Relationships

Lament for Refuge

June 1, 2019 0 Comments

You have searched me, LORD and you know me.

My life of aspiration
Was bought in sweat and deception
For my ancestors came from the wrong nation
And were treated with contempt and degradation.

You created my inmost being and knit me together in my mother’s womb.

In every space I have tried not to die
’till a friend said, “Go West young man,
They love the truth.” So I have arrived to find
The truth is not enough — they would rather hear a lie.

Search me, God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts.

Peace eludes me.
I don’t have a way.
Truth enslaves me.
I don’t want to hide.

See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

I love life.

Poetry, Relationships

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No Nostalgia for Shells

May 28, 2019 0 Comments

The soft blue swatch
that caught my eye
would not yield–
either
a tale of security
or the song of your
wild fortunes.
My questions could not penetrate
the folds of your recent past,
yet gratitude swept over me like light on ancient paths,
illuminating our common plot
and the Spirit’s gracious gifts —
the free
must have room to grow
and time for wings
to stretch.

Change, Poetry, Relationships

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Blunt Force Trauma

May 27, 2019 0 Comments

Just a stick in the mud.

You struck me with
those careless words
a little phrase 
it turned my head.

I filed it till 
it became a bowl
fit for blood, sweat 
and bitter tears.

With those shavings
I stoked a fire whose 
flames smelled of 
cold cursed ambition.

I stoked it 
till it nearly
killed me.
I stoked it 
’till true wisdom
turned me 
against the grain
of your casual 
disregard.

Change, Poetry, Relationships

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Honk at me

May 25, 2019 0 Comments

What solace is required to fly north and remain?
These geese seem to know for their flights are never pained
with silence whether in groups of two
or of twelve.
What does such clumsy honking call forth
that silence
cannot?
Oh our fears of awkward
have cast many down on the
plains of Abraham
where you could have been a sister
and I could have been a brother
but
we wither
away.
So please
honk at me
and I’ll fly
with you.

Church, Creation, Poetry, Relationships

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Just Wondering and The Never-Knows

January 15, 2019 0 Comments

a question
I never had
came to me
though I yearn
to utter it
I’m not sure
I could have
asked you
before

Poetry, Relationships