Author: Katherine

Poetry writer and author

The pain and value of knowing we do wrong

I have been  wondering why the term sin has almost died out in our language and I think  for many of us who were brought up in a very strict version of Christianity it became too painful to think about it.We were made to feel ashamed  of our failures so much so that we abandon the whole idea of sin.We don’t know as children that it is very difficult to live without making mistakes and our emotions run away with us so that we hurt other children….But now looking at the world as it is,maybe it would be better of more adults admitted making dreadful mistakes.And we know  free will may not be as free as we think.But if we accept we do sin then it makes us more tolerant of others around us…If we were perfect it might make us self righteous and judgemental which to me seems a perversion of religion.Yet this is happening  in the world today.

Evocation and music

SuttonCourtenay3

Trying to 
Or are we
in this information culture,
evocation is more important;
explicit saying  counts against us.
People need to be fuly
into believing
being educated is more
than information:
the incoherencies and
what they’re saying,
the musicality
of people’s voices
and intonations;
would get more
from them.
To be effective,listening is
something other, not the coherences;
we  hope to listen for words
that are saying more,
It’s got something to do with  being;
it’s a form of listening,
not distracted by incoherence
but evoked by it.
Evocation, the task of the artist
The way to heaven
Purged of noise,numbness,notoriety.
Loving the music of life.
The agent who speaks
And the one who learns to hear
Slowness,unknowingness,silence.

Are you on major fantasisers

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Lichfield Cathedral
The doctor says I am suffering from allusions in poetry.So I am on major fantasisers
I’m a nag-nostic too.I  might relieve God sometimes.He’s a wave and a particle and very light.He comes and goes.Like many men and women may do nowadays
Meanwhile, in the garden, there is mass wisteria.It will be ok in a few weeks when we get cold whether or not.Is this bad?
There is a big depression where we bury the vegetable peelings amongst other things like the dead.And  what the cat catches,
So we are collating the law with a dictionary
The priest says my sins are mortal but not deadly.
I have been text-communicated by the Immigrant in the Vatican
I didn’t realise it was a sin to have sex when your husband has died.
Is a vibrator in itself sinful? Or is it the folk who might use them?
Is it a sin to make them in a factory?I f so the economy will slump…
It’s funny that Boots sell something that could send us to hell for all eternity.I am not referring to their famous face cream though it does remove the top layer of the skin.It is however not enough for those who have cancer especially if it is on your bum.
If Boots sell vibrators surely the Church must see it’s now the norm and does not use birth control which they still ban, so it could be a gracious way of having sex without the need to take the PILL.Still, it does seem odd to imagine that you get married and you both have sex using vibrators.
Not quite a honeymoon especially if you take two vibrators.What, though, if the battery goes flat?What if you forget your adapter for the plug? I suppose you could take it in turns!
It’s like food.We used to do that ourselves once.Now it’s sex.No worry about wasting the weekend in bed whispering in each other’s ears though , do remember not to use one while driving up the M1.I know it’s boring but do you want to be on a video on Twitter? You do! Say no more.
Remember though that you might have an accident involving others.If you are suicidal, please jump off Beachy Head.Do not cause a traffic jam as you will most likely be murdered.And murder is not suicide, is it?You will have injured someone else and that is more unethical than using men , women or vibrators for recreational purposes.
I rest my taste.Or my vase.Or my handbag… BTW is there a vibrator bag? If not, why not become self-employed and start a new business.Different colours and so on.I have no idea about size so an expandable fabric might be good.
When it comes down to it, should we get one free if our partner dies?I would prefer a large soft cat but,hey who am I to judge others? Let   Lords decide if it is cricket!
And if not.We’ll have to put the radio on.

For sale

Devon Veracity 4

Coat made from combed hairs of 1,000 cats  £7,890 or nearest offer Cash needed
200 books proving Jesus’s father was a Roman Soldier Free to the first comer.Donations received
Fifteen pairs of unworn high-heeled  red shoes  £89.3333333333333
Ten Bibles unused except for killing beetles. Free on donating money to the Samaritans [£20]
T-shirt with slogan Theresa May Fly, Boris My Eye, size 46 Bust with cleavage.
Nightdresses newly ironed.[3] worn but darned exquisitely. £8
Leather trousers size 56 waist.Free to anyone who can get them on or off.Off me that is!
1 Albatross in need of care.Free if you look kind

The postman

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I am going to marry the postman

As soon as his wife runs away.

