Best Aquinas Poems
Golden Roses
...to one who has faith, no explanation is necessary...to one without faith, no explanation is possible...Thomas Aquinas.
Roses side by side where the grotto stood
A golden garden not seen by their eyes
Bernadette could see as she gathered wood
Kneeling upon hearing of heaven’s cries
A Lady did appear in rose bush wild
A seraphic voice with no deception
With a white dress and girdle gently smiled
‘I am the Immaculate Conception’
For the town of Lourdes was quick to demean
Sadly scoffed as the poorest peasant girl
She dug a hole and a well would canteen
To make believers of the crippled churl
Bernadette let your song of roses hum
Upon this let processions hither come.
Aug.17.2018
New Sonnets Only
Only English Sonnets Are Acceptable
(Fourteen lines, ten syllables per line - abab cdcd efef gg rhyming scheme.)
Sponsored by: Emile Pinet
Video clip from the movie"The Song of Bernadette"
N/A for contest
Jabberwocky Redux
After reading too much Aquinas
Would an aphid reside in an onager’s ear
if the onager’s master spoke Twi?
Or a Gascony scop with a leper elope
if a civet leapt out of a tree?
You doubt it? Read Thomas and see.
Would an addax in Denmark gyrate
if an emu in Sweden bore freight?
Or an eland in Chile complain
if jerboas in Goa refrain?
You doubt it? Read Thomas and see.
For really I thought ‘twas the onager taught
the aphid the tenor of Twi, and
that Gascony scops with Norwegians eloped
when Danes had lepers to tea.
You doubt it? Read Thomas and see.
Donal Mahoney
Let Any Agnostic Provide a Reply
After reading too much Aquinas
Would an aphid reside in an onager’s ear
if the onager’s master spoke Twi?
Or a Gascony scop with a leper elope
if a civet leapt out of a tree?
You doubt it? Read Thomas and see.
Would an addax in Denmark gyrate
if an emu in Sweden bore freight?
Or an eland in Chile complain
if jerboas in Goa refrain?
You doubt it? Read Thomas and see.
For really I thought ‘twas the onager taught
the aphid the tenor of Twi, and that
Gascony scops with Norwegians eloped
when Danes had lepers to tea.
You doubt it? Read Thomas and see.
Donal Mahoney
The Unwritten Dogma
Institutions and their doctrines fall to the spiritual reality. Not in Emergence--in affirmation of a bigoted tradition of God and man.
How can an individual Catholic be redeemed; when God has condemned that spiritual kingdom collectively?
Calling back the supposed lapsed Catholic; as if disconnected to the corporate bond. And the recovering Catholic; as if they did not know.
Separation: the result of sin;
i hear Vatican 2's ecumenical call for unity
to the separated brethren.
Love this world Lord,
empower the world's Lord;
until your light is seen
as darkness.
Brethren of the world
give me carnal loves
Lord.
God of Aquinas
you are inclusive;
God of Aquinas
you are equality.
In spiritual unity
they go
to hell.
© S. Wesley Mcgranor
Inside this cave, my refuge, nave
I bend and stretch and breath,
to find myself among the ruins
of ancient places, faces, and history.
Although I strive to change the tide
of my own motivations,
something akin to a Zephyr wind
has me returning to old foundations.
Cornerstones, above the bones
of ancestors crying out in vain,
“I too once lived, loved, and looked above,
beyond mountains, clouds, and rain.”
Within my walls I read the call
of (by far more) learned minds,
who looked beyond their own demise,
to future points in time.
Beyond hate and war, the kind that tore
humanity apart at the seams,
cataclysmic, apocalyptic,
nightmare scenes.
Socrates knew, as Plato too
but they were only the beginning,
of a line of thinkers, knowledge drinkers,
all of them underpinning.
How we should live, think, act, and dream
From day to day and night by night,
great thinkers lived that they might give
a more beautiful, brighter, shining light.
Their list is longer than King Tut’s curse
and all the books throughout the earth
could never touch
their individual or collective worth.
