etcetera:

by Noah Bartley

These beautiful sonnets are our gift to you this season. We hope you’ll read, and find renewed hope.

Sonnet 1

Elpis: From the perspective of an intertestament Jew

How long, O Lord?

How long before you come?
Omnipotent and kind one, speak to me!
Perhaps the tongue that once spoke hope is dumb,
Eternity now mute in history.
Isaiah wrote of one to come whose pain
Subverts our very own; whose power’s shown
Primarily through suffering; whose reign
Remains upon King David’s righteous throne.
O Yahweh Adonai, where is this King?
Malignant rulers rise to snuff what hope
Invades their land before they feel death’s sting;
Suppressive darkness makes us blindly grope.
Each day we’ll trust Your word with hearts undrawn,
Defying silence — dark before the Dawn.