It might be tomorrow

What bliss and what horror.

But  it certainly won't be today





I think I shall keep my own name

Despite what the postman might say.

For I've got so used to this

My history's suffused with it.

Post me a prayer for today

So Europe took their human ash within

In Bedzin and in Krakow they breathed in
What they denied in conscious thought or word.
The ashes of the Jews, the shades of skin

Penetrating lungs so deep within
The dead  unburied mixed, in air secured
In Bedzin and in Krakow, mortal sin.

The nearby people turned to burial urns.
The human dust by  breathing was allured
The ashes of the Jews, the shades of skin.

So  Europe took their human ash within.
A graveyard we became unknown, impure.
In Bedzin and in Krakow, more of sin.

And who they thought destroyed  lived on in them
Controlled their lungs, their hearts  their minds uncured,
The ashes of the Jews,  borne in their skin.

Like a mass communion without words
We ate and breathed the Jews, the gays, unheard
In Bedzin and in Krakow  we walked in
The ashes of the lost, the glades of skin,

A group enraptured in a dance.

I  wonder why the geese fly high;

Creating patterns in the sky?

A group enraptured in a dance.

The stunning art of Providence.

I wonder why the trees are tall?

Standing close.I feel quite small.

The branches shiver in the breeze.

Ballet of winter, dancing trees

I wonder why the sun curves round

A path I see here from the ground?

The sun gives light which softly shines.

An Arche de Triomphe for the pines.

I wonder why two robins fed

On our crumbs of seeded bread?

Such sweet songs of courtship sound!

Life goes round and round and round.

She said she loved him. Never. No!

She said she loved him, long ago.
Dressed in white, she had her glow
Leaking spite from every pore.

He obeyed her, as we know
He tried to sleep as curses flowed
She said she loved him. Never. No!

Envy  showed in her decor
She   stole gold chairs and broke up choirs
Leaking lights, tried to destroy

Thomas Cromwell, her hero,
Angels  fled  as she got near
She said she loved them, aha ha.

And  her blood, sceptic it roared
Through her body like a fire.
Pushing spite out through her pores.

She passed a Church with leaning spire;
Got out and labelled it a liar.
She said she loved men, long ago
Cooked with spite, how can she know?

 

 

 

 

 

 

God speaks nothing, he’s the Word

You can’t catch God in that butterfly net
You can’t catch God and ask him   precisely what  he said

Be you any wiser than the tide is high?
God can laugh and God  can cry

You know words are metaphors
They unlock that secret door

Be you poor or be you rich
You can’t suppress that nervous twitch

Be you lightning in a storm or a daisy forlorn
You will never be a God who weeps for the torn.

God speaks English, God speaks Greek
He speaks Hebrew as the paralytic creak.

Don’t you go and try to catch
Frogs and toads and baby cats

When you’re in complete despair
You may find that God is there.

You must walk the way of love
Then you will be hand in glove

Yet we envy, we betray
We leave malice on the autoplay

God speaks nothing, he’s the word
From all humans, it is barred.

When he speaks we all will know
He does not speak it just for show.

It’s more a hint than a logical proof
You can’t leave Mythos off the hook

Logos is and Logos does
Because, because , because, because.

 

Keats and negative capability

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https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/john-keats-and-negative-capability

 

Stephen Hebron explores Keats’s understanding of negative capability, a concept which prizes intuition and uncertainty above reason and knowledge.

In December 1817 John Keats was returning from the Christmas pantomime with his friends Charles Wentworth Dilke and Charles Brown. On the walk home, he later told his brothers George and Tom, he got into a ‘disquisition’ with Dilke on a number of subjects:

several things dovetailed in my mind, & at once it struck me, what quality went to form a Man of Achievement especially in Literature & which Shakespeare possessed so enormously – I mean Negative Capability, that is when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact & reason – Coleridge, for instance, would let go by a fine isolated verisimilitude caught from the Penetralium of mystery, from being incapable of remaining content with half knowledge.[1]

It is a famous passage; and it is entirely characteristic of Keats that he should come up with one of his most telling phrases (‘Negative Capability’) in such an impromptu fashion, without preamble or lengthy explanation. His language is not immediately clear, but richly suggestive and idiosyncratic.

