Saturday, December 24, 2016

A Life that mattered



+

"The thief comes to kill, to steal, and to destroy,
I have come that you might have Life"
-John 10:10

~ Merry Christmas ~

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Fire



+

Rushing Wind,
Blow
Through these
Our Upper Rooms

Remove with your Breath
fears
short-sighted sentiments
dreams which displace your Dreams

Propel us from our hiding places
Into this planet You so love,
Potent
Powerful
Pentecost...

For a Second Time
Make us Flaming Tongues
Onto which You turn
The Bellows of Heaven

Flood again
 Your beloved world...

...This Time,
in
Fire

+

"His word was in my heart like a burning fire shut up in my bones"
-Jeremiah 20:9

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Mercy Triumphs Over Judgement



"OUR FATHER WHO ART IN HEAVEN, HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME,
YOUR KINGDOM COME
YOUR WILL BE DONE
ON EARTH
AS IT IS
IN
HEAVEN."

+

"I have given help to one who is mighty [giving him the power to be a champion for Israel];
I have exalted one chosen from the people."
Psalm 89:19

Monday, November 7, 2016

Choose.


"This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you, 
that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses,
Now choose life"
-Deuteronomy 30:19

+

Poised on the brink of Choice:

Life or Death
Birthright or Bowl of soup
Blessing or Curse

Hanging in the balance...

...Heaven halts and holds its breath
As again the familiar scene plays out
Man wielding the Fearsome Weapon of Free Will

The consequences of which
Have been unleashed
Unmercifully
onto
Mankind,

A piece of fruit from a forbidden tree
A road not taken
An Ishmael

The terrible tension
The tears of Time Immemorial
The Anguished Cry

The worlds watch, 
Weeping
While with a glad hand
We forfeit freedom
And once again
Choose
Barabas

+

"Choose this day whom you will serve."
-Joshua 24:15

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Choose.


"This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you, 
that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses,
Now choose life"
-Deuteronomy 30:19

+

Poised on the brink of Choice:

Life or Death
Birthright or Bowl of soup
Blessing or Curse

Hanging in the balance...

...Heaven halts and holds its breath
As again the familiar scene plays out
Man wielding the Fearsome Weapon of Free Will

The consequences of which
Have been unleashed
Unmercifully
onto
Mankind,

A piece of fruit from a forbidden tree
A road not taken
An Ishmael

The terrible tension
The tears of Time Immemorial
The Anguished Cry

The worlds watch, 
Weeping
While with a glad hand
We forfeit freedom
And once again
Choose
Barabas

+

"Choose this day whom you will serve."
-Joshua 24:15

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Oasis



+

Lovely Light moving
Like water flowing
Reflecting

The True Beauty

You who sit and stare
Mesmerized
With this mirage

Turn and See

The Oasis

+

"In the image of God
He created them"
-Genesis 1:27

Monday, October 3, 2016

Flood


"Your Kingdom Come"
-Matthew 6:10

+

The current of me
Consumed in The River
of You

Flowing, Coursing
into this world,
Covering, Flooding again,
Leaving nothing afloat
But the Ark of New Beginnings

Suffering no lower life
Save this only,

The Dove
The Olive Branch
The drop of me

in the Deluge
of You

+

"Within me, I carry God.  Within God, I am carried.  There is no separation, only the forgetting of union."
-Julia Cameron

Sunday, October 2, 2016

Omega



+++

From the "Let there be..."

To the "Did God really say...?"

From Eve's death-dealing "Take and Eat..."

To Christ's Life-Giving "Take and Eat..."

From the start to the finish
From Alpha to Omega

Just as In the Beginning was The Word,
In the end,
The Word Himself 
will have

The Final Word.

+

"Who has performed and done this,
Calling forth [and guiding the destinies of] the generations [of the nations] from the beginning?
‘I, the Lord—the first, and with the last [existing before history began, the ever-present, unchanging God]—
I AM He.’"

-Isaiah 41:4

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Blue or Brown?




+

Disdain in man is a fickle tide
Careful how you dole it out
Careful who you decide to despise
For Tomorrow
That tide will turn.