From Pythagoras to Parmenides
Democritus to Hobbes,
St. Augustine to Aquinas,
Ayn Rand to John Rawls.
From Thales and Anaximander,
Homer to Thomas Kuhn,
AL-Ghazali to Maimonides,
From Budda to Sun Tzu.
From ancient days to modern ways
of beckoning the questions how and why,
Inside this cave, my refuge, nave,
I bask and ask, the Oracle at Delphi.
The love of a mother for her newborn babe,
The love of a child for adoring parents;
The love of a nun for Lord Jesus,
The ardor of a monk for his order.
All of these are loves so true.
The love of a kitten for her mama cat,
The love of a dolphin for her calf;
The tenderness of a mare protecting her foal,
An eagle carrying her young on her wing.
All of these are loves so true.
The love of a soldier for his country,
The love of an owner for his company;
The love of a patriot for his flag,
The love of a wise man for his disciple.
All of these are loves so true.
The love of a teammate for his fellows,
The love of a dreamer for his dream;
The love of a poet for his craft,
The love of a fisherman for the sea.
All of these are loves so true.
Romeo's love for Juliet, Antony's for Cleopatra,
A Pilgrim's love for the Haj, for Mecca, for the Shrine of Aquinas;
Rapunzel's love for her hair, and Samson's for his strength;
Tom Sawyer's for Becky Thatcher, and Sidney Carton's for Lucie Manette.
Yes, all of these are loves so true, yet still confined to this earth;
My love for you breaks through to Heaven---'tis Eternal, forever aye.
February 25, 2018
Ye of Little Faith
for Thomas Aquinas
Part readily the skin
and readily the pulp,
as readily the tongues
wild apples bore,
eviscerate the cores,
and watermelon spit the pits
they cannot swallow.
Let this be done before
the tongues
wild lemons bore
find no cores.
Donal Mahoney
Lord -
God ,
Creator
of the Natural Order.
Chem trails and weather modification...
Let the social engineering not find us oh Lord.
We hide not in you,
but in you -
a shield
armor
and sword.
As the rains come, so does the hurricane. Tornadoes , hail, and floods. The devastating effects of Aquinas sin. Through prayer and contemplation we will understand, man is a greater enemy than satan.
© S. Wesley Mcgranor
8/10/10
Spanish glance
in fields of Aquinas cascades
fur lined trees
Lemons as sweet to taste
Wild African violets
New poetry
in the clothe of Aragon
the clasp of love indefinitely
the finesse of ease
near the village
breathing in
fairest church, moss side
Firmament bequeathed
at oceans ride
Thomas Aquinas ,a 13th century Italian friar first recorded use of the anapestic meter in the AABBA form with prayers in Latin until Edward Lear used theform for humourous verse.The title Limerick is more uncertain but might have aconnection to the Irish town of that name
ORIGINS
There once lived a friar,Thomas of Aquino
in latin,did his poetry flow
In a prayer anapestic
this form was to stick
until Lear gave AABBA ,a go
ALONG THESE LINES
There was a young man from France
who led his friends a fine dance
Some thought him a prude
others said he was rude
Looking at him quite askance
Thinker, scholar, sophist; Duns was, yet, a humanist,
His thoughts actions exhibited him as true philanthropist…!
Constructing a metaphysical argument, he said,
Of the existence of God, that like rivers moves ahead…!
Aristotle or Aquinas need not be great masters,
When divine decree, like creation, does all things alters...!
A Franciscan priest and theologian, he explained,
The Immaculate Conception, with due coherence gained...!
Theology should be a sensible science of God,
Human beings should find love of Trinity never flawed...!
He differentiated faith of heart from thought of head,
Added tinges of humanity, and true love did spread...!
By John Paul II was John Scotus Duns canonized,
For metaphysics with Christian faith, he is eulogized...!
18 March 2022
John Duns Scotus Poetry Contest
Sponsored by: Joe Maverick
Oh, may LOVE feel its worth, though a concept like time,
Much less Entropy's increase no longer makes sense.
