Dylan McFadden

Dylan McFadden Feb 2019

Why should the Light return upon
Our cold and darkened land?
When, into sleep, we drift and yawn,
So thoughtless of His hand...

We never think: "Someday it may
Forever cease to shine!"
We never thank – with thanks, befit –
For Morning Mercies' rise.

Why should the Light return upon
Our cold and darkened land?
But to awaken life at dawn
As He, in Goodness, planned...

We never, then, have an excuse
To fall into a dream
We never, then, can e’re accuse;
His Glory’s, daily, seen.

.

Lamentations 3:22-23: "The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness."

#light #morning #dawn #return #god #goodness #mercy #lamentations #new #glory

Dylan McFadden Jan 2019

Our Kingdom...

We’ve been slowly sinking
Into our own thrones –
Permitting an unwitting
“Thinking” alone.

At evil, we’re winking
Without any Eyes –
Unshrinking, no blinking,
We see not the guise.

.

#eyes #inward #behold #guise #king #god #man #autonomy #see

Dylan McFadden Jan 2019

My Kingdom...

I once ruled a small kingdom…
I was lord; and I was free.

But as I looked out over the land
From atop my royal throne
I saw no nobles, no knights,
No clergy, no servants…

I had, finally, risen to power,
But now everyone was gone –
Mysteriously vanished,
As the children of Hamelin.

So, there I was, alone;
And the silence haunted me…

.

Inspired by David Foster Wallace's 2005 commencement address at Kenyon College.

#imagination #imaginary #kingdom #king #god #self #hamelin

Dylan McFadden Jan 2019

You Are All

I take no comfort
In anything apart from
My rest in Your arms

.

#embrace #rest #arms #love #god #jesus #all #gospel #allinall

Dylan McFadden Jul 2018

Eyes and Ears

My eye is never satisfied;
My ear is never filled...
By the beauty of a mountainside,
Or songs that give me chills

Every sight – a hollow view,
I look for more and more
Every sound – an empty cue,
Nothing to answer for
---
My eye is never satisfied;
My ear is never filled...
Ten thousand times I must have cried,
Then smiled – lied – with skill

Everything I see today
Will be, tomorrow, gone
Every sound will fade away –
A shrill inside a yawn
---
My eye is never satisfied;
My ear is never filled...
Does Meaning ever coincide
With life, and hope, and thrill?

I dream this dream, within a dream –
No substance, light, or power
I sing this song, without a sound –
My voice, the wind, devours
---
My eye is never satisfied;
My ear is never filled...
I might as well be groping blind,
Deafened – senses killed

I long to see that final sight
And hear that final word,
To show me Something in this night,
And assure me that I’ve Heard
---
But…

Maybe, I never, seeing, See
And never, hearing, Hear
Because the problem is IN ME:
This heart of death and drear...

This heart, it must be satisfied;
This heart, it must be filled!
For, we all see from deep inside;
The heart always distills...

.

Inspired by Ecclesiastes 1:8.

#eyes #ears #seeing #sight #hearing #blind #deaf #heart #dead #alive

Dylan McFadden Jun 2018

Alice, Through the Looking Glass

Alice, through the looking glass
I saw her fair, I saw her fast
Her smile like the distant past –
A mem’ry safe and sure to last…
---
But suddenly her smile turned
Her stomach ached, and quaked, and churned
And sweat rolled off her brows that burned
When, in that moment, this she learned:

That deep within that pretty face,
A haunting, hideous, out of place –
Dark and dreadful, dreary trace
Of ash and gnashing was innate

Innate in her! She saw it so!
A pushing – pulling – undertow!
Inclining toward the hollow glow
Of outer show, the inner woe
---
Alice, through the looking glass
I saw her fair, I saw her fast
Her smile like the distant past –
A mem’ry fading when she passed…
---
When she did pass from death to life
Beholding pure and perfect Light
Without a sight, but in the night
When sun arose, and shone so bright

So bright that every Darkness did
Fly and flee – it scattered, hid
From deep within her heart that bid
Her to remain in shadowed sin

Yes, He – the Good, the Faithful, True!
Made her new – through and through!
And Alice, she’s the hopeful view
In the looking glass: me and you.
---
Alice, through the looking glass
I saw her fair, I saw her fast
Her smile like the distant past –
A mem’ry safe and sure to last…

.

#alice #wonderland #sin #redemption #darkness #light #salvation #eternity

Dylan McFadden Apr 2018

Welcome to the Theater

Welcome to
The theater stage,

          Where we are
          Made of dreams

Just acting out
The scenes of life,

          With laughs, and cries,
          And screams

Until the final
Curtain call,

          When we will
          Take our bow

And wonder what
‘Twas all about,

          With no one
          In the crowd...

.

Inspired by Albert Camus' "actor" in his book The Myth of Sisyphus.

#theater #stage #drama #existentialism #absurdism #absurd #albertcamus #death #god