Blog - Joyful Curmudgeon - Blog
A Mary T. Hoffman Commentary from All-Creatures.org

 

"Joyful Curmudgeon" An oxymoron?
No! I see all the beauty of God's creation and I'm joyful.  At the same time, I see all the suffering and corruption going on in the world, and feel called to help expose and end it so that we may have true peace and compassion.

 

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Better Than Music – 10 April 2008
By Mary T. Hoffman

This poem by Emily Dickinson – first line: “Better than music, for I who heard it” – has been added to our collection of her poems on our website:

Better Than Music
By Emily Dickinson
American poet (December 10, 1830 - May 15, 1886)

Better than music, for I who heard it,
I was used to the birds before;
This was different, ’twas translation
Of all tunes I knew, and more;

’Twasn’t contained like other stanza,
No one could play it the second time
But the composer, perfect Mozart,
Perish with him that keyless rhyme!

So children, assured that brooks in Eden
Bubbled a better melody,
Quaintly infer Eve’s great surrender,
Urging the feet that would not fly.

Children matured are wiser, mostly,
Eden a legend dimly told,
Eve and the anguish grandame’s story –
But I was telling a tune I heard.

Not such a strain the church baptizes
When the last saint goes up the aisles,
Not such a stanza shakes the silence
When the redemption strikes her bells.

Let me not lose its smallest cadence,
Humming for promise when alone,
Humming until my faint rehearsal
Drop into tune around the throne!

For more poems by Emily Dickinson, visit:
http://www.all-creatures.org/poetry/dickinson_emily.html 

For a collection of poems and stories, visit:
http://www.all-creatures.org/poetrydir.html 

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