A Prayer

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down,
Christ when I arise
Christ in the heart of everyone who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

--St Patrick's Breastplate

 

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

 

Sonnet 18 by Shakespeare

Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate.
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summers lease hath all too short a date.
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometimes declines,
By chance or nature's changing course untrimmed.
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose posession of that fair thou ow'st;
Nor shall death brag thou wand'rest in his shade
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st.
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

~by William Shakespeare



How can words be so breathtaking, how can they leave me speechless the subtly radiant way that they do? The universe is full of mystery. It is self-evident my love for Shakespeare and the unquestionable beauty of the written word, and of poetry.
And you? How does this sonnet stir your heart or capture your mind? I want to hear your thoughts.

Emily