Upon Smoke

Where's there's fire there's smoke
Within dust that is stoked
By the strong Breath of God
That is breathed into sod.

In all heat there is light
And invisible might
That can quicken dry bone,
Giving life to a stone.

What is raised is not dead.
What lies down will be wed.
Though the ground is accurst,
In the sky, light will burst.

Warm the soil with your breath.
Raise up life from all death.
Quicken dust from the ground.
Dwell on earth, and be found

In the heart of a man
Where you dwell, as you can
Heat our blood with your life,
Mixing man and a wife

To again, raise up dust,
Red clay colored in rust,
Where Adam sleeps with Eve
And awakes to believe

That the breath that you breathed
Is to him who believes
Life that lives and not dies,
When a man shuts his eyes.

And lies down in the dirt,
Where the worms eat his shirt,
Till there's no more man left,
And the spirit is cleft

From the flesh where it lived,
And clung once to his rib,
Till the beating heart ceased,
As the spirit increased.