THE HOME PAGE IMAGE
From the mountain of God proceeds mammoth momentum in the creature, empowering the servants of the Lord to perform his mighty works and shepherd his stiff-necked people. As good sheep dogs of their master, these knights of the king shall be "wise as serpents and innocent as doves" (Matthew 10:16), "and above all these put on love" (Colossians 3:14), as a wolf that lies down by the lamb (Isaiah 11); but they shall also pursue souls like a Hound of Heaven from whom there is nowhere to hide (Francis Thompson; Psalm 139). With God himself promising to be like a lurking lion or leopard, and like a bear that attacks and rips apart its adversary (Hosea 13:7-8), the Lord's servants might have to be a little fierce in proclaiming the Good News; for he has "not come to bring peace but a sword" (Matthew 10:34), even "piercing to the division of soul and spirit" (Hebrews 4:12).
THE SERIES
The Lords of the Key is intended as a series of mini epic poems each telling the story of one of the leading heroes of the Judea-Christian Faith. The name of the series is inspired by G.K. Chesterton's discussion in The Everlasting Man (Part II, Ch. 4, paragraph 2-4) of "the early Christian [being] very precisely a person carrying about a key, or what he said was a key. The whole Christian movement consisted in claiming to possess that key... that could unlock the prison of the whole world, and let in the white daylight of liberty." The Faith being that key, this series focuses on the lords of the key, that is, on those servant leaders who held high that flag at the head of the army, and carried that weight on behalf of the people -- inspiring the spiritual soldiers under their charge to each carry their own smaller portion of that burden so glorious -- and especially on the effective earthly qualities of those leaders -- the raw material found in the creature fitting to fulfill divine purposes, and providing a model for our lives. As a whole, the series should serve as a sort of summary of man's side of salvation history, from the establishment of the Old Covenant to today.
BOOK ONE
3 AM, The Rise of Abram is a poetic version of the human side of the story of Abraham, based on Genesis 11-25, which aims to identify "what creature-things most helped success" as our Father of Faith accomplished God's plans by Divine Grace. It will be available for purchase through the ORDERS page of this website starting Advent of 2024.
BOOK TWO
The second book of the series is expected to be published and available for purchase through the ORDERS page of this website starting Advent of 2025.
THE POET
Patrick James Heyl, from Austin, Texas, graduated from Thomas Aquinas College, took masters degree classes at the Augustine Institute, attended seminary, and has worked in education since 2008. He lives in Taylor, Texas with his wife and six children.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
* Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
* The home page drawing is by Dominic Heyl (the poet's son).
* The home page image of Christ the Redeemer on Mount Corcovado in Rio De Janeiro is adapted from a photo by Jay Jarosz and used by permission under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en).