Best Hagar Poems
Here's an ode to Hagar the Horrible!
His raids on castles is deplorable,
And yet despite constant strife,
With his long-suffering wife,
How can she suppose him adorable?
Robert L. Hinshaw, CMSgt, USAF, Retired
(c) All Rights Reserved
.,~*~;;;~*~:::~*~;;;~*~:::~*~;;;~*~:::~*~;;;~*~:::~*~;;;~*~,.
Alone in the dry, hot desert with a small boy
Weary from a long journey,
Abandoned by her baby's daddy
Destitute, thirsting to death
Crying in despair to her God
A voice spoke to her and she saw life
A stream of water, flowing to salvation
For her and her son, in the middle of the
Dry dust, moisture sprung to new life
.,~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~*~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~=~,.
It always seems as though, the first line holds this key....
Creating a moment it's poetic course yet, rarely, be she thus
Adrift about his isles desert dunes like Ishmael, an outcast; tides
These ebbs in flows to scrutinize their Archer's bow ? Zodiac's montage.
I
We sing of Hagar the Horrible, yet she is a brilliant blessing -
This late in April 2019; no not for April Fool's Day
I must submit (a poem, at least) - here the reason we play
II
On a certain Sunday, when all true Christians join to pray
To a LORD who loves all ("diversity, too, but let's STOP at "gay")
Can't extend humanity to the brown and gray!
MOST SERMONS: Hagar the Egyptian cannot be any good -
Such have been the fare of feeding "my sheep" by a multitude
Of professors of faith, theologians, doers of GOOD
According to Peter's restoration steps: John, chapter 21
III
Yet Hagar was a key to many a blessing
An Egyptian, yes, but before there were any Islam or current nation
Called Jews, or Israel, or the Twelve Tribes, except Abram -
The Pagan from Haran, from Ur of Iraq, before then
He and Sarai could not wait for God's Isaac, His time
Like the best of us, they HELPED GOD - Tetragrammaton, as in YHWH!
What a novel plan, Sarai: Use the womb of the servant, Hagar,
To create your heir - no record of prayer, or talking with YHWH [YaHWaH]
Before this polygamous deed, then casting her out for a "look"?
(Do with your slave as you please, Abe who wifed Hagar,said to Sarai)
But on the way back to Egypt - Surely at SHUR, the angelic Wall at Shur,
Stopped Hagar the Horrible, because she was a key to AVRAM's goal!
She submitted - better than Abe and Sarai - to God's Angel & instruction!
The COVENANT (we talk a lot about it) was yet to be sealed ...
The self-same day: he was 13 and Abram the Pagan, Ninety-Nine
The slave-woman's son, circumcised with Abraham, the self-same day
Isaac, The Son of Promise, would only come the next year!
Read your Bible (the Twelve Kings first blessed upon Ishmael: God hears!
Even the slaves & indentured, all colors, when they trust and obey
Poor old Abe always had trust, but he didn't always obey ...
Soon it will be the return of LORD of lords & residents: Judgment Day
Read Genesis again, - and again - know why Hagar & Ishmael live on!
I
I am good seed, by Grace
Seed of Abraham
The new testament says
One seed, many fruit in the nations (ethnoi)
But is my fruit good
By worldly terms, Yes
By biblical standards, No
- And does it hurt
Sometines, for no reason, I awake
Sleepless ... Until my wife awakes, too -
Pulls me closer
Then tells me later:
I listen to your breathing ...
As you go back to sleep and shalom
II
He is Jehovah Shalom
He loved Jacob, but ESAU differently -
As with Isaac and Ishmael -
Yet He blessed both, materially,
But Isaac became a descriptor of Yah
So, if I feel like Ishmael, Esau, Rahab ...
The God of Abraham still made me
And makes me anew
He never made nothing but masterpieces.
Like Hagar
Who sometimes we forget
Encountered God twice
Yahwah El Roi (Genesis 21)
And "The God who hears me"
NOTE:
Hagar encountered God in Genesis 21, but God heard Ishmael, when Hagar ran out of water, when sentcaway by angry Sarah. Abraham was reluctant to indulge Sarah & lose Ishmael, his son. Once before he quickly obeyed when Sarah put out a pregnant Hagar; God sent her back!!. Here, God assured Abraham Ishmael will become a great nation (too). In the desert of Paran, at a (political) place called Beersheba, pain became a vehicle for Revelation as "God who hears" is evident in the name & saving of Ishmael. Hagar met Yahwah El Roi in an earlier chapter, but God opened her eyes to see the well at Beersheba, when all hope was lost for her son! Shalom, shalom! ( I loved writing my sermons on Hagar in Maryland & Virginia, 2018-2019)
A unique form of hatred,
stereotypes and prejudice,
they decipher realities.
Forgotten the same father,
Ibrahim, Canaan families.
Who loving safe, warm, faith,
in the same lands.
Hagar,
Sarah.
Buzzing claims,
devout homes and beliefs,
attempted annihilation,
superseded born, sibling rivalry.
Pardon, end.
End, end, endeavour destruction.