Apple Day

Driving in the dewy air the biting tang from just beyond the thinning vale (thinner in the mountain mist) that separates our world from bliss. Beethoven on the speakers; themes again, again and then, ONE MORE TIME again. – Climbing up in apple tree to bite the skin-sweet juice and throwing (wasteful) high into the […]

September

It is the smell of leaves and the sound of crickets and the brush of wind. . It is the sunshine, tilted like a ramp into the sky. . It is the clear, crisp edges of the world washed clean with the rain. . It is the stillness under drifting leaves calling us to rest.

Alumni Visit

I feel it as I walk the halls, and hear those academic calls and sense the tinge, the was, the once of college kids all crammed and rushed and wonder (as some students pass) in speech removed as tinted glass what might have been if I had seen the walking heads around me more and […]

Weep with Me, September

Weep with me, September. The embers of these days burn with wakened grief— the thief came to kill, and all will not be well for a while yet. Where leaves and tears and people fell, we knelt, gaping, trembling, broken on these tokens of evil— my will and mind, lisping, your crisp, clean blue, the […]

A Dark Night

I drive in the dark and the quiet, I drive where the shadows abound. I drive while the streets are still silent and traffic lights starble the ground. – I drive while the city lies sleeping. I drive while the good people dream. I drive where the shadow men burgle and criminals cohort and scheme. […]

Flames

The flames dance: cool and elemental, wrapped around their twine of radiating energy. The crackle of the pine the snap of sparks that clack like pop bottles splacking caps. – So odd to see the darting light the wall of whelming warmth so unconcerned– sporting hues of purple-blues of lava deep as sun. So full […]

With His Wounds We Are Healed

We stumble, bleeding from our wounds, weak from loss. We carry damaged hearts—throbbing arrhythmias—pain, pain, and numbness, pain, numbness, numbness, pain, pain, pain, pain, pain… We run, racing our overprotective minds to safety—to darkness. We hide, we shield, we bandage, but the wounds are infected. We cannot heal ourselves. Oh Jesus, Lord of all, who […]

The Spoil of the Strong

“And they crucified him, and parted his garments, casting lots.” ~ Matthew 27:35 Greedy hands reached out eagerly to seize the woven fabric of the clothes lately worn by Jesus. Heated words, and shaken hands, and rips of sword sharp severing as the earthly garment that good and noble garment so lately dignified by him […]

Stricken

the SNAP of harsh rebellion echoed, tought and loud— the SPLAT of hot ingratitude that specked the watching crowd. – CRACKS of stiffened justice for all the brazen lies the CUFFS of wounded parent-griefs for running from the wise. – The cutting STAB of lust-ish shame now bleeding, oozing soars of living life for sensing […]

Well Acquainted with Grief

Yes, He knew grief—knew him like an old enemy. From the first betrayal—all His care and attention pitched for a bite of fruit—through the latest— a kiss on the cheek, an 11-man flight, a swear word on the lips of his side-kick—His heart bled. He knew the whiplash of loss; He had stared into the […]