What does Keats mean by ‘negative capability’? Clearly, he is using the word ‘negative’ not in a pejorative sense, but to convey the idea that a person’s potential can be defined by what he or she does not possess – in this case a need to be clever, a determination to work everything out. Essential to literary achievement, Keats argues, is a certain passivity, a willingness to let what is mysterious or doubtful remain just that. His fellow poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, he suggests, would do well to break off from his relentless search for knowledge, and instead contemplate something beautiful and true (‘a fine verisimilitude’) caught, as if by accident, from the most secret part (‘Penetralium’) of mystery. The experience and intuitive appreciation of the beautiful is, indeed, central to poetic talent, and renders irrelevant anything that is arrived at through reason. Keats ends his brief discussion of negative capability by concluding that ‘with a great poet the sense of Beauty overcomes every other consideration, or rather obliterates all consideration’.

The poetical character

Keats never repeated the phrase ‘negative capability’ in his letters. Like similar nuggets found throughout his correspondence, it is of the moment, prompted by a desire to share his latest thoughts with his friends; it is not part of an overarching intellectual structure. But it is prefigured in a slightly earlier letter, written to Benjamin Bailey on 22 November 1817, in which Keats observed that he was unable to see ‘how any thing can be known for truth by consequitive [sic] reasoning … can it be that even the greatest Philosopher ever arrived at his goal without putting aside numerous objections – However it may be, O for a Life of Sensations rather than of Thoughts!’.[2]And Keats touched again on the idea of the passivity, humility even, of a great writer, in a letter he wrote to his friend Richard Woodhouse on 27 October following year. The ‘poetical Character’, he maintained,

is not itself – it has no self – it is everything and nothing – It has no character – it enjoys light and shade; it lives in gusto, be it foul or fair, high or low, rich or poor, mean or elevated – It has as much delight in an Iago [the villain of Shakespeare’s Othello] as an Imogen [Shakespeare’s heroine in Cymbeline]. What shocks the virtuous philosopher delights the camelion Poet.[3]

Why not trust the Word when all was said?

Can they not return,those much loved dead
Who leave such empty spaces in our hearts
Which like the hearts of mothers,fathers  bleed?

“Ash to ash” is what the Priests have said
But there is still a soul, a living part
Can they not return,those much loved dead?

 

Why will I not walk into the dread
Without a map or any kind of chart?
Why not trust the Word when all was said?

And so I linger late, without my  bed
Hoping  for a vision,for a start.
Can you not return,oh, needed dead?

Let us  bless the water and the bread
Bless us all before we too depart.
Why not trust the Word and what was said?

Now the holy banquet is prepared
The vital clue is  all our food is shared.
Can they not return,those much loved dead.
Ease the hearts of  humans as they bleed?

Go for a walk and get more intelligent…and turn off that TV

THE EXERCISE PART WORKS FOR DOING MATHS PROBLEMS…..

5 Simple Ways to Increase Your Intelligence

Written by John Wesley –

http://www.pickthebrain.com/blog/5-simple-ways-to-make-the-most-of-your-intelligence/comment-page-11/#comment-117405

Your brain needs exercise just like a muscle. If you use it often and in the right ways, you will become a more skilled thinker and increase your ability to focus. But if you never use your brain, or abuse it with harmful
chemicals, your ability to think and learn will deteriorate.
Here are 5 simple ways anyone can squeeze a bit more productivity out of the old gray matter.

1. Minimize Television Watching – This is a hard sell. People love vegetating in front of the television,
myself included more often than I’d like. The problem is watching television doesn’t use your mental capacity OR allow it to recharge. It’s like having the energy sapped out of a muscle without the health benefits of exercise.
Don’t you feel drained after a couple hours of TV? Your eyes are sore and tired from being focused on the light box for so long. You don’t even have the energy to read a book.
When you feel like relaxing, try reading a book instead. If you’re too tired, listen to some music. When you’re with your friends or family, leave the tube off and have a conversation. All of these things use your mind more than television and allow you to relax.
2. Exercise – I used to think that I’d learn more by not exercising and using the time to read a book instead.
But I realized that time spent exercising always leads to greater learning because it improves productivity during the time afterwards. Using your body clears your head and creates a wave of energy. Afterwards, you feel invigorated and can concentrate more easily.