+

"Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover feast, many believed in His name [identifying themselves with Him] after seeing His signs (attesting miracles) which He was doing. But Jesus, for His part, did not entrust Himself to them, because He knew all people [and understood the [a]superficiality and fickleness of human nature], and He did not need anyone to testify concerning man [and human nature], for He Himself knew what was in man [in their hearts—in the very core of their being]."
-John 2:23-25

"One day they're crowning you king, the next day they're crucifying you."

Saturday, September 24, 2016

Racism or Terrorism?



+

Our problem,
(as we've been led around by the nose of late to believe)
is not
  Racism

Our problem
is 
Terrorism

Racism is merely the Trojan Horse,
the fox we've all been chasing around,
like chickens with our heads cut off
While our country and countrymen, black and white, are under attack
While our government turns a blind eye
While we go on ignoring The Man behind the curtain,

Our heads too easily turned by shiny objects 
bright tv screens
smoke and mirrors
bells and whistles
and the like

If the atrocities committed on our country's soil beginning
in Dallas,
in Broad Day Light,
in Cold Blood,
had been perpetrated by any other terrorist group,
we would have declared war on them,

not offered them a tea party at the White House,
much less funding 
much less press time.

Newsflash: Terrorists' lives don't matter.

Ours do.

The problem's not getting solved
Because we're solving the wrong problem.

+

"Leaders should never bury a problem; you can be sure it will eventually rise from its grave and walk the earth again."
-General Colin Powell

Thursday, September 22, 2016

I Dare You. (Re-post of 7/21 - Bears Repeating.)





"Let us Dare to think, read, write, and speak!"
-John Adams

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil 
is for good men to do nothing." 
-Democratic President John F. Kennedy quoting Edmund Burke

+


Our fear until recently, was of terror from without: terrorist groups like Isis and the Taliban, and the threat these groups posed against Americans.



Now there is a new terrorist group - and Isis must be laughing up a storm - as cowards who call themselves Americans, claiming to represent an entire demographic, willingly enslaved themselves to agendas of others who care nothing for them and began Thursday, July 21st, to terrorize their own country, 

and the lives of their own countrymen, black and white,


all the while insisting,
that their lives matter.

(This begs the question: To Whom?)

Isis doesn't need to send terrorists into America anymore; 
with the support of these pawns and puppets, 
a pandering media, 
a mute public,
 and an anemic government, 
they will likely, instead,
 simply send their regards.

+

"They had lives to live and families to take care of...they needed to feel safe crossing town...More than anything they needed a sense of security and the knowledge that someone was in charge -- Someone in charge of keeping ministries from being burned down, museums from being looted, infrastructure from being destroyed, crime from exploding, and well-known sectarian differences from turning violent."
-General Colin Powell, 
regarding the Iraqi citizens after Houssein's regime had been dismantled

"Bad ideas don't die simply because they are intrinsically bad.  You need people who will stand up and fight them, put themselves at risk, point out the weaknesses, and drive stakes through their hearts."
-General Colin Powell

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Soak




+

I seek not Rote and Rhetoric,
Tedious Recitations,
Tired, Tiring Prose...

I crave a Companion,
Like David,
Earthy, Amateur,
Unprofessional, Unpolished,
Who was after My Heart,
Not only My Hand

I tire of jots and tittles,
i's dotted, t's crossed...
I search for one
who would trade dogma for Deity
Who would know Me
not just what is said about Me

I long for one
with whom I can walk,
A sponge I can soak
and saturate
in Spirit

Through whom I can be wrung out
into this,
My beloved world...

+

"Here am I, Send me"
-Isaiah 6:8

Sunday, September 11, 2016

Remember.


I wrote this six years ago, a tribute to the day we all remember, and to the ephemeral unity the destruction paradoxically brought to our country, its leaders, and their constituents, when, for an all too brief and beautiful moment, congress stood together on the steps of the white house, actually holding hands, and there was a fleeting forgetfulness of differences and division, a trading of the self-serving status quo for one of self-transcendence, a laying down of the vitriol that too often trademarks our government, and a taking up of the standard,
 - may it be said of us again -

"United We Stand"




Two towers fell today ten years ago
Two lives torn apart and ten million more
Two parties came together and cried out to One God
Dual towers downed ending duality on our sod

But oh what ephemeral unity
Was born of death that day
That Tower fell so swiftly
So silently gave way

To ambivalence and bickering
To answers we could not find
To forgetfulness of heroes
To the novocaine of time

The best of human nature
Could not stand the test
But sadly deferred
Humbly bowed
And laid itself to rest.

