finding unexpected warmth in that
bitter flood, humanity in the watery
deep chaos of human no, a voice
echoes like the flood isn’t
Tag: Hope
The World Whole
Child of mine
a child only a little longer
If I could send you back to Eden, I would
though it would break my heart for you to be away
Today I felt the burden
Today I felt the burden of my calling
My time felt too short
Capacity too limited
The barriers too high
give and give (a love letter)
give me your
meager muchness, your
scant significance, your
finite faith
I Am the One Who Makes
abundance, the kind
you only dream of
in some locked-away-tight
room of your soul
Continue reading “give and give (a love letter)”
cry yes
Back in college, I read global news every day. I was hungry to know more about the world, to be engaged in humanity’s struggles. At some point, the number of problems got too huge for me to process, and now I’m pickier about what news I read. I don’t want to be bombarded with stories designed to put me in a spiral of despair, but at the same time I don’t want to be in ignorance!
These days, the news reminds me of our great need for a solid foundation on which to build a reconciled world. The work of reconciliation between persons and peoples and creation itself is too difficult to build on anything less than the rock of reconciliation with God! At the same time, we mustn’t sit around on the foundation singing nice songs and pretending the work is done.
I didn’t write this poem for Advent, but it seems appropriate somehow. As the darkness of winter reflects the darkness of a desperate world, so each little candle we light illuminates the One who brings light to otherwise impenetrable darkness.
Entering into our flood of pain and failed solutions, the Christ child is God’s great “Yes!” in a world of human “No”.
Continue reading “cry yes”Fever Dreams
Yester-day’s dreams mean little
When yester-day no longer belongs to us
And the-next-day belongs (near as any can tell)
To the soothsayers and the pundits
Continue reading “Fever Dreams”
Sheltered
What did Noah do
In all those long days at sea
The whole world a sea
Flooded horizon to horizon
Did it feel like a rescue
That wooden box crammed full Continue reading “Sheltered”
RSVP
When Hope issues an invitation
A chance to dream of better
A looking forward to the future
Even against the past
Even against the present
To respond affirmatively
Is to soar and dream
To set aside the tension
Of one’s grounding
Of one’s doubt
Go in Peace
(Part 2 of 4 in the “Grief in a Season of Joy” series)
How long, O Lord, will we live in fear of Pain
Wary of being weighed down forever by it
I want to arrive in the city of Hope and dwell in Joy
But Pain will not be left behind while I journey
It clings to my legs, refusing to be forgotten,
And becomes a stumbling block Continue reading “Go in Peace”
Manger Song
When we find our wells of Peace have run dry
The world, within and without, misaligned
Into despair, the Incarnate Child
Brings his Hope and his Way Continue reading “Manger Song”
In Pursuit of More 