3. Read Challenging Books – Many people like to read popular suspense fiction, but generally these books aren’t mentally stimulating. If you want to improve your thinking and writing ability you should read books that make you focus. Reading a classic novel can change your view of the world and will make you think in
more precise, elegant English. Don’t be afraid to look up a word if you don’t know it, and don’t be afraid of dense passages. Take your time, re-read when necessary, and you’ll soon grow accustomed to the author’s style.
Once you get used to reading challenging books, I think you’ll find that you aren’t tempted to go back to page-turners. The challenge of learning new ideas is far more exciting than any tacky suspense-thriller.
4. Early to Bed, Early to Rise – Nothing makes it harder to concentrate than sleep deprivation. You’ll be most rejuvenated if you go to bed early and don’t sleep more than 8 hours. If you stay up late and compensate by sleeping late, you’ll wake up lethargic and have trouble focusing. In my experience, the early morning
hours are the most tranquil and productive. Waking up early gives you more productive hours and maximizes
your mental acuity all day.
If you have the opportunity, take 10-20 minute naps when you are hit with a wave of drowsiness. Anything longer will make you lethargic, but a short nap will refresh you.
5. Take Time to Reflect – Often our lives get so hectic that we become overwhelmed without even realizing
it. It becomes difficult to concentrate because nagging thoughts keep interrupting. Spending some time alone in reflection gives you a chance organize your thoughts and prioritize your responsibilities. Afterwards, you’ll have a better understanding of what’s important and what isn’t. The unimportant stuff won’t bother
you anymore and your mind will feel less encumbered.
I’m not saying you need to sit on the floor cross-legged and chant ‘ommm’. Anything that allows a bit of prolonged solitude will do. One of my personal favourites is taking a solitary walk. Someone famous said,
“All the best ideas occur while walking.” I think he was on to something. Experiment to find the activity that works best for you.
Conclusion :–I hope you aren’t disappointed that none of the techniques I’ve proposed are revolutionary. But  simple, unexciting answers are often the most valid. The challenge is having the will to adhere to them. If you
succeed in following these 5 tips, you’ll be rewarded with increased mental acuity and retention of knowledge.
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On the therapeutic value of ironing and other out of fashion notions

 

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I believe working with the hands is very good for us..gardening, sewing, building models..whatever you like.
Ironing is generally despised since women usually had such a burden with that on top of working outside the home.
And now, even if you have the time, it’s seen as a trivial task.I discovered ironing therapy when the bombs killed and injured hundreds of people in the Underground in July 2005.I saw the bus blow up on a TV in a shop window in the town centre and as my husband was in London I was very worried.
My husband was ok but even so, I was distracted and distressed in a way very familiar, I am sure,to people who live in certain parts of this world.
In the end, I took out all my numerous nightdresses and ironed each one very carefully.I have used this technique a number of times since.I find it’s best used on simple items= like hankies, underpants, nightwear so your mind can relax.Ironing men’s heavy cord trousers is definitely untherapeutic.
I think it can act like meditation in a way.And restoring a little order to chaos is usually helpful.
And it’s free too unlike counselling.Simple sewing can also be therapeutic as can cooking and gardening.
I recall in the 1970’s when I used to make bread a female friend of my husband told me off and said I was “letting feminists down”
So please, if you think I’m letting feminists down …don’t tell me.
I think we should have some freedom and also should value traditional female skills and talents as well as encouraging women to study or train for careers formerly closed to them.
Please excuse me now………I’m ironing 23 pairs of ladies’ undergarments this morning..yes,they are all mine.They say, there’s safety in numbers, though I’ve never known quite what that meant.I suppose wearing a lot of underpants would keep one warm and well covered in case you get into an accident or you have to climb a ladder in a public place..are you a lady window cleaner?
So I’ll put on my apron and begin to work.Ironing my hair today…..hot work.

Leonard Cohen sang it years ago

They say the flood is coming once again
Leonard Cohen sang it years ago
Who builds the ark, what was the pathogen?

Do we defer to women or to men?
Do we take it fast or fake it slow?
They say the flood is coming once again

We took away the  pillars built upon
Our ethics now destroyed by constant blows
Where is our ark, what was our pathogen?

