Having published my poem last week, I was listening to a Church History lecture the very next day while I jogged & it mentioned the 9th Century theologian, Predestinationist & poet, [Gottschalk of Orbais](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gottschalk_of_Orbais).
I was all excited to track down some of Gottschalk’s poems, but am yet to be successful.

That’s just fine for me, because I thought I would take you to a little [C.S. Lewis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C._S._Lewis) first. Jack (says Tim, faking some kind of personal connection by using the nickname Lewis had from childhood) really was a multi-talented man. His essays are still my favourites, but the Narnia Series is a classic & the Perelandria series pretty stellar (no pun intended) also!

His Poetry catches you by surprise when you realise how good it is too. I have read a fair bit of Fantasy in my life, and inevitably ever author has an Elf, Dwarf, Human or some other being break out into verse or song. Usually, fantasy authors ought to stick to prose, but Lewis is a different matter.

For your enjoyment today, I have two poems. One incredibly short, the other of middle size. The first about the natural beauty of women, the second about the heart wrenching way that loss affects all of your life.
They’re two favourites, and I suspect that many more of Lewis’ poems will come in later weeks.

(I still, for the life of me, can’t get the formatting that is clear on my screen to translate when I publish…)

**Unnamed poem.**

> Lady, a better sculptor far
> Chiselled those curves you smudge and mar,
> And God did more than lipstick can
> To justify your mouth to man.
>

**Joys that Sting**

> *Oh doe not die*, says Donne, *for I shall hate
> All women so*. How false the sentence rings.
> Women? But in a life made desolate
> It is the joys once shared that have the stings.
>
> To take the old walks alone, o not at all,
> To order one pint where I ordered two,
> To think of, and then not to make, the small
> Time-honoured joke (senseless to all but you);
>
> To laugh (oh, one’ll laught), to talk upon
> Themes that we talked upon when you were there,
> To make some poor pretence of going on,
> Be kind to one’s old friends, and seem to care,
>
> While no one (O God) through the years will say
> The simplest, common word in just your way.

——————-

I’ll not sully them by trying to explain or exegete…