ETCHED

The sand on my feet

Reminds me I was with you

Just a short time ago,

So close that you touched me

And still my heart recalls

The way you felt,

The tears I cried at the knowledge of you

And how little I grasp.

 

The nature before me

Displayed your patient love,

Slow and careful the sun

Rose over glistening sea,

Awakening life’s dance

And me in its current

Unable to move,

Held fast by revelation.

The memory will fade

Though I etch it upon

The mind at that moment clear,

Exposed by the light

And found wanting,

Yet wholly free of fear,

The chains of the day broken

And I, your willing captive.

Connection

Between us such a tender thread

Spun of Holy Spirit pure

Connecting that which is unseen
Inside our mortal souls
With that which has the power to call
What now is not as though it were
To bring about a greater good
In lives laid down as sacrifice,
For the sake of full surrender
To profound truth absolute -
One love growing, ever new.

THE OTHER SIDE

The life that lives outside the mind
Is ever smarter, unconfined
By what the mind's eye thinks to see
Within its daft perception proud,
Amidst imagination's cloud
Of grey and lonely truths,
Feeble hopes, and shallow proofs.

The realm of Spirit waits across
The bridge built solid from belief,
And as we choose to walk in faith,
To seek the beauty of that place,
Our reason's fare grows small and dim
Compared with glory found therein
Beyond all logic to explain away.

 So now that we are of the heart,

Surrounded by all wonders known,
The gulf between who we once were
And where we came from to get home
Grows wider every God-filled day
That we remain not of the world
We lost behind with no intent to find.

THE ART OF BEING

The art of being
Is drawn outside

The lines of contour and form
And into the moment
Captured in time,
Rendered the instant it's born.

The ever-engaging
Portrait of life
Beckons us - come, feel and see,
The manifest energy
You are a part of
Joins you in yearning to BE.

The air is a canvas
Painted by sun
Sustaining existence as breath
Beginning with One
True infinite presence
Whose creative hands never rest.

IMAGERY

It’s like a thousand rainbows
Swirling ‘round in vapor form
‘Til the sharp array of colors
Melts together to become
A central shape of mixed emotion -
Stormy, coffee-colored clouds
Within an aching wall of sound
That screams apart its dissolution,
Scatters shards of broken past
Upon the softened, molten ground
Afire with hunger, hot and proud,
Transforming them to crystal mass
Reflecting forth an imaged sky -
Sifted memories flying by
Their fullness looming large as life
That, heavy with the passing night,
Now gives way to endless day…
Upon the still, blue sea of freedom’s light.

Uncondemned

The woman you accuse
Has not lived here for some time,
She died upon a cross
Against her will and yet for mine -
Now what remains here in her place
Is nothing less than my son's face
And I do not recall her past mistakes.


This woman's not condemned
To pay the price for Eve again,
The birthing pains alone
As consequence have been enough -
For now the life that breathes in her
Is so much more than she deserved
According to my gift of grace and love.

Tares

In setting up arguments
I am convincing,
Adept at replacing
Your truth with my own
Exalting my version
Of rational knowledge
From tares among seeds
That were long ago sown.

Serenade

 The clouds continue their march to the sun
Along the horizon line blue,
The mockingbird tries to serenade them,
But I know he's speaking for You.

The wind both obscures and reveals as it moves
The rushes in back and forth sways,
The sun sheds it light and its warmth from above,
Preparing to yield up the day.

The Doctrine of No Want

Within the doctrine of no want

There is a deep desire

To know the One we know to be

The soul's consuming fire,

That like the sun doth set us free

From cold and blackness both,

Illustrating as we see

And moving when we won't.



In contrast to what we expect

This weightless One can fill

The empty vastness of mankind

So lost in wanting still

And in the fullness of His love

There's nothing left to gain

As every moment He invades

The space we once called pain.



No longer will we pray in vain

For things we think to satisfy

But rather praise the holy name

Of He who lives with us, inside,

And as we walk along His way

The journey will become today,

And in the place of making due

A grand adventure, always new.

WITHIN ALL

The unbearable joy
Of seeing you here
Seizes my heart,
And once still, it hears
The sound of your calling
In all that surrounds,
Inviting the seeker
To know you are found
In the beckoning wind
And the glorious light
That penetrates
Worlds within worlds full of life.

The tangible soul
Of the world within grasp,
I dare not lose vision
While clarity lasts,
So with eyes fully open
I look to your face
And the truth of my need for you
Wholly embrace
While acute revelation
Stirs wonder and awe
In a Spirit that testifies
Love is the truth within all.