The Gift of the Geegaw

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?—Jeremiah 17:9 (KJV)

Deceitfulness despairing

Sees no way out before,

With loving turned to lying,

Recruiting gifts galore.

It’s granted us to say:

The seed alone not dying,

The geegaw falls away,

With duty done, its gift

Regifted in some foreign land

Far from our parceled universe,

For better or for worse:

“Do not despair: one of the thieves

Was saved; do not presume:

One of the thieves was damned,”

Said Augustine—who would not show his hand.*

*The Repentance of Robert Greene, Master of Arts (1592) attributes this saying to St. Augustine, but its source is uncertain.

Tuesday, August 11, 2026