The Cure

Katharine Harer

baseball is a good antidote for death

where else do we mutter belief scream

hope over green grass bathed

in light where else do we coach the best

out of one another

it's all right baby

you can do it

settle down guy

you'll be okay just hang in there

we need you buddy

we need a spark

be the ignitor man

our whispered pleas combine over rows

of seats and peanut calls and pour into the ears

of our boys fixing them

with our best hope the best we have to give

nowhere else do we do this together

reverently from some untapped place

in our chests saved for our children

and our lovers we thought we'd used it up

but listen to us croon making our voices

carry just the right mixture

of love and demand

our throats are sore

the peanut shells under our feet flattened

from jumping up and sinking down again

our heats extended

pumping belief

into this one afternoon

you can do it

you can do it for us

do it now come on

do it now

The Greeter

Robert N. Watson

He’s not the Reaper, but he does stop by

To say, to everything that’s ever lived, “Nice try.”

Adam's Complaint

Denise Levertov

Some people, 

no matter what you give them,

still want the moon.

The bread, 

the salt, 

white meat and dark,

still hungry.

The marriage bed 

and the cradle,

still empty arms.

You give them land, 

their own earth under their feet,

still they take to the roads

And water: dig them the deepest well, 

still it’s not deep enough

to drink the moon from. 

The Candidate

Mt 15:22-24 / Mt 19:13-14 / Luke 15:1-2 

They did their best

to keep the marginals

away

from the Candidate.

The children.

The sick.

The possessed.

 For a moment

they let down

their guard,

 and find Him

dining with sinners.

And the Twelve

frustrated

with Him

wonder,

"How is this guy 

ever gonna be 

our Messiah?"

Arsonist

Luke 12:49-53 

Oh,

how the Arsonist

thought He

was gonna

cause a revolution.

All will burn

then turn

learn

and be reborn.

Alas,

His first attempt

was a fizzle.

And before 

going on the lam,

He sent His Spirit

down to set off

 a global warming.

And from His hideout,

only the Arsonist

appreciates the sad irony.

 His followers

hearing His story

in quiet,

air conditioned comfort. 

Good morning - Midnight!

Emily Dickinson

Good morning—Midnight!

I'm coming home,

Day—got tired of me—

How could I—of him?

Sunshine was a sweet place—

I liked to stay—

But Morn—didn't want me—now—

So good night—Day!

I can look—can’t I—

When the East is Red?

The Hills—have a way—then—

That puts the Heart—abroad—

You are not so fair—Midnight—

I chose—Day—

But—please take a little Girl—

He turned away!

Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam trans. Edward Henry Whinfield 1883

375

In a lone waste I saw a debauchee,  

He had no home, no faith, no heresy,  

No God, no truth, no law, no certitude;  

Where in this world is man so bold as he? 

Testimony

Stephen Dunn (2012)

The Lord woke me in the middle of the night,

and there stood Jesus with a huge tray,

and the tray was heaped with cookies,

and He said, Stephen, have a cookie,

and that's when I knew for sure the Lord

is the real deal, the Man of all men,

because at that very moment

I was thinking of cookies, Vanilla Wafers

to be exact, and there were two

Vanilla Wafers in among the chocolate

chips and the lemon ices, and one

had a big S on it, and I knew it was for me,

and Jesus took it off the tray and put it

in my mouth, as if He were giving me

communication, or whatever they call it.

Then He said, Have another,

and I tell you I thought a long time before I

refused, because I knew it was a test

to see if I was a Christian, which means

a man like Christ, not a big ole hog.

Hands-off Policy

Robert Capon

 God still insists on running the world

 without running it at all. 

The question is put loud and clear: 

Why in God’s Name won’t You show up? 

And the response comes back 

as supremely unsatisfying as ever. 

To show up would be

 to come in your name, 

not Mine. 

No show, 

therefore. 

And, of course, 

no answer.

Corporate

Numbers 20:1-13/ Matthew 16:13-23 / Isaiah 55:8-9

The underlings protested

to Moses

about their circumstances.

Specifically,

the lack of food

and drink.

So, Moses stepped out

to talk it over with 

his Boss,

and returned

with His instructions.

And as Moses came back

to the assembly,

he became increasingly

fed up about

the situation.

He got on his podium,

he raised his voice,

and said,

"You want water!

HERE'S YOUR WATER!"

The ungrateful 

slurped it up

without a thank you.

And 

Moses received 

a memo from Corporate

stating his project

was suspended

indefinitely. 

II

The Boss

saw that 

Peter had 

management potential

and gave him the

keys to the Kingdom

and the powers of

loosening

and binding.

And then,

Jesus gave

the executive summary

of how it was all

going to go down,

complete with 

murder and

resurrection.

After hearing this,

the newly minted executive

said the words

a manager should never verbalize,

“Have you really thought this through?”

So after hearing this,

Corporate does

what Corporate does,

and shamed him

in front of his peers

for not being in favor 

of the Plan.

Daydream #852

Luke 12:13-21

Sometimes

I think I could

write

a best selling

self-help book.

It would be an

old-fashioned 

budget spreadsheet

with the categories

already filled in:

Love

Faith

Friends

Health

Generosity

Justice

Forgiveness

Change

Hope

And written 

to the

right

of each item is:

How much can I budget of this today?

Working title: Life Budget

But that can change 

if you come up with 

a big enough advance

and an endorsement

from Joel Osteen.

Loaves and Fishes

 David Whyte

This is not

the age of information.

This is not

the age of information.

Forget the news,

and the radio,

and the blurred screen.

This is the time

of loaves 

and fishes.

People are hungry

and one good word is bread

for a thousand.

Idiot Psalm 12

Scott Cairns

A psalm of Isaak, amid uncommon darkness

O Being both far distant and most near,
             O Lover embracing all unlovable, O Tender
             Tether binding us together, and binding, yea
             and tenderly, Your Person to ourselves,

Being both beyond our ken, and kindred, One
             whose dire energies invest such clay as ours
             with patent animation, O Secret One secreting
             life anew into our every tissue moribund,
             afresh unto our stale and stalling craft,

grant in this obscurity a little light.