Will light still earn thought's praise if no mortal speaks rhyme,
If no stars (laws exist!) more collapse to their death,
(Though the ashes of stars source what all men call life.)
When death's left with no sting, won't all knowledge seem loss
To each soul (one more 'gift?') in God's heart (like a 'wife?')
If you claim, "There's no God!" Please, Sir, prove your death's real!
Isn't faith too required to say, "No one can know?"
Don't you live life believing you feel what you feel
That tomorrow the sun greets each day at no cost?
Is our 'knowledge' just 'feelings' men trust? Can ‘truth’ rot?
But with knowledge so fragile, dares one call it real?
Yes, a “rose is a rose is a rose" till it's not!
Though loud voices on Sunday do praise God! Who saved
Them? Can servants bind God (though good works may impress?)
Is Love earned by confessing when heart stays depraved?
The 'Big Bang' the first miracle? Hydrogen gas
More the clay of life, gravity found in Star's Death!
From whose side taken Elements, 'Mother of all?'
From what marriage more stars born? All life that has breath!
Does not worship make humble both strong and the proud
And creation from nothing prove we are not Gods?
Oh, what act can immortalize one from the crowd?
In what man born the wisdom to 'feel' must mean 'pain!'
Isn’t faith when we stumble, and faith when we win,
The appropriate answer to life on this earth,
And the phantom of knowledge the heart of all sin?
Brian Johnston
20th of April 2019
Poet’s Note:
Thomas Aquinas believed God to be "Uncaused cause," but in my understanding, God is more "Evolution that evolves eternally!" Even, if all men are fools, our language is so much fun! One's 'faith' is perhaps the only thing worth investing in and one's life the only currency accepted!
Thomas Aquinas a 13th century friar
raised poetry a little higher
With his prayer anapestic
an AABBA now styled a limerick
perhaps led to the position of prior!
Outside the mind
they’re no universals
Conflation and trend
— humanity’s bane
(Dreamsleep: October, 2024)
When people comment
on the style or way
I write and the words
I use to express and convey
my thoughts and views.
I tend to stop and ponder
my road less traveled .
Acknowledging, appreciating ,
admiring the authors, teachers
scribes of many nations
and the outer regions of the universe ,
who have inspired , guided encouraging ,
me to develop and advance
my writing skills along the way.
People like Manly P. Hall
Socrates, Plato, Thales of Miletus ,
Thomas Aquinas , The Apostles ,
Sigman Freud , Carl Jung , Galileo Galilei,
Benjamin Franklin , Thomas Edison , Nikola Tesla ,
William Shakespeare , Homer , Aesop
and other well known Philosophers and
critical thinkers in the world's history.
Authors like Dr. Edgar Cayce
Dr. George Brown ,
Literary genius and artist such as James Joyce ,
Walt Whitman and of course some of my favorite
Authors George Orwell , Robert Frost , with their
extensive and vibrant vocabularies
and their ability to bring words to life.
The most impressive author
with the ability to put you in the room
And stimulate our sensations such
as aroma and taste and sound to make you feel
as if you are sitting in the cat birds seat.
An author with incredible and fascinating
writing technique , a man with a colorful and sparkling array of words , and superlative writing flair and talent
that tickles the imagination.
Capable of painting a scene with words ,
bringing it to life ,
like no other author has ever done before or since.
A story teller who can magically ,
create a vision so vivid so profound ,
one just might forget and step away
from reality for a brief moment in time.
An individual who can descriptively describe
the Animation of his imagination
like no man or woman in the history of recorded time.
Creator and contributor
of some of the finest sculptures
in the world of literary works of art.
Born into reality in the year 1809 , on the 19th day of January.
He would go on to reside
in the harts , souls and minds ,
intricately woven into universal fabric of time
October 7 Nineteen Hundred Forty Nine.
The individual who put the authenticity of Poe
Into Poetry
Ladies and Gentlemen.
Edgar Allan Poe.
Michael E.Harris
10072024