We have PC for sins we can reckon;
And mini Stalins put on many shows.
They say the flood is coming  here again

Meanwhile, hidden Satans still beckon;
And goodness is  by bloodshed overthrown
Is there an ark, what was our pathogen?

Embarking soon I wonder where we’ll go
Is there dignity for those who cannot know?
They say the flood is coming once again
Who builds the ark, what was the pathogen?

 

Trust the unknown

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Trust the unknown force that grew us,
From the joining of two cells;
An act of love and of self-giving;
Thus we can grow a newer self.

Trust the dark, the unseen aspects
Of the life we here do live.
Trust that there is Wisdom elsewhere;
Who to your empty self will give.

Wait in patience for the new  time
When inspiration  comes at last
Trust in darkness, silence,  lowness.
Opposition forms the cross.

Pain is bearable in lowness,
Like the worm in earth I dwell.
When I look I see the sunrise

And I trust all shall be well.

Let good conscience never become void

Let no bitterness dwell in my heart
Let no cynic tempt me to despair
Let no evil from my actions start

Let  me become  more generous  in regard
Let no person feel I am unfair
Let no bitterness stay in my heart

 

Let no evil from elsewhere  invade
Let no  malady go without  our care
Let no evil from our actions start

Let good conscience never become void
How can we give aid to those who’re bare?
Let no bitterness dig into any heart.

Let not  Love  find  we  live in a void
Let the   still, small voice be once more heard
Let no evil from our actions start.

When the poison spreads we must not share
When evil is seen, can it be stayed?
Let no bitterness dwell in our hearts
Let no evil from our words and deeds now start

 

NHS again

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I  have been waiting all day for my GP to phone and I am angry.[  a bit]

They were like this when my husband was ill and when I rang to say he was dead they were shocked.
It’s all computerised; soon that will be the only way we can see them….I rather fancy showing them my  female organs on Skype and asking, is it thrush.
I don’t see how my  webcam can do that with me so stiff

Nihilism defined

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nihilism

ˈnʌɪ(h)ɪlɪz(ə)m/
noun
  1. the rejection of all religious and moral principles, in the belief that life is meaningless.
    synonyms: negativity, cynicism, pessimism;

    rejection, repudiation, renunciation, denial, abnegation;
    disbelief, non-belief, unbelief, scepticism, lack of conviction, absence of moral values, agnosticism, atheism, non-theism
    “he could not accept Bacon’s nihilism, his insistence that man is a futile being”
    • PHILOSOPHY
      the belief that nothing in the world has a real existence.
    • historical
      the doctrine of an extreme Russian revolutionary party c. 1900 which found nothing to approve of in the established social order.

Oh, my!

Doctor,  this  salivary gland is swollen.4655668_f260
Like your head
Are you always rude?
Why?
I won’t see you again.
But I’m your mother!
Don’t be so ridiculous.
I’ll shoot myself
I think you need a shrink
Alright.Put me on a  hot wash tonight.
My salivary gland is very big
It’s all your father’s fault
I’ve never even seen him
Precisely.Neither have I.It was a dark night down by the Canal.
It’s dark everywhere.
Even darker down there.That was why he lured me
Well. you should have got married
I’d only met him once!
Wait for a proposal in future.
Well,I did have you.
So?
I was 57 so it was a nice surprise
What,sex or being a mother?
All of it.
I think you ought to retire now.
And so say all of us

 

My thrash

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Doctor,I think I’ve  got thrash.
Well, we’ll see; you’ve got  certainly very   posh accent
I did catch by accident.I hoped for love.All I’ve got is thrash
You should not go out looking for love
Why, is it invisible?
Stop playing with words and open your mouth
It’s not in my mouth.
I’m just trying to get you to stop talking>Now take your underclothes off and lie down on this couch
Can you see anything?
No, it looks very good
Well, something is wrong.
Wash in soda water and brandy for a week.Then drink brandy for a week
Can I have a prescription?
What for?
Brandy.
No, you  can’t expect the government to buy you brandy
I realise it is not a symmetrical relationship
Do stop showing off.
Well,I like that. I thought an Oxford graduate would know symmetry.
All I knew was the cemetery.I took my wife there to try to seduce her.
And  did you?
I am still trying.
I agree totally  with that
Get out or I’ll thrash you.
And so say all of us

