8.25.2013

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


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?"

8.18.2013

Arsonist



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? 

8.11.2013

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


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.

8.04.2013

Daydream #852


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.

7.28.2013

help me.....



in trouble
in peace

in pain
in health

in the noise
in silence

in doubt
in faith

Father, 
help me
your child. 

Jerusalem


Yehuda Amichai (1959)

On a roof in the Old City
Laundry hanging in the late afternoon sunlight:
The white sheet of a woman who is my enemy,
The towel of a man who is my enemy,
To wipe off the sweat of his brow

In the sky of the Old City
A kite.
At the other end of the string,
A child
I can’t see
because of the wall.

We have put up many flags
They have put up many flags
To make us think that they’re happy
To make them think that we’re happy.

An Arab Shepherd

Yehuda Amichai (1980)

An Arab shepherd is searching for his goat on Mount Zion
And on the opposite mountain I am searching.
For my little boy
An Arab shepherd and a Jewish father
Both in their temporary failure…

Afterwards we found them among the bushes
And our voices came back inside us, laughing and crying
Searching for a goat or a son
Has always been the beginning
of a new religion in these mountains.

7.21.2013

Love Covers a Multitude of Sins


Soren Kierkegaard

The scribes and Pharisees
soon discovered her guilt,
which was indeed easy
since her sin was open.

They also discovered
a new sin,
one of which 
they made themselves guilty,
when they artfully laid snares 
for the Lord.

But Jesus bowed down
and wrote with His finger
upon the ground.

Why,
did He bow down?
I wonder.

Why, 
did he write  
with His finger
upon the ground?
I wonder.

Did He sit there
like a judge
who listens attentively
to the story of the accusers
and then
jots down the principal points
so he may not forget them,
and may judge strictly.

Was the woman's guilt 
the only thing 
noted by the Lord?

Or
did He write it down
in order to erase it
and forget it?

There stood the sinner,
surrounded perhaps by
those more guilty,
who loudly accused her.

But Love bowed down
and did not hear 
the accusation,
which passed over His head
into the air.

He wrote with His finger
in order to blot out
what He himself knew.

For sin discovers 
a multitude of sins
but love covers
the multitude of sins.

For by one word
from the Master
the Pharisees and the scribes
were struck dumb.

There was no longer 
an accuser.
No one who condemned her.

But Jesus said to her,
"Neither do I condemn you,
go and sin no more."

For the punishment of sins
breeds new sins
but love covers
a multitude of sins.

7.14.2013

The Greatest Question


In the Synoptics,
the faithful ask
Jesus:
"What are the greatest commands
God has given?"

And in a rare instance,
He responds with a direct answer:
"Love God with all your being
and love neighbor as yourself."

In Matthew, 
He concludes by saying:
"The Law and 
the words of the Prophets
all hang on this."

In Mark,
the questioner
whole-heartedly
agrees with Him
and Jesus states
he is not far
from the Kingdom of God.

In Luke,
the lawyer
follows up
with a question about 
the meaning of neighbor.
Jesus responds with
a story we all know.

But in John,
after the Cross
and
after the Tomb,
the tables are turned.

It is Christ asking 
the question repeatedly.
Calling you by name 
and asking
the greatest question:
"Do you love Me?"

7.07.2013

God goes subprime


I always thought Church of the Morally Bankrupt God
would be a great name for a payday loan shop.

Rule Number One

I

God waited for Abraham
to finish with
his pleading for Sodom.

And as He heard
his repeated requests,
He wished mortals
knew the 
number one rule of the gods:
A god got to do
what a god got to do.

II
God waited for the scribes
and other disciples
to finish with
their excuses.

And as He heard
their explanations,
He wished mortals
knew the 
number one rule of the gods:
A god got to do
what a god got to do.

6.30.2013

Independence Day Manifesto

The stakes are too great-
an America gone mad with materialism, 
a police-state America, 
a sexless and soulless America 
prepared to battle the world 
in defense of a false image of its authority. 

