Tag Archives: Life

An Offering of Fruit

Where have all the prophets gone away?
Surely they have not differentiated themselves
into complete non-existence apart from the flock.
Though numbers have dwindled, 
lost to the ragged and ravenous wolf
of matrix and machine down in the meadow,
we will take a new look and see beyond
the monotonous and noisome bleating,
clamoring, berating, demanding and consuming.
The banal message will not pacify us.
Remember, the snake offered something new.
Look what happened when life came to us
disguised as a fruit in our hands.
A blessing or a moment of condemnation?
Something that forever made the moment unique.

Or worse?

Chaos is not a mess.
Look how the numbers of today order themselves
into primal states of energy
waiting to be interpreted into peace.
Along the walls in long, well-arranged, wooden pews
sit the straight-backed, strangely bemused,
thinking, "Here we go again."
Disestablish now.
Redemption is at work in the tumult.
Our forebears sowed the seeds for the harvest
we now reap with our own bleeding hands.
The goal of this moment becomes the burden of the next.
This, a dream?  A blessing?  Or worse, a curse?

The Barren Ones

A week after love
the balance between
preparation and inspiration
remains folded in 
all possible outcomes.

The parade of elephants
may perhaps begin today
but it is sure to come with
one yelling from the balcony
about the unfairness of time.

We do not begin each year
of life deciding how many
more years to go before
pushing the covers aside
and getting on with the day.

Will we survive this moment?
Will the mountains built
to house our sweet dreams
come down with the next
shake of the earth?

We must ask the barren ones
to sing, to enlarge the places
of our hearts, to lengthen 
the ties that bind and to 
strengthen what holds us together.

An Ordinary Evening

To spend the evening in the presence of family,
lounging in the midst of familiar noises,
laughter of children playing,
the sound of the beloved reading,
the littlest one going off in search of her bells.

These moments make holy the life I live.
And years later, reading my journal entry
of this night like any other night from long ago,
I am there, breathe into memory, and smile.

Promises

We hold fast to our human traditions
as if abandoning the commandments of God
is as easy as celebrating the victors 
of the latest super game given to us
by the powers-that-be crafting our lives.

Fascination will return.  The health of the family
will become a concern.  Unannounced visits
to those caught in the process of being made well
will once again unfold between neighbors.

And promises to serve each other tomorrow
will be kept even in the midst of fear and sadness.

To Be Written today

There is nothing that needs to be written today.
There is no greatest commandment to be passed along.
The book is closing on the daily reading once again.
Eloquence walked quickly out the door yesterday
holding hands with love and dancing with paradox.
All will return when the time is right on judgment day.
In the meantime, always in the meantime,
fools have always said, "There is no God," so
why worry about the absence of the divine in their talk.
We turn ourselves about trying to face the great mystery
only to stumble along and become broken vessels 
letting the light out to play on the beach as the tide comes in.

Bear-Carrying

I remember her coming down the stairs
in her blue dress holding a little bear
in her arms as if parting from its softness
would somehow bring upon her
all the cares of the big world
which she sees me carry upon my shoulders
as I prepare a breakfast of a bowl of cereal
for the both of us.

Perhaps I should take up bear-carrying
in the morning and lose the frightened look
I hold upon myself as if the world is out to get me.