After I wrote “Romance,” Maren Tirabassi asked me, “Is this set to music?” It wasn’t, but I, too, found its rhythm begged for a melody. Here it is:
Bring Me a Rose, Apostles
By Eric Anderson
April 25, 2023
Bring me your time and a rose, apostles,
gathered in prayer; gathered to share.
Bring me your time and a rose-colored glass,
to which we’ll aspire and fail.
Bring me the needs that were met, apostles,
the poor lifted up, assembled to sup.
Bring me the gifts of the rich, apostles,
the rich become poor in the blood of the cup.
Bring me the change – for it came, apostles.
The rich held their wealth despite failure of stealth.
Bring me the gifts for the saints, apostles,
they gave for Jerusalem’s health.
The rose-colored glass will not hide, apostles,
Saphira’s collapse, Ananias’ grim lapse.
Nor the laud that is given to greed, apostles,
however much time will elapse.
Bring me your time and a rose, apostles,
gathered in prayer; gathered to share.
Bring me your time and a rose-colored glass,
to which we’ll aspire
Aspire and fail.
© 2023 by Eric Anderson
ordainedgeek 
This is wonderful. Thank you!!!
Oh! I didn’t see the credit to me … thanks. I will be preening all day.
Preen away, Maren!
I will — you have made it so that I self-identify as so many birds.
I love the poem and the song expresses it beautifully. The aspiring and the failing both seem so intertwined in their life and ours as apostles. The Ananias, Sapphira, Peter failure makes me queasy every time I read it – the failure of greed, and the failure of using power over to control by fear, which undermined the brave community of sharing.
Amen.