Not the wild and beautiful America
of the comrades of Walt Whitman, 
not the historic America 
of William Blake and Henry David Thoreau 
where the spiritual independence of each individual was an America, 
a universe, 
more huge and awesome than 
all the abstract bureaucracies and authoritative officialdoms 
of the world combined.

Only those who have entered the world of spirit 
know what a vast laugh there is 
in the illusory appearance of worldly authority. 
And all men at one time or other enter that Spirit, 
whether in life or death.

How many hypocrites are there in America? 
How many trembling lambs, fearful of discovery? 
What authority have we set up over ourselves, 
that we are not as we are? 
Who shall prohibit an art from being published to the world? 
What conspirators have power to determine our mode of consciousness, 
our sexual enjoyments, our different labors and our loves? 
What fiends determine our wars?

When will we discover an America
that will not deny its own God? 
Who takes up 
arms, money, police, and a million hands 
to murder the consciousness of God? 

Who spits in the beautiful face of poetry 
which sings of the glory of God 
and weeps in the dust of the world?

Alan Ginsberg, 2000

Amber Alert



Sometimes the Church
Sometimes the World
are like the Psalmist.

When some tragedy occurs
they ask the Other,
"Where were You?"

And when we discern
the response
 is the same 
as what
Mary and Joseph heard,
“I AM where I AM 
supposed to be.” 

So,
the quandary arises: 
Do we
like Mary place
the answer in our hearts
or silently wonder 
as Joseph:
“What is Your
Father’s business?”

6.23.2013

The Impossible Takes a Little Longer




We hear the words,
and wonder
if Jesus is
exaggerating
to make His point.

And afterwards
we browse
the bulletin board
of the world
and read of 
who 
makes us
wonder
if we have
any faith
at all.


6.16.2013

The Other Guy


On the TV
Jesus said to Peter,
"I've come to bring you new life."
And Peter replied,
"Who says I need one?"

And we 
who drag
our baggage
around
each day, 
hear the gospel warning:
"forgiven little
loves little"
and think 
He is talking 
to someone else.

6.09.2013

867-5309

The President said,
“All we are doing
is making a log  
of your 
phone calls.”

And all of us 
terrorists
breathed
 a sigh
of relief.

We’re glad 
our cover
hasn't been blown,
as we
 gossip 
about some poor soul.

Talk to our mistresses
and tell the beloved
you have to
 work late tonight.

Get a hot stock tip
from your brother-in-law
at Goldmans.

Thank God
that
our freedoms
and privacy
are not being harmed.

While the 
recording angels
scribble frantically 
in the 
Book of Life.

6.02.2013

Christian President

"I wish we had a Christian President,"
she said.

"Yes," I replied.

"Imagine weapons 
turned into
ploughshares.

Our debts
cancelled
for a fresh start.

The blind 
lame and
sick
won't worry 
about
pre-existing conditions.

And a new beginning
of the last 
becoming
 first."

"No, no, no," she said.

"All I meant,
 he would go to church every 
Sunday."

5.26.2013

Kill the Buddha


The Buddhists have a saying:
“If the Buddha approaches you
on the road,
Kill him.
Because you are seeing the
Buddha
you have made
in your own image.”

When the Christ
approaches us 
on the road,
we have three
options.

We can run away
as the disciples
in the garden.

We can maim
and waylay
Him on the 
side of the road,
as in the traveler story
He told.

Or we can
discern who He is,
stop,
leave
the path we’re on,
and
Follow Him.

5.19.2013

The First Pentecost




On this spring Sabbath,
we wear the red,
feel the breeze,
and imagine 
the Spirit
blowing through
the house
and 
setting us afire
as it happened
to the followers
in Jerusalem.


But didn't the 
first Pentecost 
 occur,
when
the Advocate
 descended 
on a
carpenter's son
to reveal
what it means
to walk 
in the
Spirit?



5.12.2013

MOTHER PICKING PRODUCE


Richard Blanco

She scratches the oranges then smells the peel,
presses an avocado just enough to judge its ripeness,
polishes the Macintoshes searching for bruises.

She selects with hands that have thickened, fingers
that have swollen with history around the white gold
of a wedding ring she now wears as a widow.

