Ascensions from the Fall

A Celebration of Atonement
Through Poetry of Love and
Redemption

Introduction to Ascensions From the Fall

Introduction

In 1971 when I graduated from Brigham Young University, unmarried and with a bachelor’s in English, I became a teacher. I taught for four years and then returned to BYU to get a master’s degree. My goal was to go for a doctorate, teach on a university level, and write the great American novel. As a warm-up exercise, I decided my master’s thesis would be a history of the world from Adam and Eve to the present in epic poetry.
I approached my advisor, Marge Wight, on the project and was quickly rebuffed. Marge had done her doctorate on some obscure modern novelist and what was good enough for Marge, would be good enough for me. She suggested the novels of Sinclair Lewis. I knew enough about Sinclair Lewis to know I did not want to spent any great amount of time with a mind like his. I countered with a proposal to do a study of blood imagery in the writings of Shakespeare with a focus on the play Cymbeline. She wouldn’t hear of it. It was Sinclair Lewis or nothing. I decided it was Sinclair Lewis or Wally Blackhurst.
Wally was a graduate student in economics at the University of Chicago whose marriage proposal was well timed. We exchanged vows in the Salt Lake Temple in December 1975 and I left the hallowed halls of academia to become a wife and mother. I played those parts with all the fervor and intensity I once reserved for the role of writer.
Twelve children later, I decided it was time to revisit my literary goals. The history of the world from Adam and Eve to the present had still not been penned. I decided to go at it, not as one long epic poem, but rather as a series of shorter poems. Using Shakespearean sonnets and other poetic forms, I began fitting the minds and spirits of Biblical characters like Abraham, Sarah, Ruth, Esther and Jesus to the poetry of Milton, Longfellow, Shakespeare and Poe.
Giving birth to these creations of my mind, while not as satisfying as giving birth to my own children, had its advantages. Molding little people was sometimes challenging. At times they were as adamant as Marge Wight about the way things ought to be, and I was equally determined they would be something else. I never ran into those impasses with the creations of my mind. They might come out with some major birth defects, but I could work them over until sounds, symbols and substance were in harmony. What evolved was a series of poems which had one thread in common. They all focused on the theme of ascending. Thus the title, Ascensions from the Fall.

Preface

Preface
It used to be that Americans believed in love and marriage, a honey-moon cottage with a white-picket fence and a sign over the door that said, "love is spoken here." Little girls grew up dreaming of becoming beautiful brides dressed in white escorted to the altar on their arms of their devoted fathers. Little boys dreamed of becoming heroic prince charmings, going out into the world to seek their fortunes and slay dragons for the benefit of their wives and children at home. It was not that long ago nor that far away that thoughts of happy-ever-aftering were a part of American children’s dreams of the future.
This book examines "Ascensions of the Fall," celebrates atonement, or unity rather than diversity, rising rather than falling, and redemption rather than redistribution. It begins with a focus on love and marriage, transitions into a study of men and women from Adam and Eve to the present, who have ascended above their fallen natures, and ends with a prescription for hope through a return to faith in God.
From such notable examples as Sarah and Abraham, we learn of faith and forgiveness; from Jacob and Rachel, temperance, and tenacity to stay the course through refiner’s fires; from Hannah and Samuel, obedience and sacrifice; from Peter and Mary Magdalene, repentance and rising every time we fall, and from Nathaniel and Sophia Hawthorne, frugality and fidelity. In the lives of these flesh-and-blood historic figures we find the challenges to, and the prescriptions for, ascending above defeat.
More than a collection of poems, this book is a prescription for raising moral expectations. After the wedding and the ride off into the sunset, we find men and women keeping the fires of love alive in their lives. Glimpses into the thought-processes of men who have held up the world of their wives and children on their shoulders, unmasks the secret to God’s plan of happiness. These Atlases who never shrugged, and their Earth- Mother wives whose sacrificial love, frugality and loyalty to God, kept the world of home and family pure and clean, and above the morass of moral decay, provide the key to hope for the future, not only for America, but for the world.
Submission is the key. In a hedonistic world there is no power to ascend. The enabling power of grace which fuels ascension is released only by the triumph of the spirit over the flesh. Nothing less will do.