 
-E.A.A. "Hindsfeet" 9/11/10

~ ~ ~

"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity...For there the LORD commands the blessing"
-Psalm133:1,3

Friday, August 26, 2016

Live



+

We breathe our single Breath
of this life,
While just on The Other Side
of the ephemeral
Waits
The Eternal...

The thinnest veil,
One step over,
We find ourselves
- and are Found -
in Breath Himself

We fall into
What has filled our lungs
and finally

finally

Live

+

"...God Who holds your breath in His hand..."
-Daniel 5:23

Sunday, August 7, 2016

Fear Not.




+

God would not have said,
"Fear Not"
If there was anything to be afraid of.

He is not a man that he should lie.

If He says,
"Don't be afraid."

It means fear is unwarranted.
It means we're good.
It means He's got this.

Fear Not
For I AM with you.
Be not dismayed,
For I AM your God.
I will strengthen you
I will help you
I will uphold you with My very own hand.
-Isaiah 41:10

+

Thursday, July 21, 2016

I dare you.


"Let us Dare to think, read, write, and speak!"
-John Adams

"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil 
is for good men to do nothing." 
-Democratic President John F. Kennedy quoting Edmund Burke

+


Our fear until recently, was of terror from without: terrorist groups like Isis and the Taliban, and the threat these groups posed against Americans.



Now there is a new terrorist group - and Isis must be laughing up a storm - as cowards who call themselves Americans, claiming to represent an entire demographic, willingly enslaved themselves to agendas of others who care nothing for them and began last Thursday to terrorize their own country, 
and the lives of their own countrymen, black and white,

all the while insisting,
that their lives matter.

(This begs the question: To Whom?)

Isis doesn't need to send terrorists into America anymore; 
with the support of these pawns and puppets, 
a pandering media, 
a mute public,
 and an anemic government, 
they will likely, instead,
 simply send their regards.

+

"They had lives to live and families to take care of...they needed to feel safe crossing town...More than anything they needed a sense of security and the knowledge that someone was in charge -- Someone in charge of keeping ministries from being burned down, museums from being looted, infrastructure from being destroyed, crime from exploding, and well-known sectarian differences from turning violent."
-General Colin Powell, 
regarding the Iraqi citizens after Houssein's regime had been dismantled

"Bad ideas don't die simply because they are intrinsically bad.  You need people who will stand up and fight them, put themselves at risk, point out the weaknesses, and drive stakes through their hearts."
-General Colin Powell

Sunday, July 17, 2016

Like Father Like Son...


But God, I look nothing like you...


...[God Smiles to Himself....] ....My beloved child, you will....... you will..........


+

 "For if we have become one with Him in the likeness of His death, we will also certainly be one with Him and share fully in the likeness of His resurrection."
-Romans 6:5

Saturday, July 16, 2016

Irony



+

We exhaust His world
with our
tiresome turning 
of
Wine
back into
Water,

then wonder why the world
doesn't want to come
to the party...

What's worse,
we weary our Host Himself,
Who
went to all
the trouble...

+

"I did not come to you with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of The Spirit, and of Power, that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men, but in The Power of God."
-1 Corinthians 2:1-5

Thursday, July 14, 2016

I have a Dream...



+

not white
not black

but Perfect Yellow Flowers
Full of Light
Daring the darkness to defy them

Tenaciously Trumpeting
Refusing to be bested
Blasting Their Beauty

against the ugliness,

which, for all its raging in this world
Will Not Succeed
in silencing

Their Still
Small
Thunder

+

"We do not war against flesh and blood,
but against the rulers, against the powers, 
against the world forces of this present darkness,
against the spiritual forces of wickedness
in the heavenly supernatural places."
-Ephesians 6:12

Monday, July 11, 2016

Prayer for America




+

Lord, Your sheep...
So many,
Lost

White, Black, 
Women, Men

Led around by the nose,
Your posterity reduced to puppets,
Enslaved by the false shepherds

of fear, of media, of government

Who bid them do their selfish will
instead of Yours
Leading Your sheepfold off a cliff
Shepherding them to their own destruction
Dividing the House against itself
Ensuring its fall
Dwarfing terrorism from without
Stirring up terror within

Oh Good Shepherd,
Raise up again
The True Shepherds
over this,
Our Country

Those who know Your heart,
Those who love Your sheep,
Those who belong to your House
and know how to lead us
Home

+

Our Father in Heaven, 
Hallowed, Feared, Revered be Your name again in this country,
Your Kingdom come, Your will be done,
here, in America, in this world,
as it is in Heaven.

