Creation's Labor

Creation’s Labor  3/18/2022

I heard creation groan today

She groans for us to know

That all are  of God’s breath

Made of love for only love.

I wonder if even the atoms

Of the very bombs that drop

Screech out for mercy for the world

For the children without a home.

I wonder if the creatures

The plants, the trees, the rocks

Cry out in their own tongues

For mercy from their God.

Can our prayers, oh Holy One,

Bring salvation from ourselves?

Our wordless groans rise up throughout

Creation’s battered soul.

Sophia come and rescue us

From insensibility and greed.

Though bombs are dropped and fires burn

We will hope in a newborn peace.

Sweetest Child

In a manger

Where lambs are fed

In Bethlehem

The house of bread

Lies a baby

Heaven born

Creation’s hope

By God sworn.

My Lord My King

Why should you lay

In a chiseled rock

Filled with hay?

Did we see

One day soon

Another stone

For you is hewn?

Another rock

A different bed

For  your broken body

To rest instead?

Could we see

Even more

An empty tomb

An opened door? 

Sleep now baby

Sweetest child

Be now consoled

For a little while.

12/2021

From my Retreat

Christ in the Wilderness Retreat

11/23/2021

I step off the mown path

To the trail of the deer.

I find where in the meadow

They’ve lain.

Wary of pellets sprinkled about

I rest on a bed they had made.

With closed eyes, on Gaia’s lap,

I hear the pine trees breathe.

The power of the sun cuts gently through

Touching my cheek.

A blue jay speaks up.

The breeze whispers “shhhh.”

I wait for what is to come.

With Christ in the wilderness at my side

We speak not even a word.

In the meadow

On the trail

Where the deer

Made their bed

We linger,

We stay,

We are.

A Thanksgiving Walk

11/25/2021

This Thanksgiving morning

I went for a walk.

In the meadow some turkeys

I startled.

They gobbled and gobbled

And ran about.

We live! We live!

We live!

What a wonderful gift

Those fowl had be given,

To know they’re alive

And they breathe.

Christmas 2021

Christmas 2021

December’s quiet rests on the river.

Winter’s white floats in the air.

Wind chill defines once again

What layers of warmth to wear.

Another year is saying goodbye,

A gentleman’s bow as it parts.

We snuggle in with sweaters and blankets

And watch as the snowfall starts.

It’s the time of year for turkeys and hams,

For wassail, cookies and pies,

For giving thanks and giving gifts,

For Christmas cards and teary eyes.

We sigh when we gather at the table.

We believe when the manger is seen.

We hope when the year is changing.

We laugh, we cry, we dream.

God gave us, one day at a time,

Planting and harvest and rest,

A heartbeat, a hug, an occasional tear,

God gave us his best.

Thank you God for this year you have given.

Thank you for all of the love.

Walk with us now into days yet ahead

Hand in hand with the angels above.

Leo

Leo

(born 11/9/2021)

Leo Vincent’s first sunrise

Painted the sky red

And woke the earth to celebrate

The life that lies ahead.

Birds like angels soared above

The river carried the news.

Welcome Leo, dearly beloved

Rest now, all time is new.

11/10/2021 

Who is this God?

Who is this God that

Calls it sin and forgives?

Who is this God who

Put the thorn with the rose?

Who is this God of

Darkness and light

Death and life

Scars and blessings?

God of the wolf and the rabbit

Who are you?

I AM the sunrise yet unseen

The sunset of yesterday.

I AM the stars in darkest night

The fly within the room.

I AM the wings of birds yet in the shell

The green beneath the snow.

Be still my child and listen 

I AM the you, deep within this moment.

I AM here to find, 

here to know.

Eternally, I AM.

(November 2021)

Hunting Season

Hunting Season

Your glory rises in the sun through the trees.

Morning’s greeting.

A hunter’s gun sounds just there.

One eats.

One dies.

Your world is beautiful O Lord.

Your world is hard.

Stay with us God.

Stay with us.

Hiding in the Baggage

Hiding in the Baggage  10/2021

(1 Samuel 10:22)”They consulted Yahweh, ‘Has the man come here?’ Yahweh replied, ‘There he is, hiding among the baggage.’”

A suitcase of expectations 

upon a

valise of blueprinted dreams 

stacked on a

chest of broken pieces

Mounded to hide

A self.

Had no one looked to find that self

Or wondered where it was?

Till God called out the hidden one

From all the piles and piles.

And in that blessed moment

In that sacred call

Anointed in God’s mercy

One rises to stand up tall.

Pulled out from the baggage

Becoming now as one might be

United 

Whole

And holy

Becoming and

Becoming….

Becoming me

A Moment

A Moment  10/16/21

On the ridge

Above the prairie,

Assailed by wind,

A silent voice.

A whisper unheard

Spoke:

“You are my child.

I am pleased.”

On the ridge

Above the prairie,

Assailed by wind,

Enclosed in love,

We were one.

A Tomorrow Comes (for Karen Bernardo)

A Tomorrow Comes

(for Karen 9/18/2021)

Across the Mississippi

Just above the trees

The moon seems muted

By wisps of gray.

Does it know?

Can it know

That one who

Loved fully

Forgave completely

Laughed loudly

Sobbed deeply

Has moved on?

Tonight we weep,

The moon and I.

Still a tomorrow comes.

A tomorrow comes.

Francis

Francis (March 2021)

Fear not the unembraceable 

The leprous nor the fierce

Rather cover that which frightens

With love that is pierced

Step down from off the high horse

Upon which you think you rise

Come face to face with humility

In the mirror of another’s  eyes.

If there’s no seeing pass the leprosy

If no loving the untamed

Then we’ll never see in our eyes

That you and I are the same.

Please wrap this cloak around you

Feel the warmth ebbing through

Sense the power of the Holy One

Uniting me and you.

Whisper

Whisper (March 2021)

Whisper my name

In the solitude of prayer

Whisper your love

Frosting crystals in the air

Whisper your hope

Glad sunbeams of this day

Whisper your peace

Whist snow where it lay.

Whisper your heart

Red head tapping on the tree

Whisper your name

Oh Breath of eternity.

Morning Coffee

Morning Coffee

Squirrel atop the ‘lectric pole

Tail curled in an “S”

Crunching morning goodies

Contented...more or less.

I’m sitting on the top step of

The shaded porch out back

Watching lines of working ants

On their morning track.

Birds call to me from their limb

The bee is on the clover

Apples hanging, turning red

And my cat is watching over.

“This is my Father’s world.”

The song spins through my mind.

Thank you for the morning coffee

Thank you for this time.

For Veterans

Veterans of the wars we wage,

Veterans of the pain they cause,

Veterans of the death and anguish,

Veterans all, for you we pause.

To remember all that you have given,

To remember all you fought to save,

To remember those who still stand with us,

To remember those now in the grave.

I wish there would be no more fighting.

I wish no more would have to bleed.

I wish the guns would all fall silent.

I wish–we wish–peace would succeed.

May you have hope as days march onward.

May you find peace when faced with war.

May you know faith when memories haunt you.

May you touch love forevermore. 

Summer Mourning

Autumn’s beauty is so fleeting,

Yellows, oranges, and red.

Fields are golden with summer’s planting

Harvest days are just ahead.

In the sky geese are calling

Taking leave for just a while.

The final rose petal has fallen.

And still the Jack O’Lantern smiles.

Perhaps he knows what we’ve forgotten,

Though his lamp is burning low.

Tomorrow’s seeds in this way planted

Are held safe beneath the snow.

So instead of mourning summer's end

I'll curl up with quilt and cat,

Watching for the peaceful snow

And listening for geese honking back.