To the Girl

To the girl who thinks that her life will end Before she has chanced to see it begin, Forgetting that pain, suffering, and strife Are only small parts of her infinite life:

When fears of how her long days will end Overshadow the grace of how it begins, As sunlight and wind dance through her hair, When Jehovah announces a new day, so fair

That sparrows do sing to announce its arrival, And remind us that life is more than survival, But Grace, too, that nourishes, accepted as bread Sustaining the living, and resurrect the dead.

Who considers life is a quest for the end Neglects that today's when her journey begins.

Sad

Means sated,
Filled up,
Well fed,
Drunk.

It comes not
From emptiness,
Loneliness,
Or absence.

Rather,
Sadness comes
When much delight
Meets fear.

One must avoid,
Evacuate,
Empty,
To unsad oneself.

Sadness is the end of feasting,
The beginning of fasting,
And the long waiting
For another taste.

Blessing the Liar-Thief

You stole from me
Words That I had hoped to use.

Now, I have nothing left
To communicate with
But actions.

Thank you, Liar, For this blessing.
Thank you, Thief, For this gift.

Where There Is Hope There Is Life

Waiting,
Breathing,
Noticing,
Time passes,
In a dungeon,
An attic,
Or in a field of wild grasses,
Sitting on a bench beside a pond.

Spirit move inside my lungs,
Where wind mixes with blood.
Wind blow through time,
As through her hair,
With my fingers.

O, Vine

O, vine that bears good fruit,
Stretched upward toward the sun,
Emerging from the ground,
And branching into two

Different vines that branch
Again into two vines,
Again into two vines,
Again into two vines.

At the eastern end
Of this branching path
Lies a yellow flower
That waits for yellow bee

To eat its honeyed juice
And step onto its womb
With its pollened feet
To bring forth a new seed.

But at the westward side
Of this branching path
Lies another flower
That waits for purple wasp

To eat its honeyed juice
And step onto its womb
With its pollened feet
To bring forth a new seed.

Which vine bears good fruit,
O, vine?
Which vine is not the vine,
O, vine?

White sheep is sheared of wool,
White milk squeezed from black goat,
Each offers what must offer,
To the jealous farmer,

Who divides his flock
At the end of day,
White sheep to the east,
Black goat to the west,

Grey Ram stands on mountain,
Looking down.

Jerusalem

The Morning Star and the Evening Star
     Are the same star,
Dawn and dusk, the same twilight.
There passes between Light and Dark
     A space where Venus shines,
In the early morning, as birds sing,
In the late evening, as crickets chirp,
As you close your eyes, lover,
     And dream of Eternal Rest
In the House of Peace.

Morning Sonnet for the Full Moon over August 10, 2014

It rained for four days straight this week, and grey
Clouds hid the sun and moon from earth, while we
Continued on with our melodrama
Of love and sin and and grace and death and fear.
Somewhere between the laundry and the eighth
Blue Moon, you opened up the door to show
Me that the clouds had finally sailed into
The east, and lo, the moon was rising up,
So bright and white and big and beautiful,
Ascending as a solitary pearl
Over the rain soaked plains we walk upon,
Reminding us that though these rains do come,
They pass, and still the universe eternal
Marches on, if we notice or not.

Choking Down the Burrito

That night when we put the kid to bed,
You microwaved a burrito for yourself,
And you put it on a paper plate.
I was disgusted that you had only put one burrito in the microwave,
So I popped another into the little white space machine
That my mother bought us
That sits on top of the refrigerator,
And I turned the dial to two minutes,
Long enough to heat the plastic bag
POP!
To tell me that all the ice had melted.

So I took the burrito from the microwave
And placed it next to yours on the paper plate
That you had taken from the cabinet
And set it beside your burrito,
All lathered in sour cream,
Covered in black bean salsa,
And garnished with crumbled tortilla chips,

And I said to you,
"I'm invading your personal space.
"Do you mind?"

And you said,
"No."

Then we asked each other how this was all going to work out,
With your problems and mine keeping each other company.
And I think, maybe, I asked too much of you.

I spoke of your problems while you ate,
Watching you eat,
Bite by bite,
Every last bit of sour cream,
Tomato-covered bell peppers,
Tortilla shell,
Refried bean,
And shredded beef,
While you listened to me speak
Of our tragic love,
Fateful and majestic,
Like Romeo and Juliet,
Othello and Desdemona,
Adam and Eve,
Harry and Sally,
Ozzie and Harriet,
Bonnie and Clyde,
Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote,
Fire and Powder,
Heaven and Hell.

