A Cow’ring Flower

I am a cow’ring flower, thinking the sun in all its gold extends itself to burn me; a rigid stem, wrestling the wind as if it meant to break me; a leaf, startled at the touch of rain, convinced that it will drown me. I am a forget-me-not, knowing little and thinking far too much.

Stronghold

The Lord is my rock; the quake cannot shake Him. The Lord is my tower; the hail cannot break Him. The Lord is my anchor; the seas cannot push Him. The Lord is my sky; the earth cannot squish Him. The Lord is my song; thunder can’t drown Him. The Lord is my flight; lightning […]

Envying the Birds

Trouble swells, and we envy the birds— the way they climb the winds with wings and wander far and settle where they please while we have only feet and gravity to hold us to the earth. We squirm, as if our royal birth were some mistake; we sniff, as do the monsters at forbidden meat; […]

Lantern

Lately, something of your voice has carried across the wide band of stars no one can count, and today the darkness falters in the echoes of it—an ember rising from the fire to quell the night that festers in the dungeons.

4•24•24

Some dates must be captured— too aesthetically pleasant to allow to float on by on the streams of time that wander toward history and so this is what to do— immortalize them! (Spenser did it; so can you.) Set an ambush in the river, spread the net out wide and catch those numbers before they […]

The Would-Be Forest

In thirty years our lawn could be a mighty forest, grown from our own oak and maple trees that tower above the grass and weeds and freely lend their shadows every hour. This year the babies sprang from dirt– a hundred leafy heads that bend and wobble, hopeful in the wind. I cannot tell how […]

Greed

Just a little violet in the grass, set to feast on sunshine, drink up rain, meant to bless the wanderers who pass, meant to live and thrive and then to wane. But how the sky could wander wide and free! And how the dirt pressed hard against the root! She tipped and drained the sky; […]

It is the Lord

Another night stretched long trying, trying, trying– until finally morning drifted in– cool and bleak– as empty as their nets in the water. … Another command to cast again to fatigue, hunger, failure– words that echoed fantasy– trite and senseless– to experienced fishermen. … But, once more, they let their nets down down down […]

Gethsemanean Dirt

Whatever it had once been, it was now merely dirt— one small sampling of decayed life, groaning after glory— and not the marble men require for the tread of kings. It lay where it fell, gave its last strength to the olive, took the weight and kicks of common feet. And when the Lord came— […]

It Could Have Been Sold

Ruined alabaster and a year’s worth of labor dripping off Jesus‘ feet— wasted— and all while people starve to death! So the loveless look on love and see but fault. But Love knows love— hears the echos of Himself in shattering stone, feels His own heartbeat in oil running down: it is a gift, and […]

melenoria

Serious