Fletchers Make the Feathers
on God’s Shining Arrows
Genesis 1:3
“Love is life’s end (an end, but never ending),
All joys, all sweets, all happiness, awarding;
Love is life’s wealth (ne’er spent, but ever spending)….”
~ “Brittain’s Ida–Song” by Phineas Fletcher
When pastors were the poets of the world,
When Giles and Phineas were both inspired
As those who see immortal beams unfurled
Across the universe, rays unexpired
Forever, vicars, rectors and the church
Were swirled from within with rhyming light.
Such men had no desire to scrape and search
The scriptures for faint doctrine. They splayed might
Across their congregations, light without
Uncertainty of tides, for glory of
This kind is brighter than the ebbs of doubt.
This glory is eternal. It is love.
Two pastors, one in Suffolk, one far north,
Knew well who set this deathless blazing forth.