Unlike the archived photos of young, slender digits
captive around black and white orange blossoms,
her spotted hands now reaching into the colors.

I see all the folklore of her childhood, the fields,
the fruit she once picked from the very tree,
the wiry roots she pulled out of the very ground.

And now, among the collapsed boxes of yucca,
through crumbling pyramids of golden mangos,
she moves with the same instinct and skill.

This is how she survives death and her son,
on these humble duties that will never change,
on those habits of living which keep a life a life.

She holds up red grapes to ask me what I think,
and what I think is this, a new poem about her--
the grapes look like dusty rubies in her hands,

what I say is this: they look sweet, very sweet.

Eyes Wide Shut



How could he miss it?

The miracles.
The teachings.
The answers He gave.

How could he not recognize
who was in his midst?

As we drive by the homeless.
Criticize the poor.
Fill our prisons to excess.

5.05.2013

A Short Meditation on Giving



I understand
the motive
of keeping
the left hand
in the dark
of what the
right hand is doing.

All things done
for the glory of God
and all that good
Sunday School stuff.

But there is 
one more point
to be made 
of what happens
if silence is broken
on one's charity.

Half the assholes 
in the world 
will scream,
"Why did you give it to them?"

And the rest 
will whine
"Why didn't you give it to me?"

4.29.2013

Christian Zen


“All the way to heaven is heaven, 

because Jesus said, "I am the way.” 
 St. Catherine of Siena

4.28.2013

A Tough Crowd


Sometimes he thought,
I'm like an aging rock star,
where the fans don't want
to hear my latest songs.

"Just give us the hits,”
they scream.

As he approaches the assembly,
he decides
on what his Sabbath 
playlist is.

He begins,
striking a chord to
a faithful 
that learned by heart 
the Sunday School equation
of Easter
divided by Christmas
yields Life Eternal.

4.21.2013

Big Blind


I'm sure
there are
a lot of 
people
thinking:
"What were
those people
thinking?"

Placing 
schools,
old folks' homes,
houses
right next
to a plant.

Gambling 
with their lives.

Especially
when they
can't see the

This Week (Boston/Baghdad)


The Iraqi 
police sergeant
wished
he had the 
luck that
occurred
this week
in the Empire.

A brother
ran over
by his sibling
in a car theft.

The boy
later found 
in a boat
in a water town.

And as he looked
at his current 
he sighed
his request
“Bless those you
have received in 
Paradise.
And make me 
an instrument 
of your
Justice.”

4.14.2013

Bread of Life



The child asked,
"Why is the bread so dry?"

 I told her the ancient story
of a people who had 
to rush out of the
land of slavery.

They couldn't wait to 
for the baked bread
to rise.

So they prepared 
their bread
without yeast.

So when we 
eat the bread
we remember
the people
God rescued.

Then I told her
another story.
A tale of a lifetime ago.

When there was 
no SPF-50
no carcinomas
where the beach was
a place
where some got
the glow of a tan
and some suffered
the pain of sunburn.

And some of us
who endured the hurt
would strip the skin
and taste it.

Seasoned with
sand
and salted with 
the ocean
and sweat.

And when we
got home,
we bathe
and lie in our
beds  as still
as we could manage.

Every now and then
we would
spot a piece
of dead washed
flesh.

We placed it
our mouths
and  recall
the taste of
the wafer
on Sunday morning.

And the words
the priest said,
"This is My flesh.
Do this in remembrance of Me."

4.08.2013

Gasp


(When is the last time you said, "I love You."?)

Two pews behind me
I heard 
her gasp,
"My God, my God,
I love You!
My God,
I love You!"

And her prayer,
disturbed
the equilibrium of
my relationship
with the
Other.

A content,
comfortable 
bond
between us.

No passion.
Words not
spoken
but 
believed to be
understood.

O, 
unembarrassed
God 
with
arms wide open
on the cross
and
when we meet.

Embrace
my heart.
And may
my prayers always
begin:
"My God, my God,
I love You!
My God,
I love You!"