A note from the poet

Dear reader,

This is not an account of what I made. It is an attempt to tell the truth about what I was given.

Every line that looks like skill was first a mercy: breath, light, a mind that could hold a cadence, a heart that could be taught to see the gift and not the giver last. If the poem works, that is not proof of ownership. The mountain does not lift itself. The song does not write its own hand.

I wrote it as thanksgiving—to the Father who unclasps the morning, to the Spirit who steadies a trembling line, to the Son through whom the empty cup is made enough. Whatever is weak in it is mine. Whatever is true already belonged to Him.

Read it as you would receive bread: not as a display of the baker, but as a share in a feast you did not spread.

If any word here helps you return what you hold, it has done its work.

—the poet

Romans 11:36

For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

— The last stanza almost speaks this verse aloud: from You, through You, unto You.

1 Corinthians 4:7

For who maketh thee to differ from another? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?

— No vault of skill… can claim the glory that appears.

1 Chronicles 29:14

But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.

— We lift the thanksgiving we bring / and find it already given—free.

James 1:17

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

— The opening movement: light, gift, Father of fountains, Source unspent.

From the first bright syllable of light

that split the deep and named the day,

each breath, each gift, each lifted height

is given, held, and kept Your way.

Father of fountains, Source unspent,

Your hands unclasp the morning gold;

the rivers run at Your consent,

the harvest swells because You hold.

Spirit of fire who broods and burns,

who teaches clay to sing and stand,

You kindle what the heart discerns

and steady every trembling hand.

And You, the Son, the living Word,

the Mercy walking in our dust:

through You the broken world is stirred,

through You the empty cup is just.

All strength that rises when we fall,

all talent flashing from the dark,

all bread that answers hunger’s call

comes streaming from Your wounded mark.

No vault of skill, no hoard of years,

no midnight labor, proud and lone,

can claim the glory that appears—

the glory is not ours to own.

The mountain does not lift itself;

the cedar does not praise its root;

the eagle riding thermal wealth

is borne by what it cannot compute.

So we, who once were barren ground,

now bear the fruit we did not plant;

the song that fills this gathered sound

was written by a hand we cannot grant.

You are the well, the bread, the feast,

the lamp that will not gutter out;

You are the first and final Priest

who turns our scarcity to shout.

When winters lock the field in white

and every talent seems too small,

Your sufficiency becomes our light—

enough, and more than all.

The throne is Yours, the triumph Yours,

the crown that never dims or rusts;

the praise that rolls from distant shores

returns to You because it must.

Father, Spirit, crucified King,

Triune abundance, undivided Three:

we lift the thanksgiving we bring

and find it already given—free.

All that we are, all that we hold,

all that we dare and all we do

is from You, through You, unto You:

Christ Jesus—source, and end, and All.

**To God be the glory always and only.**