Forward

Forward

This is an age of prose, an age of information, of high-speed internet connections, of harsh facts, and even harsher realities, an age where cold steel buildings rise skyward and hard cement roads spread out across the horizon, an age when cancerous toxins infest the body and the body politic. Why then a book of poetry? Prose speaks to the body, to the flesh of the body. Poetry speaks to the soul, to be a light to the soul.
There are those, in these noise-tired times, who turn aside from the language of despair and the murkiness of unfiltered waters to think of Him, the "word made flesh who dwelt among us," to remember Him, who brought forth "living waters." They feast upon the words of grace and truth which flow from Him.
It is the purpose of this book to look into the lives of men and women who have gone to Him, the divine source of spiritual nourishment to partake of epiphanies that come from communing with the Infinite. Nuggets of wisdom gleaned as gems of personal revelations to those who drank from the fountain of all righteousness, are prescriptions for hope.
Beginning with love and marriage in the present age, this book goes on to examine the paradise of Eden, passes through the Old Testament and New Testaments, and Restoration, circles back to the hearths and homes of today, looks at the sons and daughters of liberty and concludes with the poets, they who taught us that "in God we live and move and have our being."
In the days before mass communication, the wandering minstrel and the story-teller were in great demand. They kept alive the glorious deeds of heroes as they sang for their suppers while entertaining castle audiences and tavern crowds.
As you read this book, you will note not only a variety of poetic styles, but also of lyrical stories: allegories, parables, myths, love stories, and patriotic tales. The need for engaging narratives is greater now than ever before for they produce that cathartic experience which cleanses and clarifies as it entertains.
A drum roll or a clarinet break in a blues’ song often makes a deeper and more lasting impression than the combined instruments of a entire combo. Likewise, a single poem offers a more meaningful and moving experience than an entire book of poems. If, in this collection of sonnets, odes, and lyrical narratives, you find a poem or selection of poems that are so compelling as to be held in remembrance, the author’s hope of creating a literary fountain to which souls, hungering for power of the word , can go for refreshment.

The Marriage Ship

THE MARRIAGE SHIP
When we were wed, we went to sea
Upon a shattered rail
And put our trust in miracles
That we could make it sail.
Unmindful of its size and length,
We walked it up and down;
Until at last it grew in strength
And gained a sterner prow.
The stars of night burned ne’er so bright
As when we scanned the dark
To find the course God charted out
Before we had embarked.
Though tempests came, and billows raged,
No waves were e’er so wild
That time and patience could not find
A way to make them mild.
Then shipmates came.
I witnessed yet another miracle;
From rail to raft our vessel grew
’Till fitted out with sails,
There rode the seas majestically
A ship made from a rail.
The wind that carried it along
Blew fewer fitful gales,
But rather breathed of a perfume
No earthly presence wears.
And then I knew our ship did move
By our great Helmsman’s prayers.


How happily I sail life’s seas
With this well-seasoned crew.
How much I long to spend this day
And everyday with you.
Oh, may the sunshine never set upon our ship at sea,
But I, within my heart, will know
The morning’s sun will see
Us all together, everyone,
Each helping out the other,
’Till we in Christ are anchored down,
Each sister and each brother.
And that’s how miracles are made.
It’s taking what is low
And seeing not what’s shattered,
But what love can make to grow.

The Bond's of Love

THE BONDS OF LOVE
The bonds of love no fettered bondage brings
And merriness from marriage has not fled.
Love’s fairest bonds are symbolized in rings
Which have no ends, and heaven’s mirth extends
Its rosy glow on beams which reach beyond
The veils of death. Bound love is found hearts
That beat as one. In lips raised oft in fondest
Words of praise. Love’s tender ties impart
Life’s fairest balm; a soothing sense of peace
And inner grace. Love’s unifying oneness
Glows with warmth as gratitudes increase
For duties done. Like rays of rising sons,
Love’s fusioned unions glow with radiant light.
Transcending time and space, love warms the night.

