Poetry
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The Parish- A Sonnet
Into the deep, the waves, the weep, the homes The farm, the soul, and time, and fear, the known And unknown. Few, we traverse winter’d wildsValleys shadowed by death and devil and direDespair. Arctic explorers encased in, Capsized often by our own woes, our sins Yet still we go, no expertise nor ease But dressed in place, in time, in Continue reading
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Harvest
Bronze, shorn, past-ripe, dustCovers faces, boots, barnsThe roadside sumac, lilac late blooming,Lungs and hearts as a sign of blessing.The scrabbled landscape sighsIn relief. The corn had weighedIt down, as each road tilted toward thePull of corn-stalk and hay bale. It had grownTo swallow car, road, farm, mind, As September waned and withered. And now I see the Continue reading
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Nothing is Still
Behold, nothing is still. If you look, no, lookAnd still your eyeOn the cypress, the brookIs easy, but the cypress too—Watch them,Go, now; eyes, open; They, meant to hide, quakeIn prescient wind, slowBut moving. Move in close, seeThe distance increase. In, now; lean, now;Titanic movements Beneath them, shakeWith each second movingIn atomic cadence— Worlds, even after all this time,Unknown to Continue reading
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A Never-Had Memory
I walked, worn and weary, in straits of my own making. Alone, despair, sun-drenched, dry, soul-wrung, cliff-ridden. Atop the mesa my eye caught a glimpse of life’s abiding breeze. Of the balm of branch and trunk and leaf.Of shade, a never-had memory. But it left before my heart could swell, lifting my gaze to future groves. Long ages, epochs, buffeting drought, till, filled Continue reading
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He Turneth All to Gold
If you haven’t figured it out by now, I’ll let you in on a secret: I love the work of the poet-pastor George Herbert (late 16th Century). His poems, regarded as some of the best ever written in the English language, so clearly encapsulate the life of faith. Herbert chose, instead of the avant-garde life of Continue reading
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Caterpillar’s Crawl
I felt joy and love departIn flurries of tangled emotionAnd frantic senses of my weary heartThat disguise themselves as devotion. A mastery I never had,A false birth-right I long pursued,That taught me: “you are nature’s bane;Time’s gate; decay’s despair;The master of your fate; All things rest in your care.” A stillness caught me, I looked Continue reading
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Breath of Life
From Psalm 137: “By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. On the willows there we hung up our lyres… “ Yahweh, mercies that I needon exile shores, by willow trees. While plowmen plow and rivers flowmy heart, soul-sick, sits and on it goesdown sand and stonesweeping branches grown. Lyres, useless in temple-fire;For Continue reading
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Poems from Prayer
One of my faith heroes is the poet/pastor George Herbert. Inspired by his love of verse, I’ve been writing poems as part of my daily prayer routine. I thought I’d share some with you… Seeing and Blind (Isaiah 9) Light for one, darkness anotherClarity, vapid black.To the Word and Testimony!A call! Repent! Come back! Those Continue reading
Revival and Renewal 