Category Archives: Poetry

Peace and the Thorn

“Mellow out,” they say. If I only could. Adolescent patient quoted by Dr Michael Piechowski Three times, the Apostle, says he cried,yet three times denied:within his side the unnamed thorn remained.To fester? To infect? No, to be the site of grace,for only this reply came: My grace is sufficient; in your weakness will my powerContinue reading “Peace and the Thorn”

Lost Things

In a house wheredaily I lose, misplace or breakwhat really, in eternity’s view,means little, yethas power to make or break my day,I understandthe urge to ask Saint Anthony wheremy keys are, or my glasses, orany other easily hidden thing.God in heaven is surelytoo busy with the business of soulsand perhaps too quick to point outContinue reading “Lost Things”

Freeway Towns (After Kenneth Slessor)

Freeway townswith your dusty brownsand shady grassall moving past,with parks astridethe freeway’s sideand hearts that knowand streets that glowin summer sunat half past one,that tolerateour hasty gaitwhile moving onto where we’re from:you watch it all,while freeway’s calldenies the chanceto meet your glance.The moment gone,we part unknown.I wish I knewthe half of you.

Valedictions

Once the new year camein a traffic jam, at Borneo’s mouth,when the crowds who’d fled early to escape the rushnow bid each other a happy onebetween their cars across the street.Another time it came while Iand a friend were lost in the midst of things,driving from one house to another wherethe champagne was chilledand theContinue reading “Valedictions”

Advent with the Prophet Jonah: Day 20

Are you right to be angry?The question smarts like a slapped face.Wrong wording.Whether or not I am right, my anger deserves the time of day.So turn a sullen, smarting cheek.Stare into the raging haze.Grace taps your chipped shoulder.Grace takes the heat from your brow,yet inwardly you burn with a summer sun that has no roomContinue reading “Advent with the Prophet Jonah: Day 20”

Advent with the Prophet Jonah: Day 14

This is the proclamation [the king] issued in Nineveh: “By the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let people or animals, herds or flocks, taste anything; do not let them eat or drink. 8 But let people and animals be covered with sackcloth. Let everyone call urgently on God. Let them giveContinue reading “Advent with the Prophet Jonah: Day 14”

Advent with the Prophet Jonah: Day 6

God of sea and dry land,God of Nineveh, Bethlehemand the belly of the whale,God of heights, God of depths,God of my darkest abyss:I have mademyself my god.I mustbecomeNothing.YoumustbecomeAll.I have blocked the channels whereYou reach me in my darkest hour.I have clenched my fist to fightin place of Your hand charged with life.I must go I-don’t-know-wheretoContinue reading “Advent with the Prophet Jonah: Day 6”

Advent with the Prophet Jonah Day 3

Then the Lord sent a great wind on the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship threatened to break up. All the sailors were afraid and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the cargo into the sea to lighten the ship. But Jonah had gone below deck, where he lay downContinue reading “Advent with the Prophet Jonah Day 3”

Poem after a line from Auden

Prayer, like poetry, makes nothing happen,if “make” means controland “happen” means an instant, an event.No incantations with prayer, no spells;nor with poems. You leavescratching your head,ambivalent to what has transpired.Sometimes forced, sometimes fluid,never simple, unless void of allmeaning save the surface.But prayer and poems both deal in depths;they refuse surface and befuddle the hurried.And poems,Continue reading “Poem after a line from Auden”