And when I was finished speaking,
I looked at your burrito,
Which was nearly eaten, entirely,
And then I looked at my burrito,
Which was still untouched by my fork,
And I thought that maybe I was the problem.

So,

I put my fork to that fucking burrito,
And ate every last bite.

Heaven's Divorce from Hell

The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
Is not the marriage of them both
But the conq'ring of dark Hell,
O'er the peaceful light of God.

The song is not in liberty
Sung to set the captives free
Nor take your suffering from thee,
Oh girl I love.

May the girl I love know that she's blessed,
Not for my love, but for Him who's kept
Her safe thus far, though travel-weary,
And tempest-tossed through many storms.

May she lay her head on a pillowed bed
To dream a dream of gentler shores,
When all the waves are stilled and He
Calls out to her to walk to Him.

May her feet not sink beneath the waves
When she steps across the ferryman's bow
To walk o'er Jordan on top the waters
In faith toward He who calls to her.

May faith lift her brave heart above
The storms of life, though thunder clouds
Do gather black, and lightning crash
Like fearsome tiger growl doth roar.

May she with courage walk toward He
Who calls to her on glassy sea,
In peace proclaiming, "Come to Me."
          Walk to Him, oh girl I love.

May she with love burst' from her heart
For Him alone, see clouds do part,
When she her trust to Him imparts.
          Look to Him, oh girl I love.

May she today rise from her bed
To see the sun above her head,
Remembering He who rose the dead.
          Live for Him, oh girl I love.

May she awake from restful sleep,
Unconquered by the waves o'er deep
Waters, and eyes no more to weep.
          Call to Him, oh girl I love.

Let not Heaven and Hell be wed,
Let not the demons rule your head,
Let not the living be ruled by dead.
Let not the snake his skin not shed.

Embrace the light and walk toward Love,
Walk away from Death and Fear. 
Trust your spirit, gentle dove.
Live for Him who brought you here

Trust this: Your God loves you and speaks in thee.
Trust this: Your heart knows Truth and sets you free.
Trust this: Compassion, Grace, Humility.
Trust this: Resting, still and peacefully.

Intimacy

Abide in Me,
Wait, hope, expect.
I am within.

In time,
You will hear my voice.
I am within.

There are intimations
You will feel
In the ear of your mind,

Where sound manifests soundlessly,
Where sight manifests without light,
Where life lives without breath.

Be still,
Know.
I am God.

Within,
Without,
With.

May the Circle Be Unbroken

When Joshua crossed the Jordan,
He commanded that the children warriors be circumcised
Where the twelve standing stones stood.

Their fathers had wandered in the wilderness,
Disobedient and faithless,
Unable to enter the Promised Land.

But, as the LORD commanded,
They died,
And their children warriors planted wheat.

The manna no longer fell from the sky,
From the breast of the Holy Ghost,
Feeding the infant kingdom.

Fruit was harvested
From the garden to which the people returned
After Adam and Eve had left.

I am this or that.
I am not this or that.
I am good or evil.

Who shall I say sent me?
I am that I am, says the LORD,
He told Moses.

And they believed,
And they walked through the parted waters of the Red Sea,
And they walked into the wilderness,

With the staff that Moses held in his hands,
The waters were parted,
With the snake that ate the snakes.

But the way grew hard.
But the wilderness never ended.
The people grew weary.

They complained, saying,
Why have you led us into the wilderness to die of thirst?
It would have been better for us to die on the swords of our enemies.

The LORD heard them and spoke to Moses, saying,
Speak to the rock at Meribah,
Where the people quarreled with their God.

But Moses raised his staff into the air
And struck the rock, twice.
He disobeyed. He disobeyed again.

Because you did not believe me,
Because you did not uphold me as wholly unbroken,
Because you did not trust this circle would not end,

You will not enter the Promised Land,
Where milk and honey flow,
Where gardens grow.

When Joshua crossed the Jordan,
He commanded twelve stones to be raised
To remind the people of God's faithfulness.

Not one stone, but twelve.
I have brought your children out of the wilderness,
And by the standing stones the warrior children were circumcised,

When Joshua saw a man holding a drawn sword,
And asked him,
Are you for us, or are you for our adversaries?

The Angel of the Lord said to Joshua,
Take off your sandals,
For the ground upon which you stand is holy.