Patient reader, peace and greetings! I look forward to our meetings
Where the two of us will venture to explore the Hebrew past.
For we have a great advantage, and enjoy a first-rate vantage,
In the findings of those scholars who are students of the Past.
Their remarkable discoveries have cleared our eyes at last,
Which till now were overcast!

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But this venture has its dangers: we may be reviled as strangers
Who, without the proper standing, have no business to propose
Any changes in the honor --- that might lead, then, to dishonor ---
Of our many holy figures that lie gently in repose,
In God’s care and in God’s mercy, as the faithful do suppose,
Undisturbed in their repose!

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But the risks are well worth taking, for the vision is breathtaking
Of the world in which our ancestors played such a major role.
Abraham will be our focus, whose career traced out a locus
Through the ancient Fertile Crescent (that knew nothing of the soul),
From the oldest city, Sumer, to the land that was God’s goal,
Under Canaanite control.

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You, conversant with the Bible, and attentive, are not liable
To not know that Abraham and Abram are the very same.
We’ll review the role of Abram, and renew the role of Abram,
But deal only with young Abram, long before God changed his name,
Being careful and respectful of his holiness and fame,
So as not to bring us shame.

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Let me offer my suggestions, in the form of sev’ral questions,
On how Abram was enabled to surmount the Canaanite.
Was it patience and persistence undermining their resistence?
Could there be no co-existence of two cultures at their height?
Were their gods perhaps unequal to a theocratic fight?
Or to military might?
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