The epitaph on his gravestone reads, “ I had a lovers quarrel with the world”. These words describe the life of Robert Frost. He was raised in poverty but had opportunity to attend both Harvard and Dartmouth. Though he never graduated from either university he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize four times and was called the poet of the twentieth century.
When I read Birches emotion wells up in my spirit as I am drawn into the poet's heart. He reflects upon his yesterday with redemptive imagination and shows the reader a work of grace.
…. So I was once myself a swinger of birches.
And so I dream of going back to be.
It’s when I’m weary of considerations,
And life is too much like a pathless wood
Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs
Broken across it, and one eye is weeping
From a twig’s having lashed across it open.
I’d like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over….
In the book of Psalms I find David, the poet of God, with a similar desire. For he says“…Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest.” (Ps.55: 6) David the son of Jesse who was called the sweet psalmist of Israel also wanted to get away from earth for a while.
As the page of the calendar turns again and we look to a new year how does it leave you feeling? What are you celebrating this New Years Eve? Will it be the coming of the new or the passing of the old? Was 2006 a really tuff time? David longed to have wings to leave the chaos while Robert Frost remembered swinging from a birch and being launched toward the heavens.
There is good news. While in this world we must at times walk through a pathless wood there is grace for the occasion. David may have been tempted to fly away and be at rest however at the end of the day he said, “As for me,I will call upon God, and the lord will save me.” (Ps.55: 16)
The words of two poets expressing the same emotion and coming to the same conclusion speaks to my soul and shows me a reflection of grace.
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