My name is Mary

My name is Mary, my Son is the Lamb;
Wherever He is, that's where I am.

I fight the devil; I jump on his head,
The way some of you like to jump on your bed.

Our Lady of Victory, pray for us.

By Bill Haley

The Spinning Earth

By Bill Haley

Presented to His Excellency James D. Conley
On the occasion of his episcopal ordination
May 30, 2008, the Feast of the Sacred Heart
Taking his motto from Newman: "Cor ad cor loquitur"

The sun appears to rise and set
And that we call a day.
But truth be told it does not rise
Nor set in any way.

To every eye it rises high,
Though it is we who spin;
The truth rests far beyond the sight,
Now clouded by our sin.

To see the truth we must slow down,
And focus carefully.
We almost leave this spinning earth,
In looking prayerfully.

The sun is great, but greater still
Is He Who made the sun,
The One Whom yet we cannot see
Who cannot be undone.

He is unmoved and mover too,
And still we do not see.
But to those with ears to hear
He speaks with silently.

You are now one Whom He has picked
As interlocutor,
And live to teach His Heart to us:
Cor ad cor loquitur!

Now as we circle on His earth
In orbit round His sun,
Please pray that we may rest in Him
Whose Love is ever one.

A Black Hole

Who needs a scope to see the dark-
ness deep within my soul?
I simply need to be alone
to see there's a hole.

This hole of seeming emptiness
Yet pulls with all its might,
And seems to take in anything
Except for any light.

When the light will ignite it bright,
Darkness will screech and rebel.
Why is it I still long for that
Which makes my soul hell?

By Bill Haley

Aesop's The Ass and His Shadow

An owner lent his ass to rent
One hot bright sunny day.
The renter paid the price in full
Before he went his way.

Before he went upon his way
He sat down on the ground;
The shadow of the ass looked dear:
The longed for coolness found.

The owner stared and glared at him;
His sweat began to drip,
"I loaned the ass and not the shade
To take upon your trip."

"What nonsense is this that you say?"
The renter did reply.
"There is no shade without the ass,
Our contract you belie."

With that they dropped all arguments,
And quickly turned to blows.
The ass he watched their fisticuffs
Turn bloody as a rose.

He then decided he would leave
And parted from the fray.
When we fight about the shadow,
The substance can go away.

Verse rendition by Bill Haley

The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage

Three friends resided quite at peace
Yet, very different were they.
A mouse, a sausage and a bird
Lived well upon the way.

Each had their job that each one did,
Each doing it well each day.
And so life went along quite smoothly
With time for work and play.

The sausage cooked each meal they ate;
He stirred the food himself.
The mouse he fetched the pail of water,
And placed it on the shelf.

The bird he gathered up the wood
From within the forest deep.
Then one day he met with a cuckoo
Who began to chirp and cheep.

He called the bird a simple slave
For gathering wood each day
"Variety is the spice of life" he said,
"There is no other way."

The bird returned; he was convinced
To change whatever he could.
He told his friends, "I'm through with this!
I'll never gather wood."

The sausage jumped out from the stew;
The mouse set down the pail.
They stood and stared with mouths gaped wide
Convinced he'd had some ale.

The bird he listened not at all
To anything they said.
The other two, they knew full well
That one would end up dead.

They drew their lots to see the fate
The bird had forced on all.
The mouse was to cook; he knew not how.
The bird was to get the pail.

The sausage took the sylvan task
To gather up the wood,
And on his way he met a dog
Who found he tasted good.

The mouse tried to cook the food
And finish up the stew
He climbed right in to stir the brood
As the sausage used to do.

His hair departed right away
And soon his skin went too;
And last he parted with his life
This cook was cooked in his stew.

The bird took off to fetch the water,
With the pail tied to his leg.
When the pail filled up inside the well,
It weighed as much as a keg.

He was not made to carry such weight;
He was pulled down below.
And if he still agrees with the cuckoo,
I guess we'll never know.

By the Brother's Grimm
Verse rendition by Bill Haley

Aesop's The Wolf and the Lamb

There was a wolf who drank upstream
While a lamb drank down below.
His thirst increased as he watched the ewe;
He let those passions flow.

"This simple lamb is surely mine,"
The wicked wolf thought,
"I'll convince him to walk into my mouth,
And he'll thank me as he ought."

The wolf commenced on his diatribe
To convict his innocent foe
On grounds he had dirtied the water
And made a muddy show.

The charge it seemed both sore and sad
To every simple eye.
"That is not so," the lamb replied,
"The water flows from on high."

Such simple words pierced through the wolf,
He knew the lamb was right.
He banished reason forever now,
And thought he'd win with might.

"That matters not, you insulted me
Six months ago, I'm told."
"How can that be?" the lamb replied,
"For I am three months old."

"You rascal lamb, you brazen sheep,
How dare you talk like that!
It must have been your father then
And your his little brat."

With that the wolf devoured the lamb
Convinced he'd won the fight.
A liar can never defeat the truth
Suppress it as he might.

Verse rendition by Bill Haley

Aesop's Milkmaid and Her Pail

A farmer's daughter went to town
To sell a pail of milk.
She balanced the bucket upon her head
And began to dream of silk.

Around from all the neighboring shops
Her wandering dream did fly
And built the dress to dazzle all
And bind them in a sigh.

This dream it led her to the fair
So all the town could see;
She loved the attention of the boys
Who looked on her with glee.

One silly knave did dare approach
And asked to walk beside
The maiden tossed her head at him
And greatly increased her stride.

But soon a wonder came to light,
As the milk came full in view,
She'd tossed the milkpail over her head
And bid her dream adieu.

Verse rendition by Bill Haley