Things

(a Pushkin sonnet)

The things are all encompassing;
each day I wake, I look around.
The things I have been gathering
now have a place...these things I've found.
So many things we think we're needing;
is it the things that we are heeding??

With mind of Christ, it's not the things
one soon will find, that makes one sing.

We listen to the Word we're hearing,
for in us thrives a hallowed seed-
the love and way of One assuring...
and that is all we really need -

unlike the things that soon will be
returned to dust...like you and me...

(Genesis 3:19..."By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return
                                to the ground since from it you were taken; for dust you are and
                                to dust you will return.)

(Matthew 6:19..."Do not store up for yourself treasures on earth where moth and
                              rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.  But store up
                              for yourself treasures in Heaven where moth and rust do not
                              destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.)

(The Pushkin sonnet was invented by Alexander Pushkin.  It's 14 lines written in
 iambic tetrameter, unlike other sonnets written in iambic pentameter.  The rhyme
 scheme is as follows:  a B a B c c D D e F F e G G.  The small letters represent
a feminine ending (or unstressed syllable to conclude the line), and the capital
letters represent a masculine ending (or stressed syllable to conclude the line.) )