Feeble Best
We try to earn God’s love but can’t succeed.
When on His narrow path, we trip and fall.
How could we not? We’re merely noise and need.
Just shrieking infants, unaware we’re small.
To us, our shrieks sound like a symphony.
To Him, each one must sound cacophonous.
To us, our deeds are crowned with piety.
To Him, each one belies our sinfulness.
We miss His mark no matter what we try,
and often do what’s evil in His sight.
Somehow, although He’s hard to satisfy,
the Lord is also easy to delight.
Our puny actions can’t make Him impressed
but still, He’s pleased to get our feeble best.
Poet’s Note: Inspired by this C.S. Lewis quote from Mere Christianity, “And yet—this is the other and equally important side of it—this Helper who will, in the long run, be satisfied with nothing less than absolute perfection, will also be delighted with the first feeble, stumbling effort you make tomorrow to do the simplest duty.”
Sunbeams
Dawn breaks with just a single beam of light
that’s followed by more beams that bring delight
to those who stop to contemplate the sky,
and not look down, or simply walk on by.
We can hear each bird’s song as more than sound,
and can see how majestically they’re crowned,
and can enjoy each morsel that we taste,
and can feel warmth each time that we’re embraced.
No matter the sensation, great or small,
we’ll be content when we embrace them all
by stopping for a moment to adore
the source of each, without expecting more.
These momentary coruscations of
the One who put each there to show his love,
are best appreciated when minds run
from where the sunbeam ends back to the sun.
Poet’s Note: Inspired by this C.S. Lewis quote from Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer: “Gratitude exclaims, very properly, ‘How good of God to give me this.’ Adoration says, ‘What must be the quality of that Being whose far-off and momentary coruscations are like this!’ One’s mind runs back up the sunbeam to the sun.”
Warren Bonham is a private equity investor who lives in Southlake, Texas.
I think C.S. himself would be pleased with your lovely tributes. Your smooth rhyming flow paraphrases his quotes without sounding pretentious or trying too hard to sound like him. Well done.
I’m glad you like them and I hope CSL wouldn’t be displeased. He was a once in a generation intellect.
We can hear each bird’s song as more than sound,
and can see how majestically they’re crowned,
and can enjoy each morsel that we taste,
and can feel warmth each time that we’re embraced.
Brilliant Warren,
just brilliant,
I think Uncle Jack must be proud of you:)
warmest regards,
Karen
(whose C.S Lewis audiobooks got her through lockdown
and who is very much enjoying a reading by the talented German actor Philip Shepmann of a good German translation of the Narnia Chronicles)
Thank you for the very kind comments! The older I get, the more I appreciate the Narnia stories. I thought it was supposed to be the other way around.
Warren, your poetry really hits the spot. There are tens of thousands of great C.S. Lewis quotes.
You have chosen, and created, two beautiful coruscations.
He was incredibly prolific so it is very hard to choose just a couple of quotes. I picked the first because it made me feel better about still being in the feeble/stumbling phase. The second one struck me because I had no idea what a coruscation was until reading it. What a great thinker he was.
Just for enjoyment, here are a couple of C.S. Lewis quotes…
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies.
The robber baron’s cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
-C. S. Lewis
Those who do not think about their own sins make up for it by thinking incessantly about the sins of others.
-C. S. Lewis
While I like Lewis’ writings well enough, I’m more a fan of Barfield and Tolkien. I just now took up my copy of Lewis’
Poems and found that Bonham’s style here is a fair reflection of Lewis’ style: meaty with meaning and dense in locution. Not bad for a Texican — heh heh.
I can’t say I’ve ever read anything by Barfield, but I obviously need to remedy that. I’m glad to see that there is some passing resemblance to Lewis in the words above, albeit with a Texan twang.
These are lovely verses inspired by one who has many wonderful thoughts to dwell up. The dichotomy of this couplet,
“Somehow, although He’s hard to satisfy,
the Lord is also easy to delight.”
is a marvel and a comfort.
Gigi
Thanks so much! We are very fortunate that the couplet is true while also being dichotomous. If it were not for that, we’d all be doomed. That is definitely a marvel and a comfort.
C.S. Lewis was close friends with J.R.R. Tolkien while both served on the English faculty at Oxford University. Having fallen away from Christianity as an adolescent, he returned to the faith in his 30’s as demonstrated by his powerful writings and thoughts. What a great tribute, Warren, to him and his legacy.
Last week was a big one for CSL. He died on November 22nd (the same day that JFK was shot and that Aldous Huxley died) and was born on November 29th. Perhaps more importantly, he had a brother named Warren (although he was always referred to as Warnie for some reason). I wanted to find some way to mark his birth of the great man.
Warren, you’ve done what you can to spread the inspiration of Lewis just a little farther. That’s not easy, considering what an abundant source his words have been. You extend rather than quoting favorite lines as a reminder. When the quotes are worked into new art, they live longer for each of us who listen. Especially when you emphasize by repetition, as you show forcefully with metrical stress on all four iterations of “can” in “Sunbeams.” The last of those, concerning feeling warmth when embraced, needs special emphasis due to our careless custom of often empty hugs. And you give that special emphasis, by repeating “embrace” a couple of lines later, urging us to receive whatever warmth we find and reflect it in adoration. Surely, this is a way to contradict he Second Law of Thermodynamics, and render that energy still more available!
I’m glad that emphasizing “can” seemed to work. In doing so, I was speaking mostly to myself. I need to be reminded of that constantly. I like the reference to the Second Law of Thermodynamics. God has shown repeatedly that he is not bound by these universal laws. It’s great that we can also find and tap into His loopholes.
Some great lines in both of these poems. I’m hoping to read more of C.S. Lewis. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for the comment! Reading CSL is always time well spent.
‘Feeble Best’, although I’m not the most religious of people, really hits the mark on many levels. ‘We’re merely noise and need,’ really sums us up, especially these days where we all have a voice.
‘Sunbeams’ has a great message, and what a final couplet to illustrate the big picture of the universe, encompassed in a sunbeam.
Thanks for the reads, Warren.
I’m really glad you enjoyed both! Your summaries hit the nail on the head in terms of what I was hoping would come across.
I’m so glad you wrote these poems for C.S. Lewis, Warren. He is one of my favorite writers of the 20th Century and has given me much to ponder both in the realms of theology and literature. I love Narnia, often return to Screwtape but am presently reading the third book of his deeply strange science fiction space trilogy, That Hideous Strength. I won’t deny that it’s not only bizarre but a bit of a slog, but since it’s C.S. Lewis it’s an enjoyable slog. I’m a loyal fan. He’s given me too much through the years.
Narnia and Screwtape were my entry points. I must admit that I never got around to That Hideous Strength and I will probably move that a little lower on my To Do list now.
Another one who loves CSL, I shall immediately locate my volume of his poems, thanks to your two wonderful poems. Thank you so much!
Thanks so much for the supportive comment! His work has certainly stood the test of time, and I hope it will continue to do so.
A worthy subject for poetry, conveying thoughts that are faithful to Lewis’s thought — even his style. I frequently read through Lewis’s poems, and am impressed with the consistent message underlying a wide array of themes. I highly recommend them if you’re not familiar. Thank you for your homage.