If you've ever felt you were making no progress or that mistakes and difficulties were dogging your path, then this poem by Ruby M. Grogseth may offer hope.  It's on page 54 of Boundless Light, or you can find it either in the bound volumes (17 May 1952 edition of the Christian Science Sentinel) at your local Reading Room (as soon as they open again!) or at jsh-online.com. 

CLIMBING

By Ruby M. Drogseth

When I began the climb
From sense to Soul
My step was buoyant, and
With new-found truth
I swept the path
Of all that hindered
the upward journey.

With heat of noontime
The brambles thickened
And seldom yielded
Without a struggle;
Stumbling and rising,
Slowly I plodded
on toward the summit.

Then the pathway faded,
And waist-deep I stood
In underbrush; the forest
Turned the day to night.
Disheartened and afraid,
Blind with self-pity,
like Hagar, weeping,

I heard God's voice and rose,
Followed His guiding,
And I emerged at last
Far up the mountain;
And to my glad surprise
Found that, through fear and doubt,
I had been climbing.

Climbing reminds of hymns 136  and 501, with words by Violet Hay. There is a most interesting piece about Violet Hay on the Mary Baker Eddy Library site. It begins: 'A dynamic force, Caroline Violet Spiller Hay (1873–1969) was one of the first teachers of Christian Science in the United Kingdom. She was also the religion’s first teacher in South Africa.' 

Hymn 136 is set to an Irish melody while Andrew Brewis wrote the music for 501. Here is the third verse: 

I climb, with joy, the heights of Mind, 
To soar o'er time and space; 
I yet shall know as I am known 
And see Thee face to face. 
Till time and space and fear are naught 
My quest shall never cease, 
Thy presence ever goes with me 
And Thou dost give me peace.

Julie Swannell

On watch

I like this poem and it seems particularly appropriate for this Easter:

The Christ Appears
by Eleanor Henderson Buser

The fourth watch--
Can seem the darkest hour of the night,
When sea is tempest-tossed

The fourth watch--
When Jesus came
Walking on the sea

Our fourth watch--
That dark moment
When all seems turbulent
Is when the Christ appears.

This poem appears on page 85 of our book of poetry, Boundless Light, in the section titled: 'Trials, Proofs of God's Care' and indicates the calm and assurance of the Christ, that 'divine manifestation of God, which comes to the flesh to destroy incarnate error' (Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy). Although Jesus was condemned to death by the envy, ignorance, greed and hatred of his enemies--including one of his own disciples--the Christ is inextinguishable. It
is here for the world today as we keep 'the fourth watch'*.

Julie Swannell

*Note: According to the Roman system, the fourth watch described in the New Testament is between 3 and 6 am! See Mark 6:48. I've stood watch on our boat during these hours. It is a thrilling watch because it's most often when the first rays of dawn first appear to break the deepest darkness of the night following the setting of the moon.

The poem within us

Poetry is a feel -- it might have a swing
or it might make you sing;
but it's sure to delight --
by day or by night.

I picked up a copy of The Christian Science Monitor from Sept 2, 2019 earlier today. On page 36 (subscribers can search for this online) is an article called 'This writer's job: Get kids to see poetry everywhere' by Henry Gass. There's a wonderful poem in the article (it's used 'by permission' so I can't quote it all) called 'The Rider' by Naomi Shihab Nye which begins:

A boy told me
if he roller-skated fast
  enough
his loneliness couldn't catch
  up to him,
the best reason I ever heard
for trying to be a champion...

Ms Nye is quoted as saying that in order to write poetry: "You don't even have to have a little idea. Just look around. You're living in a poem."

I love to flip open our book of poetry for this month, Boundless Light -- to drink in the page at hand, like Violet Hay's 'Safety' on page 101, which begins:

He whose thought is lifted ever
To the perfect realm of Mind,
In that secret place abiding
Shall a full protection find.
Safe beneath the Almighty's shade
He shall dwell--all unafraid.

That 'perfect realm of Mind' has got to be where ideas are intelligent, resourceful, attuned, orderly, unafraid, dignified, fresh, flexible, cooperative and harmonious, wouldn't you agree?

Let's listen for and share the poems within us.

Julie Swannell

A book of poetry!

Book Club April, 2020 – Boundless Light: Let There be Light: Poems of Healing

A book of poetry!

I am not a great one for poetry, I muse.

Don’t think I have a copy in my un-book-cased library.

I have a bit of a look.

It's not easily to hand.

Put the idea aside for a while; might delve deeper later.

“I have a copy,” my daughter says, “We can share it.

You have it for a couple of days.”

So. Here it is to hand – such a handsome production.

Even a bookmark printed with the pattern of the end-papers of the book.

My eye travels over the index –

Peter Henniker-Heaton. That will be good.

Doris Kerns Quinn. That is a name that has puzzled me in the past.

There is a famous historian and biographer in America: Doris Kearns Goodwin.

Could they be one and the same?

I read a couple of poems in the 'Qualities That Heal' section.

(There are several sections:

God’s Supremacy, Man, the Expression of God, Thought Opens to Healing,

Qualities That Heal, Prayer, The Healing Power of Divine Love,

Regeneration and Restoration, Trials, Proofs of God’s Care,

Praying for Others, Safety, Now is the Time.)

Althea Brooks Hollenbeck provides excellent advice in On Gentle Word:

  OH, let it never bear a sting---

  the thought you think. Make it a bird!

  Oh, feather it with love, and wing

  it carefully on gentle word.

  Then it will rise and sweetly sing,

  And bless wherever it is heard.

But, that was just in passing. I found in the Index: Ananias*.

Ah! Wisdom from Rushworth M. Kidder of ethics fame!

“Ananias is in the Lesson this week; could be a good one to start on.”

A good one indeed! It is in the section 'Regeneration and Restoration', I note.

Let us quote it here in full:

  Ananias *

  by Rushworth Kidder

  “I HEARD you, Lord: ‘Heal him,’

  But . . . may I say a word?

  This Saul---haven’t I heard

  about Jerusalem

  and how he scorched us there---

  the violence, terror, despair?”

  Ananias,

  what matters to us

  nineteen centuries since

  is that you shattered such logic

  and listened.

  Routing your own resistance, you trusted,

  freeing the verse of your heart

  with the rhythm of intuition.

  Love-led, you dared face hatred with compassion.

  Not that you didn’t question---

  we all have. But out of that blaze

  you came, wide-eyed and childlike,

  to uncritical innocence.

  Without your kind, the Sauls would be

  nothing

  but blind.

  *See Acts 9:10-18

I find myself in awe at Ananias’ trust, intuition, daring, compassion,

innocence, attention.

And then – the ultimate verse throws it back to me.

How am I going to put this example into practice?

Joyce Voysey