Matthew 6:9-13

Saturday, June 25, 2016

For Garrison Keillor, a Tribute



+

He gave me Words to hold on to
For Dear Life
His Stories were White Blazes
in this Appalachian Trail of Time
He tethered me in
When I was out
His voice was a thread
through this tapestry

This Story teller tucked me in
when the world outside was wild
He was Gentleness and Calm
when inside me the storm raged on

His 'been there done that' transparency
Saved me more times than He knows
His message of Amazing Grace
His "You are never alone"

He walked us Home
Like a Father would
Leaving footsteps we could follow
This Pilgrimage made bearable
and all the solitary hours...

Now it's Time
He takes His leave
And bids us a beautiful Journey
Leaving Light behind him,
like breadcrumbs on the Path

May the same be said of me

+

"Even in a time of elephantine vanity and greed, one never has to look far to see the campfires of gentle people."
-Garrison Keillor

Thank you, Garrison.

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

Tradeja.



+

For every drop

of your blood

of your sweat

of your tears,

Every drop of

My blood

My sweat

My tears...

...Tradeja.

+

"He took up our pain, bore our griefs, carried our sorrows...He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes, we are healed."
-Isaiah 53:4-6

Sunday, May 29, 2016

Vocare



"The Word was God." - John 1:1
"I am the voice" - John 1:23

+

Sacred Cyrano Union

Word
and
Voice

Still Spoken

Still Creating

Beautifully Blended

as In The Beginning
the Let There Be
Still Speaks

Bringing the Beloved
to Life

+

Begin Again...



+

Daily Reborn
Out of this chrysalis
Into a world
Also longing
for
Rebirth

I breathe Genesis Breath
Into every seeking soul
laying Potter's Hands
on sacred heads
speaking "Let There Be..."
into cocoons of clay...

Till the Beloved

Once Again

is Reborn

+

"Blessed is the one whose strength is in You, whose heart is set on pilgrimage...
they pass through the Valley of Weeping and make it a place of springs
and the early rain forms pools of blessing."
-Psalm 84

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Torn



+

I have sweat so much blood
In this Eden turned Gethsemane,
Died so many deaths,
Been consumed in the furnace of this world,

That I am now
More Spirit than substance
More Flame than flesh

Torn

Like that Veil
Two thousand years ago
To let in Heaven

-The very Veil men, 
mere hirelings who purport to represent Providence
Have spent centuries patching up,
The repulsive presumption of peddling Providence from pulpits
The high treason of imposing taxes on the exports of Heaven -

So He finds a way around
As He always has,
Like a River running around impertinent pebbles
Like an Ocean surging over impostor shores

Through Ruffian Royalty
Through human holy of holies,
Through those who,
Like their Leader,
Would lay down their lives
Would give their all

Would be Torn

So that Living Water
and Covenant Blood
Could once again
Flow Freely

For the sake of seeing His Kingdom Come
For the sake of His Will be Done
For the sake of once again
Letting in His "Let there be..."

For the sake of His Beloved,

Let us be

Torn

+

-Matthew 6:10

Tuesday, April 5, 2016

Beloved Beginning




+

We all know the story,

"In the Beginning
God Created..."

Birds and Brooks,
Moonrises and Mountains,
Wind, Sand, and Stars...

All that we see
He brought into being
By speaking a Word,
"Let There Be...",

~ With one Staggering Exception ~

When it came to creation's climax
The Most High's magnum opus,
Namely,
Mankind,

It was not a detached dictum
With which we were fashioned,
But rather God made a distinction in our design
By taking a Hands-on approach...

All the wonders previously formed
Became mere backdrop
As in this pinnacle moment,
"Let there be..."
became

"Let Us make..."

The Potter proceeded to push up His sleeves,
Pick up His clay,
And with a tenderness that brought all of Heaven to tears
This Master Craftsman got His Hands dirty
As He,
In The Beginning,
In the first intimate interaction
Between Deity and dust,
Skillfully Sculpted

His friend,

His companion,

His Beloved

+

Genesis 1:26-27