Showing posts with label Jesus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jesus. Show all posts

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Aches of Morning Knowing



Morning aches the day from the hollows
of the bed, yearning, and you lay, lingering
the crept upon dreams of stillness
that stood like that young German translator,
fresh from college that you never knew, but wished
you had when she came unbidden, like Jesus
through the locked door—you swore you knew
them both despite the plain impossibilities
of common knowing. Gnosis is the word
that toys along the trails of your brain,
casting sparks among the synapse
like the Fourth of July child waving reckless
sparklers in both hands, a dervish
of delight in the spinning chaos, filling
the hollow spaces with quiet explosions,
soothing the aches of lingering yearning,
translating Jesus into possible prayer.

Thursday, May 9, 2013

Left Out America



Blame it on birth, the last born gets leftovers,
the hand-me-downs that continue into adulthood,
always the poor relation watching discarded TVs
and driving worn through cars. Only the food is new—
who eats gently used food? Not that you haven’t
tried to find a way, gullible to the lies from teachers
and, in Fourth Commandment* awkwardness, other authorities,
as if right guides to find a life better left behind.
Their dreams aren’t yours, but the courage that heals,
promised by Jesus, lies far away. Cast them off your back
like a harness too heavy before you’re left to bear the guilt
while muttering the hymn, “Heaven is My Home,” the solace
of the put-upon because without it you’d collapse
like Job, bearing on your lips the curse of being born.

*From the Small Catechism of Martin Luther:
"The Fourth Commandment: Honor your father and mother. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not despise or anger our parents and other authorities, but honor them, serve and obey them, love and cherish them."

Thursday, March 21, 2013

The Impossibility of the Jesus Poem, for Holy Week

Begins with the mystery of the hows--
how to believe,
how to love,
how to feel,
how to believe. Again the how
returns to face the world.
Jesus entered and brought hows--
how to be born--once, then twice,
how to live last yet first,
how to love that rascal neighbor
who's howless about his life
and you're supposed to love but can't stand
the S.O.B.
How again, to live like Christ
has entered your marrow.
To die. How? Always death
howling: how on the cross
could this have happened?
Howling at the Father's desertion;
how to let the pain take over--
unhealed. How the healer dies.
How recorded in dead language;
how disected words evicerate;
how to find the holy.
How to pray for the hows.
How impossible.