07/23

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©

1973

,

1978

,

1984

,

2011

by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Table of Contents

Title Page

Acknowledgements

Devotion

The Fisher King

Broken Ground, Holy Ground

A Christmas Ode to Giving

Family

Family and Tradition

A Sonnet to my Wife, or The Evolution of Love

Faith Sonnet for Isabella EVE

Peace Sonnet for Hannah Grace

Joshua Jimmy

A Sonnet for Zara Eden

Daniel Kelvin

Poppa’s Word

A Sonnet on His New Life

On Her Seventieth Birthday

It’s All I Had Time For

To Evelyn

The Pain of Loss

For Linda

Rose And Thorn—Thorn And Rose

Father of Mine

Gerry

A New Year’s Greeting

A Vision of My Parents in Glory

Church and Christian Life

The Mantle of Ministry

The Years

Horizons . . .

Who Is This Woman?

A Passover Easter

The Christmas Hanukkah Year

A Christmas and Hanukkah Sonnet

The Christian Warrior

The Way

The Path

Hearing Light

Elihu Saw!

Hatred and Hope

Suffering and Hope

If I Forget

Forget What is Behind

Freedom is Relative

Holiness, or God’s Love and our Love

Only Believe

Unity and Discord

A Christmas Faithful and True

God, The Beloved

Sonnet on the Lord Jesus

Faith Sonnet on the Oneness of God

The Lion’s Claw

Commitment Prayer

Into the Light

Last Days

Caught in a Net of Dreams

Song of the Beloved, or The Epic of the Eschaton

The Final Rejection

The World, Nature, and Life

People and Places

The Bird of Paradise

Waitākere Avatars

Lies and Damned Lies

Lament for Michelangelo . . .

Words Are . . .

The Cup Saga

Poetry

Birthdays and Life

Encouragement

Teaching Rocks

Creation—Redemption—Salvation

Pain Is a Pain

Wordless Poems

Other Sonnets

Thirty-six Years

The Grammar of Love—A Lament

The Grammar of Love—A Celebration

Songs for the Children of God

Jerusalem—Psalm 122

Maranatha

Holy Is the Lord: A Children’s Round

Great and Holy Are You Lord

King and Lord: The Commitment Song

Good News,an Epilogue

Good News

Glossary

This book is dedicated to my wife, Sue. Many of the poems were written for her, so she has been an inspiration in that sense, but she has also inspired me with her own determination, persistence and courage in the face of adversity. Together we are fulfilling our life purpose, and together we will go on to achieve even more through the wonderful God we serve.

Calligraphy in Bone script by S. J. Beguely (from Ezek

37

:

4

–

5

).

Good words are not just bones, they come to life,

give healing, and peace for our assurance.

May these good bones in every true heart thrive

by the Spirit filled with love,

in every circumstance.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank all the people, family, friends and high school teaching colleagues, whose lives and words provided the inspiration for so many of these poems. My peers and teachers at Bible college also challenged my presuppositions and inspired much of my thought about tradition and the church, about the ineffable nature of God and my relationship to him. I am, of course, completely indebted to the Holy Spirit for his gentle, and sometimes insistent nudges, to take up the pen and express the things we all need to periodically take stock of, for this life and the next.

Devotion

The Fisher King

Hooked through the heart

drawn up to the light

step by step, a progress to execution

the death of flesh, working out salvation

when will he land me, the fisher king?

Barbs in my arms, cruel spikes in my legs

my stomach and lungs pierced, choking dregs

hooked also from below by lines of luciferian light

mundane cares steel points so piercing bright

can he land me, the fisher king?

I would rend my flesh, tear out them all

but what would remain, they pierce my soul?

The ichthus master plays his catch with care

here snapped a broken weaker line,

a gently prised out point right there,

how does he land me, the fisher king?

And though I struggle for him, yet I deviate

each rusted point that I withdraw, three deeper penetrate.

So, play me free great fisherman of men

their lines below will