After Shots sonnet broken by real tragedy in the theater Again and again, we shoot strong words of blame, shaming God alone when things go wrong that we have done with little thought of our free will to pray for this sad day to be redeemed of sorrow, fears, and ills that seem unceasing. Yet [...]
Bravado from Exodus 2 What a beautiful baby brother you have to hide among the reeds along the river where you’ve seen Pharaoh’s daughter bathe, splashing water against her kind kohl-lined eyes. You’ve noticed her before, haven’t you, Miriam, as you’ve gone outdoors to play? Did you watch her as you gathered papyrus reeds to [...]
The Competition from Genesis 29-35 I. Listen, Judah, and try to understand: for seven years, Jacob served his Uncle Laban for his cousin Rachel’s hand and thought of no one else. It was her dark hair he felt against his cheek, her lips and body shaped to his, and the nape of her neck cradled [...]
Mark Five: Red Letter Edition Come out, come out wherever you are! What is your name? Go home to your friends and tell them the things – the merciful things – the Lord has done. Who touched My clothes? You’ve touched the Son! Now go, touched in peace. You have been healed. You have been [...]
Having a Word with Judah Someone must have told you stories of your great- grandfather, Abram, and your great-grandmother, Sarai – how they had domestic troubles, struggling to amend the word they’d heard. Surely someone called them foolish to be so old and childless yet still plotting, childlike toward a milk-and-honey life. Someone must have [...]
Speaking Other Language What do we know of the cool brook’s rising slowly from its rock-source: trickling, winding, fading among the lilied grasses then suddenly splitting the tomb of another field where cows laze in live-oak shade, waiting good-naturedly for just such a miracle to happen? Mary Harwell Sayler
Haiku Wrought From Rubble Purified by fire, beaten into submission, shaped for service: Gold! Mary Harwell Sayler
The Funeral begins with the birth-date of skin, color, gender, bruising caused by delivery into your particular place or family. No one knows what you now feel. No relative totally relates. No medical force utterly understands the length of your life, your foot, your hand, or other wonderments with [...]
Heavy Laden They’ve ruined me! Their weighty words assign work, work, work to my joy. How can I let go this lack of blessing? I stick out my neck, O Lord, for your yoke. Mary Harwell Sayler
Broken House Today I am convinced that everything I do has little value, Lord, to You, to others, or myself. A vase of many flaws, atop a shelf, just waiting: I speak, but no one hears the sound, and all around the silence of myself – berating – I wonder what will make me real? [...]
On Calling Out and Hoping God Will Answer Love breaks open like a beak – half up, half down : and from the wings of a throat erupts a cry. Mary Harwell Sayler
Disgracing Dinah from Genesis 34 prior to the law of “an eye for an eye” Dinah’s weeping, Judah. Dinah’s weeping. Do you hear? Does she fear the horror that will happen when her big brothers hear of the ill-fated love fallen upon her as forcibly as the trial [...]
Reading The Will Isaiah 58 From the midst of yourselves, pull out oppression. From the center of yourselves, remove falsehood and cruel speech. Feed the hungry, yes, but find some way to satisfy the complaints of the afflicted – those most likely bothered by what you do not do. Then light shall lift you from [...]
To the Icon of the Virgin of Vladimir Your eyes bear the world’s incredible sadness, your lower lids descending into cups that cannot contain your grief. Your mouth depicts the close touch of your Son’s cheek – only a newborn now but shown as a miniature man already ready to comfort. Did you sense this? [...]
Following Job into Chapter Nine Who can be justified before God? You ask a thousand times but do not expect an answer. Before you know it, mountains move. The earth shakes out of shape. Foundations shudder like dread-soaked pillows tossing on your bed. The sun does not come up. Stars fail to light far corners. [...]
Alms Impoverished peoples give generously of their patience, graciously accepting assorted hand-me-downs: the sequined vest, silk tie, high-priced pair of heels. Soon this stiletto heel will bore holes into the earth where roots can nestle. This silk tie will fasten branches to hold a thin blanket, freshening in the sun. This designer vest will warm [...]
All in All Everywhere I look, I see You suffering, drowning in bays and waterways as winds pass over New Orleans like an Angel of Death. I see You starving in the Serengeti, homeless in Haiti, shaken in Japan, forgotten in prison, and orphaned everywhere. Oh, do not leave us, Lord! I nail Your [...]
Wild Riding Kingdom I. Wild animals took flight before a tsunami clouded the land with rushing water pushed by shifting plates below the sea, yet we could not see it coming. Magellan saw clouds of dwarf galaxies three billion years away but did not know what we know: Some stars eat each other. II. Black [...]
Shrouded Woman of the veil, exhaling silence, let me breathe in the presence of Almighty God: Father-Mother of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah, Joseph, Jesus, and, yes, your Ishmael. Will you remain with him, wild, in a desert wilderness, waiting to be blessed as promised, or will you show your face as Hagar and I – [...]
Symbols in a Second Coming Fingertips on a tabletop, drumming time to music tapped into this life we know to be anything but always, all, or only true. How can we stop the symbols in a second coming with sounds and moving pictures of what will be beyond the scope of Hubble or horo- scopic [...]