From Templed Halls

FROM TEMPLED HALLS
From templed halls beginnings
Out to the farthest ends
Of life beyond the veils of death,
Where angels meet as friends;
There lie the dreams of dreamers
There lie the lover’s sighs
There lie the vows which bind as one,
Two souls before God’s eyes.
Come join in celebrating
The promise of this day
Where love is made eternal
And vows pass not away.
Glad grateful hearts rejoice in
The rites which usher in
This hour from which all others start,
From which all life begins.
Henceforth until forever
God's glory and His Grace,
Shall lead men from this temple,
Into a sacred place,
A home where great things starting
From smallest ones arise;
Where patient’s importunings
Forge everlasting ties.
A home where dreams of lovers,
Whose thoughts are pure and fair,
Make God the ends of being,
And peace the ends of prayer.
A home whose sacred setting,
Young fatherhood unfolds,
And mother’s loving laughter
Her little ones behold.
From now until forever
There shall be more of love,
More wills subdued through gratitude
For blessings from above.

The Unity of Marriage

UNITY OF MARRIAGE
What makes a unity of two? The pair
Are not one being, not one whole, but clearly
Two distinct and separate beings, each bearing
All the rights which sovereignty holds dear.
Though fair to one may be the other’s sunny
Face, their grace, their form or merry wit,
These most endearing traits do not a oneness make.
To form a unity, commitments
Must be made. These equal yokes combine
To gain a purpose which transcends them both.
Their loyalty to God makes each resign
His sovereign will to keep in trust that oath
Which unifies them both in heart and mind.
Then are they no more two, but one combined.
What is that oath? To bring mortality
To other men and life eternal prize
Till Christ’s atonement is reality in them.
Through Him the two as one arise.

The Bride and the Bridegroom

The Bride and the Bridegroom
(An Allegory)

From a far away land that is called Beyond Here
Came a ship with its sails full of wishes.
The ocean it sailed on was perfectly clear,
For it held neither oysters nor fishes.
The waves rose and fell by the breath of the wind,
Who was rather a turbulent fellow,
And the sailors looked up to the stars through the night
For guidance to counter his bellows.
The stars twinkled bright through the mists and the fogs,
Through the torrents and whirlwinds begotten,
And while the ship sailed on through the mists of the deep,
By the stars it was never forgotten.
There was never a doubt that the ship was a gem
As it bobbed up and down on the ocean,
And to look at the captain, this bright diadem
Was the focus of all his devotion.
"Oh, Captain, my Captain!" the sailors would cry
When the horns of the waves were a blaring,
"There’s no way we’ll make it, this ship’s gone awry,
Can’t you see that it’s lost all its bearings?"


