GENESIS 12........

Genesis 12

1 Now YHWH had said to Abram "Get

You out of your own country, set

Yourself apart from family

And from your father's house go free,

To that place I will show you. 2 I

Will make of you a nation by

And by, one great, and bless you and

Make your name great, and where you stand

You shall become a blessing. 3 I

Will bless those who bless you, and I

Will curse the one who curses you,

Blessed all earth's families in you."



You give command, Beloved, and I obey.

There's nothing else of prayer or plaint to say.

I bless Your name and then do not forget

Another name to bless remaining yet.

How few bless Abraham, how few, how few!

Some bless in word, but few in what they do.

You did not say to wash and wash again

In river Jordan or some stream in vain.

You did not give a task that some could not

For lack of strength pursue. We've only got

To say a blessing brief and to the point

On Abraham. His grandsons will anoint

New kings and priests and prophets in good time.

Beloved, I bless both You and him in rhyme.



4 So Abram left as YHWH had told

Him to, and Lot went with him. So

Abram was seventy-five years old

When he left Haran Lot in tow.

5 Then Abram took Sarai his wife

And Lot his brother's son, and rife

With great possessions they had got

And all the people they had taught,

Acquired in Haran, and they went

To Canaan where they had been sent.



Possessions every man can understand,

Such things acquired are found on every hand.

But what I fail to fathom is the show

Of acquisition in the here below

Of people. Does it mean that Abraham,

Your blessed one, brought with cattle, sheep and ram,

A crowd of slaves and servants for his use?

Or does it mean that wanderers had excuse

For brigands and for robbers' threat to stay

Close to protecting leaders in the way?

A family or factory or church,

It does not matter, Abrahamic perch

Is where, Beloved, Your guidance could be found:

An Abrahamic tent-pin in the ground.



6 Abram passed through the land to where

Shechem was seen where the lands bear

The terebinth of revelation,

Called Moreh. At that time the nation

Of Canaanites was in the land.

7 Then YHWH appeared to Abram and

Said "To your descendants I'll give

This land, a place for them to live."

And there he built an altar to

The one who appeared to him, YHWH.



It is Your habit, my Beloved, it seems,

To show Yourself not only in men's dreams,

But in the unconsuming burning bush,

Or terebinth or oak from shove to push.

The tree of revelation is as old

As tree of knowledge of the good and bold,

It is as new as tree of life to come

In future revelation's glorious sum.

And as with Abraham it is of now

And is the tree before me anyhow,

The terebinth or birch or fir or pine,

The desert drought of water or the wine,

In all I find You, my Beloved, and fair,

The root in earth, the head and hair in air.



8 He moved to the mountain from there

That's east of Bethel, and that's where

He pitched his tent, Bethel behind

Or on the west, Ai you'll find

Before or on the east, he built

A place of sacrifice to YHWH

That he might worship without guilt

And cantillate the name of YHWH.

9 Then Abram journeyed, going still

Toward the south through vale and hill.



I turn from east to west and call Your name,

Beloved, and whirl again and then take aim

Toward Your house, the house of God, and bow

And then raise hand from heart to show men how

The sun and moon whirl on and pray to You

Who made them all and made all that they do.

I journey in the desert and the sun

And follow star to southward as I run,

In every place I go around the earth

I find Your name is far above all worth.

And as I cantillate from east to west,

My back to north while searching out the best,

I find my journey's goal each place I go

Is at my lip and heart for what I know.



10 Now there was famine in the land,

So Abram went to Egypt and

Lived there, for famine was severe.

11 It happened, when he had come near

To Egypt that he told his wife,

Sarai, "I do fear for my life

Since you are such a pretty one

When everything is said and done.

12 "That's why when the Egyptians see

You they will say 'This is his wife',

And then kill me, but save your life.

13 "Please say you are my sister, so

I might survive here where we go,

For what's between both you and me."



Beloved, I thank You that You keep Your way

A secret from the masses that might slay

Me for the gold You lay upon my heart.

They'd fight me truly for the treasured part

That I have on my tongue to sound Your name.

But now they only see old man for shame

That mutters on the road, they do not hear

The jewels that I utter, I've no fear.

If they knew how sweet is Your name to me

And what fine nectars are its melody,

They'd surely kill to have its treasures theirs.

But now the murmur passes unawares.

I thank You that You are a hidden treasure

Poured out on me in secret without measure.



14 And so it was, when Abram came

To Egypt, people asked her name

When they saw how pretty she was,

Though pretty is as pretty does.

15 The princes of Pharaoh also

Saw her and praised her to Pharaoh,

And she was taken to the court.

16 He treated, because of consort,

With Abram well. He had both sheep

And oxen, male donkeys to keep,

Servants and maids, she-donkeys too,

And camels for what camels do.



The Book of Jubilees does not make mention

That Abram got rich off his wife's attention

To Pharaoh's court. That smacks of prostitution

Of wife and hearth, but then, the best solution

To every problem has its fame and hour.

The expectation that the good is dour

Is founded on no sense nor on Your word.

If sense nor word do not leave undeterred

The lust of kings, then common men take wings.

The prohibition not to kill comes first,

So that adultery is not the worst.

Wherever roses bloom and bulbul sings

The steps to righteousness are ordered right,

And day to day give precedence to night.



17 But YHWH plagued Pharaoh and his house

With great plagues, perhaps mouse or louse,

Because of Sarai, Abram's wife.

18 And Pharaoh called Abram with strife

And said "What have you done to me?

Why did you not tell me that she

Was your wife? 19 "And why did you say,

'She is my sister'? I might lay

With such a one, take her away,

Your wife and go." 20 So then Pharaoh

Commanded men to have him go,

They sent him off, both him and her,

And all he had from where they were.



The master of the age gives me no right

To violent recourse here in my plight.

I bow to thievery but, silent, pray

That You, Beloved, will come to save the day.

A plague on every man that takes the sword,

That graduates to pistol when he's bored,

And bomb to take the widow's precious hoard.

The congress of warlords goes on apace

With talk of war and peace met face to face

In strategies to get the gold and oil,

Commodities one never wraps in foil

Nor puts upon a plate. Beloved, remark

Illusion tempts both owner and the clerk

As well as those of us who sleep and toil.