Poetry Collection
Ascension
HOPE
We all hope.
We wish with expectation.
Rich and poor.
Skins of all colors.
We hope for wealth.
Health.
Lovers.
Adventures.
Each amoeba hopes.
To become two.
Four. Eight.
Amoebas.
Life is relentlessly hopeful.
Blocked here? Life grows there!
Meteor crash? Cambrian explosion.
Nature’s hope is pitiless.
Christ tempers nature’s hope with love.
Each untimely death, a loss.
Illness, a challenge.
Hunger and poverty, unacceptable.
His love overflows the vessels we offer:
wine jars at a wedding feast
or the nets of a frightened fisherman.
Pentecost
Beginnings
(Genesis 1 – 2 and Acts 2)
In creation’s beginning,
the breath of your Spirit moved across the waters.
Your breath carried your words into action:
separation of light from darkness,
division of waters,
appearance of dry land,
growth of vegetation,
inhabitation of sky by sun, moon, stars,
birth of birds, sea creatures, and land animals,
animation and blessing of humankind, both male and female.
In the church’s beginning,
the breath of your Spirit moved among the faithful.
Your breath leaped like a flame from one to another,
and inspired them to testify
in words understood by each listening nation —
east, west, north, and south ‑
to your deeds of power
in Jesus of Nazareth,
crucified,
raised up from death,
exalted at your right hand,
revealed Messiah and Lord,
sender with the Father of the Holy Spirit.
In our faith’s beginning,
we employ the breath you give us to repent.
Baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins,
recipient of the Holy Spirit,
children of your promise,
we devote ourselves to your apostles’ teachings,
fellowship with one another,
break bread together,
pray to you,
live in community,
share our possessions with those in need,
and praise you, O God,
in whom all begins.
All-Saints Day
The living feel the sting of death.
And hope that the shock will not kill,
that grieving will heal
the ache as life continues.
We suffer many deaths before our own –
relatives, close and distant – friends, never forgotten –
pets, personal comforts, die –
leaving empty places midst the careful order of our routine.
Some endings are not deaths.
Children grow into others’ lives.
Partners sing new music.
The old relationships end.
And we are changed.
A child’s parent no more.
No longer caretaker, protector, adviser.
And partnered in a different dance.
Ordinary Time
Life And Death
Are you afraid to die?
shouted the revival preacher.
No, I thought.
Death is easy. It comes to all of us.
I am afraid of living.
Not everybody knows how to live.
I don’t mean just pass the time.
I mean living.
Living.
Savoring the life in every moment
friend tree sunset sunrise glass of wine
touch of your lover’s hand.
I mean living the Wednesday afternoon
that lasts forever.