Monthly Archives: December 2016

The Greatest of These

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As we approach the end of an eventful year, and the start of a new that promises a number of big things in the near future, I could make the standard wish to you all of success, health and comfort, but I thought I’d post a little reminder of what is most important of all:

The Greatest of These

There is no force upon the earth
That can outweigh the gift of love;
No wealth or situation
That can outbid its worth;

No jewel in all its glory
No title, honour, place
That can outshine the smile that spreads
Across your loved one’s face.

While victories are powerful joys
And justice plays its part
None can match devotion
From an honest human heart.

So dance and laugh and celebrate,
Savour and appreciate,
Stand, salute, commemorate
Console and commiserate
With those you choose to love.

Priceless Sunday

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On this day of days, we reach the culmination of our Advent Series, with the day that all Advent Sundays look towards, what could be better than Gold Sunday?

Priceless Sunday

Beyond all hopes, beyond all dreams,
Beyond all human plots and schemes
To cure the ills that plague mankind,
The bonds that hold the weak unbind,

The wisdom of the world surpass,
To show the lost the way at last.
To shame the mighty and the strong
And show the proud where they went wrong.

To open up the narrow door
That leads to love for evermore;
All this through a baby’s birth
To reclaim corrupted Earth.

The fullness of divinity
Combined with full humanity
To be the Way, the price to pay
With unforeseen humility.

No eye had seen, no ear had heard
The mighty and incarnate Word
That cried our tears, that felt our pain,
So we could all be whole again.

The greatest enemy of all
Saw this would lead to his great fall;
He tried to tempt, to spoil, destroy,
But could not taint our source of joy.

At last That Day had come.

For more of my poetry, there are two of my collections available on Amazon:

Selected Verse - Faith and Family

Selected Verse - Heroes and Wonders

Gold Sunday

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Continuing on from last week, Silver Sunday, we now move on to the final Advent Sunday:

Gold Sunday

From mighty Babylon of old
Through furnaces and statues gold
Endured a voice that prophesied
Great future empires’ fall and rise

And then a rock to dwarf them all
Arising from a land so small,
Its people cling to trembling hope
In more than just a horoscope.

The age is nigh, the world expects
A noble, mighty architect
Of change unique in history,
An end to Israel’s misery,

And soon That Day will come.

For more of my poetry, there are two of my collections available on Amazon:

Selected Verse - Faith and Family

Selected Verse - Heroes and Wonders

Silver Sunday

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We continue from last week with part three of this Advent series, inspired by the Bohemian folk names for the four Advent Sundays. After iron and bronze, this week is silver:

Silver Sunday

Bags of silver coins change hands
For human lives from distant lands:
Some caught in war, some caught at crime,
Some could not pay their debts in time.

With chains on their bruised feet and hands,
Worth thirty silver to a man;
Some foolishly still dare to dream
That they could one day be redeemed.

But soon That Day will come.

For more of my poetry, there are two of my collections available on Amazon:

Selected Verse - Heroes and Wonders

Selected Verse - Faith and Family

Bronze Sunday

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We continue from last week with part two of this Advent series, inspired by the Bohemian folk names for the four Advent Sundays. Last week was iron, this week is bronze:

Bronze Sunday

Bronze shields and spears arranged in ranks,
To form the fearsome Greek phalanx,
Conquered nations far and wide;
Now there’s a new source of Greek pride:

Bold theories and insightful thoughts
That they debate in marble courts.
“Whose wisdom can outshine our own
Or that of our great pantheon?”

Twixt oracles and temples grand
In Athens a small altar stands
Placed there as a reverent nod
To an as yet unknown god.

But soon That Day will come.

For more of my poetry, there are two of my collections available on Amazon:

Selected Verse - Heroes and Wonders

Selected Verse - Faith and Family

Brian Niemeier Reviews Beyond the Mist

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Brian Niemeier, Campbell award nominee and Dragon Award winner, has some very nice things to say about Beyond the mist over on his blog:

A man finds himself weightless in a rushing mist. He doesn’t know whether he is flying or falling, and he has no memory of anything prior to waking in the fog. Much like the book’s protagonist, the reader is immediately cast into an existential mystery on the first page.

Also like the protagonist, I didn’t know what to make of the character’s initial situation. Was I entering a strange science fiction world so advanced beyond our own as to make the setting itself a puzzle? Had Zwycky crafted a surrealist parable to illustrate the folly of relativism through style and mood? A metaphysical science-fantasy like Philip Jose Farmer’s Riverworld?

Since discovering the truth is among the primary joys of reading Beyond the Mist, I won’t spoil the answer. I will say that the process of discovery is masterfully handled by Zwycky and immensely satisfying.

Read the whole review here, or better yet read the book by clicking on the image below:

Beyond the Mist