"That it has," said the Captain, who cocked them an eye
That was merry with passion and reason,
"It’s so far off the mark, we will never get home
For the time of the Barley Corn Season."
"But the corn must come in, or we’ll die," cried the crew.
"’Tis the corn we’re about to be eatin’!"
"Then lend me a hand, give me all that you’ve got,
For the next storm will give us a beatin’."
So they cast in their all and they scoured that ship
From the hull to the mizen most mast.
And they lightened their loads and they tightened the hatch,
And they vowed they would not be retreatin’.
For the ship must reach land ‘ere the season of corn
Though the distance to travel was fearful.
They held to the hope that the corn would be there,
And that they would get more than an earful.
Then the storm it blew in with the force of a gale
And the waves came aboard with great lashings
And the clouds, rent in twain, showed the stars turning pale
As they watched that great ship take a thrashing.
But the Captain was firm and his face was as flint
That was lit by a fair bolt of lightning.
And he called to his men to hang on to the rail
And to sing when the tempests grew frightening.
So they clung to the rail and they sang and they prayed
For the strength to endure through the night.
And the sky grew as deep and as dark as a cave
And the stars had all vanished from sight.
Thus the crew floundered on through the mists of the deep
While the monsters of fear grew inside them,
For the demons well knew they were goners for sure
Were it not for their Captain beside them.
Their Cap was a man who was stronger than fear,
And more stern than the waves of the ocean,
And he told them, "Look up!" and they saw what appeared
Like a ship passing by in slow motion.
‘Twas the moon coming forth from the ends of the earth,
But it looked like the ghost of a galleon.
As its oars paddled on through the cloud-laden sky,
They caught glimpses of golden battalions.
How it lifted their hearts as they watched that moon rise
Through the clouds heavy laden with sorrow,
For they knew in their hearts that the clouds of the night
Would give rise to the sun on the morrow.
And the sun did come forth on that billowing sea
Dressed in Capricorn’s radiant splendors,
And before it, in bloom, lay the Isle of Capri
With its harvest of corn sweet and tender.
As the ship drew to land a great rushing was heard
And it sounded like bells at a wedding.
‘Twas an anthem of joy that the ship had come in
And they welcomed it in with confetti.
For the bridegroom was come and the toasts were to him,
An elixir to love’s Serengeti.
And the tears freely flowed as the food of each plate
Showed abundance of peace and of plenty;
For the corn was full ripe and the harvest was great
And the land with reunions were many.
Then a rainbow appeared and it arched from the land
To the ship, where the bride of the wedding
Was awaiting the call of the conch of the sea
To tell her the bridegroom was ready.
And the cry was sent forth and the crowd gave a gasp
As the bride of the morning appeared,
For they saw on the bridge of the bow of that ship,
The Persona of Earth etched in tears.
And it seems that the dawn’s early light had ne’er beamed
On so radiant a visage or carriage,
As she who trod rainbows through mists of delight
On the morn of the day of her marriage.
Then a rush as of wings urged the crowd to be still,
And they knew in the still of that moment,
That the conquest of seas had accomplished earth’s dreams,
Cap had conquered the ends of Atonement.
For the bride, blushing white, was transfigured with light
And her crown, as a urim and thummim,
Mirrored all of her present, her future and past,
As if dreams on the breeze she was strummin’.
Then the marriage took place, and the guests stood amazed
As they witnessed the depth of their stories.
They had each condescended to perilous plights
To attain Paradisiacal Glories.

Eve in Eden

Into Eden

From the pure celestial presence to a garden of the earth,
Came a woman filled with promise
To a land which knew not birth.
Into Eden came this woman who was pure and sweet and fair.
All of nature thrilled at seeing such a being moving there.
Through dark clouds obscuring memory,
Through dense fogs bedimming past,
Came this vision with a mission. Dice of life in her were cast.
On this woman life depended,
For her wisdom angels prayed,
Juxtaposed were two commandments.
Which of them would be obeyed?

Paradise was eastern Eden, a pristine, primaeval place.
Life’s abundance dwelt within it.
No one there had seen Death’s face.
In earth’s purity all nature in sweet innocence arrayed,
Breathed the fragrant breath of beauty,
Left no room to be afraid.
In that garden opposition sent no shafts into the wind.
Constancy and endless sameness left no shame,
For no one sinned.

Foreordained to be a mother, gifted with maternal love,
Eve, a pure, yet mortal being,
Longed for knowledge from above.
To becalm her constant yearnings,
To address her nameless woe,
She must somehow find the secret
To progression here below.
Somehow she must gain that glory
Which the Gods had realized
Of progression that was endless
In that land beyond the skies.

Then there came to her a serpent,
A bewitching subtle beast,
In whom clearly the Creator
Had defined one of the least.
In that snake was opposition,
Well disguised so as to hide
Any hint the Lord of Darkness
Sallied forth to be her guide.

Cunningly he lead her forward
Till they reached that fateful tree
Where the seeds of good and evil
Brought forth fruit abundantly.
One small word she’d heard, "forbidden"
Made her cast a wary eye
On the snake who bade her fear not
Give that tempting fruit a try.

"Knowledge lies there deeply hidden,
Knowledge is a gift of God.
All your doubtings," said the tempter,
"With great ignorance are flawed.
You won’t die," he told her slyly,
"But shall grow to be more wise."
Then he watched her start to waver
As he spun his cunning lies.

When he saw her will was weakened,
When he sensed her need for light
Made her willing to take chances,
He persuaded her to bite.
In the instant that she took it,
Her sweet innocence recoiled,
For the fallen Son of Morning
In that serpent’s skin was coiled!