Kevin Hartnett Poetry

Even So, Come Quickly

Chorus

Even so, come quickly,
Oh my Lord do not delay!
You're my Blessed Hope,
And I long for You today.
Redeem my lowly body
And restore Thy perfect way.
How I yearn for Your returning,
And the wonder of that Day.

Verse One

The world rejects your wisdom
And has turned its back on grace;
Godless hearts surround me more and more.
I praise You for your mercy
And your love which so forbears,
But I see so much injustice
That I call to Thee who cares...

Verse Two

I see Your power around me,
And I marvel at Your ways;
The manner of your working I adore.
And yet my heart is aching;
There's a cry within my soul,
To leave behind the mortal
And to know redemption whole.

 

-- K. Hartnett, August 1996

Here Within Your Purposes

You see events tomorrow
As clear as yesterday’s -
For all existence lays before You now.
Your purposes are timeless;
Your Word forever set;
Creation’s right to being, You endow.

And here within Your purposes is man,
A marvel of Your glorious endeavor
To manifest the riches of Your grace
In lovingkindness through Your Son forever.


You looked upon the future
From endless ages past
Determining the ones to call Your own,
And loosed a recognition
Of righteousness and grace
That through Your Son would bring them to Your throne.

And here within Your purposes I stand,
A marvel of Your glorious endeavor
To manifest the riches of Your grace
In lovingkindness through Your Son forever.


You chose to save a people-
Redeeming each by name-
Yet joined them as a fam’ly into one.
And this amazing temple,
From ev’ry age and race,
Will praise You into endless days to come.

And here within Your purposes we stand,
A marvel of Your glorious endeavor
To manifest the riches of Your grace
In lovingkindness through Your Son forever.

-- K. Hartnett, April 2006

 

 

 

And Yet Till Now Is Not Enough

God’s Mighty Arm awaits the Day

His perfect hatred to display

As holiness in wrath unfurled

Against a wicked, falling world.

So now the proud still prouder grow

As men contend they cannot know

That Fury’s Face, like flint, grows tough-

And yet till now is not enough.

 

There moves a Kindness in the earth

Compelling men to seek new birth

And flee to Christ, for there they find

God’s Savior sent unto mankind.

So one by one they’re added in

As men fear God and turn from sin,

And Grace extends its saving touch-

And yet till now is not enough.

 

O marvel at the awesome way

Perfection sets the Judgment Day

As when the cup of wrath is filled

And Grace completes what Love hath willed.

Then ev’ry soul, both damned and free

Will worship Christ eternally

And say, “His Name is glorious!”

“And yet till now is not enough.”

 

-- K. Hartnett, February 2003

 

This poem is typical of my contemplative meditations around the beginning of a new year.  I don't often write in rhyming couplets, but somehow it seemed natural for expressing these thoughts.

 

 

Boundless Living God Eternal

Boundless Living God Eternal,

Virtue pre-existing time,

Awesome is Your righteous working;

Marvelous Your grand design.

 

Triune Self-revealing Genius,

Humble Self-exalted Truth,

Erring not, in love directing

Sovereign purposes on earth.

 

Traceless like the wind of heaven

Moved within the laws of force,

Works Your free, effective Presence

On its planned, omniscient course.

 

Keen upon the heart inquiring;

Causing circumstance to bear

In the unseen orchestration

Of Your grace and answered prayer.

 

Boundless Living God Eternal,

Active Spirit; Sinless Mind,

Sweeping history in Thy purpose;

Fathomless Your grand design.

 

-- K. Hartnett, August 2001

 

For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor?  For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.  To Him be the glory forever, Amen.  (Romans 11:34, 36)

 

The seed for this poem was planted in my mind during a year-end review among small group leaders in our church where we were all asked to share how the Lord had changed lives and answered prayer during the course of the year.  I had one of those 'goose bump' moments when I sensed how purposeful, active, mysterious and powerful God was at work all around me. 

We Esteemed Him Not

We esteemed Him not,

Nor sorrowed in our shame;

His suffering, our redemption wrought;

Yet we thought Him to blame.

We esteemed Him not;

Despised His bloodied face;

How foreign any notion that

In love He took our place! 

 

We regarded not

Our wickedness and guilt,

Nor recognized the Gift of God

Whose precious blood was spilt.

He regarded not,

Rejection, hate, and pride,

But offered up for sinful men

His hands, His feet, and side.

 

We esteemed Him not;

What thankless creatures, we!

Forsaking Him, our Blessed Hope,

The Christ, at Calvary!

Mocking while He bore

The stripes we should have worn,

We spurned His silent sacrifice,

And hurled on Him our scorn.

 

Lord, remember not

My spittle in Your beard;

Forgive the savage words, O God,

In hatred that I jeered.

Now, and ever more,

Your cross may I embrace;

Forever humbly honoring

The wonder of Your grace.

 

-- K. Hartnett, June 1999

 

He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering.  Like one from whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.  (Isaiah 53:3)

This poem grew out of my meditation on Isaiah 53- a section of scripture I was memorizing with my children.  The 'poetry' of verse three particularly struck me.  Here Isaiah who lived hundreds of years before Christ, prophesies of Him in the past tense and includes himself - as if somehow projected into the future- with the statement '...we esteemed Him not.'  The inescapable sense of the text is that we all - past, present, and future, are responsible for Christ's death.  "All we, like sheep, have gone astray, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all."