Why populism?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/28/far-right-rightwing-nationalism-populist?utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=GU+Today+main+NEW+H+categories&utm_term=245704&subid=9545527&CMP=EMCNEWEML6619I2

“I believe we need to think about more subtle, less easily measurable dimensions of inequality. I would call them inequality of attention and inequality of respect. Attention, as Tim Wu points out in his book The Attention Merchants, is one of the major currencies of our internet age. How much attention did our mainstream liberal media give, until recently, to the “left behind” regions and social groups? In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, Linda, the wife of poor, struggling Willy Loman, cries: “He’s a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid. He’s not to be allowed to fall into his grave like an old dog. Attention, attention must finally be paid to such a person.”

Inequality of attention shades into inequality of respect. A phrase that has become almost proverbial on the Polish populist right is “redistribution of prestige”. It’s an odd phrase, at first hearing, but actually it captures something important. Redistribution is not just about money; it’s also about respect. Our societies have simply not delivered well enough on one of liberalism’s central promises, summarised by the legal philosopher Ronald Dworkin as “equal respect and concern” for each individual member of the society.”

At the end of Alexander Payne’s lovely film Nebraska, the son of a battered, weary, old, white, working-class man buys his dad a gleaming pickup truck. The old man drives slowly down the main street of the town where he grew up, enjoying, just for once, the admiring glances of his childhood companions. Attention. Respect.

Round robins go wrong

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Dear All

Xmas is already preying on my mind.So I thought why not send out my newsletter in pieces so that it will also be a work of art about our fractured world and about how we do what we want and not what we ought.Or do we?
Well, my daughter Annabel has opened a shop selling Geiger counters.Or is it Geiger shoes.Well, I don’t suppose it matters.Whatever it is, she’s doing well with the Russian oligarchs and with our  English friends.After all, every woman needs a pocket calculator nowadays and shoes are always welcome

I myself prefer an abacus.The leap to the abstract has always struck me as dangerous.Economics and warfare, that’s  what maths is for.And who even knows what Economics is now?
Annabel has already got fifteen children.You may recall she has had five husbands and is looking for a new one.My optometrist says it’s a mistake to go looking.But then he is married already.So I was wondering about joining soulmates until I realised I have a husband.Just that he’s dead,y ou know.But does it matter?Some women have husbands in the Intelligence Services and they don’t see them for years.Now there’s a thought.
How do you meet men in the Intelligence Services?Or how do they pick wives?Maybe I’ll give that one a miss for now.
You may wonder how Annabel works and looks after all her children.I  wonder myself but I never like to be intrusive and some of them are now at University.PPE that is what they read.A load of codswallop, I say.Studying Greek and Hebrew is a lot more demanding and more useful both spiritually and for advice about Love.Not to mention War.It’s all there and I think the Pope was right to ban us reading the Bible.It needs a lot of work  by theologians to make it sound like a good  guide to life
We’d spend all day stoning adulterers or homosexuals and what good did that ever do.With S and M about some enjoy being stoned, one way or another.I’ve almost done it myself but I am too mean to buy cannabis when I get free calcium channel blockers on prescription.What calcium channels are God only knows.Beta blockers, anti-cholesterol, aspirin, it makes me feel sick.So then I take sea sickness pills just sitting here gawping out  of this French window looking for the robin.

Well,I  think I shall have to regroup and begin again.Just on the letter.After Annabel’s father ran away I decided I’d marry a woman next time and eerily, now I can.Except I never meer any free ones

Well, I will definitely put some more news in before Xmas.That is if we’ve not been bombed by Trump as his sense of direction and anything else seems lacking.I bet God and Satan made this little story up.And it will run and run.Where are those comforters Job had?
Lots of love
Bye Kristy

Atonement

On Yom Kippur God  checks out his accounts
Then we’ll find  “what life all is about”
We ask those whom we hurt and wounded late
To forgive our acts of weakness, lust or rage.
Yet as our defences keep us blind
We do not recollect we were unkind
In any case, the other did the wrong
We are perfect, rational and strong
So it may not be within our will
To do what is now asked for, good or ill.
Perceiving our perfection we tell Him
We are spotless like a newborn lamb
Yet all this cannot be without his aid
And being perfect, we were never paid