Where I summarize each of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament into a couplet.
I hate poetry. It’s blue-collar work. Like a bricklayer, poets grind out an existence one word at a time.
Words become sentences, sentences become stanzas, stanzas become poems…over a period of days. Weeks. Even months.
One fourteen-line can demand fourteen hours to craft. And then you are not even sure it’s any good.
The process is long, brutal and nasty.
That’s why I like the couplet. You’re only dealing with two lines of five to six words each. Unless you’re writing thirty-nine couplets…like I did with the Old Testament last week.
Or twenty-seven couplets…like I did this week.
I paint a painful picture. Tongue-in-cheek, of course, because I enjoy the final product with a smug self-satisfaction.
So, I hope you experience the same kind of satisfaction after reading these couplets…without the work, of course. Let me know what you think. And have a great Friday.
Matthew
The meek revolutionist surpassed Moses—
Unheard, he redeemed the broken masses.
Mark
Soon I must be isolated, sifted—
Follow me, to death, that none would be wasted.
Luke
God mingled with women, children, heathen
Through Christ-man, who sought the lost with passion.
John
Believe for eternal: the wilderness
Exposed the lamb, the light come out of darkness.
Acts
I witnessed Peter babble on the balcony—
His hair and mouth aflame like cranberries.
Romans
A purity is unearthed from the gospel:
Purity embraced alone by faith, by people.
First Corinthians
The cross of Christ conforms the man-carnal
Into a separate, holy being, just and eternal.
Second Corinthians
Beautiful in decomposing being,
The divine light of the Gospel is burning.
Galatians
Crushed with Christ, exhausted, the yoke, the thong
Broken—don’t turn and put them on again.
Ephesians
His people swarm like molecules, his body,
The church, a husband and wife entity.
Philippians
Like a tree loses its leaves, Christ abandoned
His deity; to give us joy, he descended.
Colossians
In Christ we hide, the emptied deity—
In Him dwells the fullness of Godhead bodily.
First Thessalonians
The pure dead first, then, sublime living, ascend
To meet the Lord who will from heaven descend.
Second Thessalonians
Live for, exalt Jesus in your crucible
And suffer to become dark and beautiful.
First Timothy
My boy, elders should be sacred and sane,
Immersed in our rare mystery alone.
Second Timothy
Then solider, farmer, domestic utensil
Imitate as worthy servants of the gospel.
Titus
Tell each Cretan to be sober and sane,
Like a fragrance they should adorn our doctrine.
Philemon
The ancients permit you to destroy this man,
But remember, you’re no longer a slave, so forgive him.
Hebrews
The backbone of this book, dense and verdant,
Is salvation ends in Christ incarnate.
James
Faith breeds works: Abraham did, in faith, offer
The body of Isaac on the altar.
First Peter
Why so strange that you suffer and burn?
We must shadow Christ, even in resurrection.
Second Peter
Do not mourn as bereft of Christ’s return—
The longsuffering of God is salvation.
First John
As little pure children pass through light,
Be happy and gay, love incarnate, like Christ.
Second John
Madam, I joy! You and your brood are couth.
You love and obey God, you walk in truth!
Third John
Old bountiful Gaius, your servant hood
Has nurtured pious wanderers real good.
Jude
Avoid the dark dreamer who inhabits
The land of Cain, Korah, and Judas.
Revelation
Exit the dragon—descending from the sky
Is the abode of God, his pure, rare bride.