The Messiah came one day, tattered in Adam’s rags, ragged and anxious from the moment of sin, sick nearly to death. I said, My father has betrayed you and I have chased dead beauty. Sit ragged with me by my hearth. I too wear scars: do you know them? These the contours that choice hasContinue reading “Søren (After Rowan Williams’ “Rublev”)”
Category Archives: Poetry
Lent 22: Wednesday of Third Week
Son of David: the children drop their scraps to the ground; the feast passes by, unnoticed. Son of David: faith bursts out from unexpected ground. Where are those with faith of a child? Son of David, I am needy. Hear the cry of dogs waiting at the children’s side. Son of David: stretch out YourContinue reading “Lent 22: Wednesday of Third Week”
Like Eagles
First the twinge of bone: feathers attach painful, yet somehow transcending ground and the now-ness of temporal agony. Skeletal complexities fan – now in, now out, now soar: old ageContinue reading “Like Eagles”
Lent 21: Tuesday of Third Week
Rise from the ash-heap. Rise from Law. Lift your eyes to see – Turn your eyes to see where calluses and pious scabs abound, where hearts are hardened, hands dried from much washing which does nothing to purify – turn. Turn your hearts to purify, turn to the Son, to theContinue reading “Lent 21: Tuesday of Third Week”
Lent 20: Monday of Third Week
Yes, the seas stir; the Son, walking atop the waves, does not mind, a sovereign treading the puddles of his soil. We, quaking in the boat or sinking with the self-consciousness of faith, look aghast and fret. Teacher! The waves consume… But see how He strides. See the waves bend and break at His touch.Continue reading “Lent 20: Monday of Third Week”
Lent 19: Third Sunday of Lent
Meanwhile we clutch unflinching rock with closed fists, willing water with dusty souls, palms closed and eyes fixed groundward. Somehow our hearts lock over each passing grief and seal themselves around each rock as though our minds could read eternal. Continue reading “Lent 19: Third Sunday of Lent”
Morning Heart (After Rowan Williams’ “First Thing”)
In my last steps of dream, I am running, carefully conscious of each footstep, prayers in sync with my hesitant freedom. Steps unfold as sun gathers mind up; day summons up the light to enter, to command. Yet first the halfway time, the thought that what the day holds in its hands can hurt moreContinue reading “Morning Heart (After Rowan Williams’ “First Thing”)”
Lent 18: Saturday of Second Week
So the kingdom comes in mustard-seed smallness microscopic yeast invading our flatness prehistoric treasure hid in fallow ground trees unfolding out from roots too deep to see imperceptible life defying noisy death the now-and-not-yetness of ever-active grace.
Catechism 12
What does God require in the ninth and tenth commandments? Ninth, that we do not lie or deceive, but speak the truth in love. Tenth, that we are content, not envying anyone or resenting what God has given them or us. (New City Catechism) The one beside you in the field, Continue reading “Catechism 12”
Lent 17: Friday of Second Week
Where is the strong man? He writhes about as though he had power but he himself knows he is bound. What is this power? It stands before the divided heart, compelling with its tenacious purity. Where is the good fruit? Trees fein their own flourishing, yet the truth will cast out the rotten. Who isContinue reading “Lent 17: Friday of Second Week”
The Consolations of Writing 