Juggernaut Fury – A Poem
Their juggernaut fury bore then, breakneck, on. Iliad, bk 16, ln 702 A horde of chub, toddling out of time, marching in and out of unbalanced lines. Terror of little lives just recently begun. Anyone with a sense of time sees in these wobbling ankles a rising sun. All Chronos’ alms, gathered in grinding […]
In Spite of Germs – Don Marquis
IN SPITE OF GERMS by Don Marquis Disease, says a prominent scientist, is often transmitted by kissing. — News item The scientist Will still insist There’s danger in romances. And yet the stupid Mister Cupid Keeps on taking chances. Though they affirm A deadly germ Lurks in the sweetest kisses, Let’s hope the day Is far […]
The Scars of God’s Hands
My soul clung to the dust, now dust clings to my soul. Your life-breath, once blown up the nose of my father, once exhaled in fruit-statutes, once blown across the dry bones until they could get up and dance; breathe life on me. Speak again the six stanzas that climb up to rest. Speak them […]
Old Man at the Blueberry Bushes
Blueberry bushes brush bungling hands. Hands heavy with age —quivering unhelpfully— gather taste gushing gems of tang. No rot. No root-break. The ripped branches are simply savaged off by shaking old hands. Hands tired of being bound- back for decades. Held mute by manners monastic and proper. Held still by habit and a fury hell […]
Song of Your Own
SONG OF YOUR OWN People take on the shape of the songs and stories that surround them, especially if they don’t have a song of their own. Neil Gaiman, Anansi Boys Like the slender-ankled daughters of ocean shaped by the banks that decide their path, we are shaped by our songs and our stories like potions. Each […]
The Whirlwind Bides His Time
Having recently had The Rev. Joseph Carlson as a Guest on the recent episode of CrossPolitic, I thought it might be nice to get one of his sonnets before you. This is for the 24th Sunday of the Trinity Season in his book of Sonnets for the Church Year. Waiting Four hundred years – the […]
Wing Lift
Wing Lift Psalm 91:3-4 Death-wrenched, life-drenched, each pinched soul fledged to soar on raptorial sails. A fowler-freed fire-bred goldfinch, carols unhitched, stretching and reaching, on wind-held wings. Held in glide and lift, windhover pinion, piloted upwards, against the pull, against the pitch, rich wind hovers over the face of the waters fixing and fastening the […]
A Manifesto on Art and the Church
The Christian Church is in exile. Not that we are living in tents (though many church buildings may qualify as temporary). Instead, there is a deeper exile. The soul of the American Church is in the plot point of the epic poem in which the protagonist becomes a homeless wanderer Like the exiled warrior of […]