Ecclesia Mellow Go and sin, sin on more. Mercy, my mercy, sin galore! The joy of love, not the sword, No division, praise me lord! An eye offends? That’s OK, Look again, not away. Fire everlasting not forever. Eternal damning, never, never. “Yes is yes” hurts so much. “No is no” is out of touch. […]
Heaven: The Final Dimension Meeting family never met Where damaged children are lavished upon and injured souls repaired Where Martin Luther King shakes your hand With great affection Strangers smile in passing Where decent cut dresses, of silk with sparkling threads, are given without fee No tarred roads to mend No corn to husk Land of […]
The Eyes of Your Heart You The Eye Piercing the Monstrance veil, Gazing at me Kneeling, Focusing green eyes upon the White Sacred Species: You Seeing me across time and eternity, Spotting me beyond the seated masses, Savoring your word, Devouring your bread, broken and shared. You Peering through the lens of love at Me […]
LORD, my whole heart thanks You. I can’t begin to count Your wonderful deeds. How glad I am in You! Oh, how I rejoice! Even my enemies repent in Your presence. You maintain me and all I stand for – the righteous rulings You bring. Nations will receive Your rebuke, and people will perish in […]
I Must Seek Out Paper If the words were mine, I should fear for my soul, For surely pride would betray me. ’Tis better as is, that He is the author, And I, just a happy pen. Oft times the words flow in a rapid verse, And at others a slow line at a time, […]
The Convent Threshold There’s blood between us, love, my love, There’s father’s blood, there’s brother’s blood; And blood’s a bar I cannot pass: I choose the stairs that mount above, Stair after golden skyward stair, To city and to sea of glass. My lily feet are soiled with mud, With scarlet mud which tells a […]
Wine and Water Old Noah he had an ostrich farm and fowls on the largest scale, He ate his egg with a ladle in a egg-cup big as a pail, And the soup he took was Elephant Soup and fish he took was Whale, But they all were small to the cellar he took when […]
John Henry Newman’s longest poem, The Dream of Gerontius, is a spiritual work rich in theology. Composed at the time in which he had the presentiment of an impending death, the reality of Last Things was very present to the author. The poem, written in 1865 when Newman had been a Roman Catholic for twenty […]
Precious Child If we wants the child, The precious, Get it from mommy and daddy, How can we does it? We hides us, We sneaks around, Near the ground, And we calls us, “Village”. We means “steal,” but we says “raise”. “Village” is good, “raise” is good. Takes a village to raise a child! We gets […]
As I read Benedict’s Daughter, by Philip C. Kolin, I was treated to the talent of a veteran author who has already published several books of poetry. With poetic rhythm and stunning imagery, Kolin’s poems manage to get to the heart of the matter. With his gift of poetic sight, he is able to bring the reader […]
Hanger Shirts Each year before school started, mother led him to the store, through the men’s department, past the boys’ clothing to the back room with the faded cardboard sign that said: Irregulars. He didn’t know what made him irregular— perhaps it was the birthmark on his left leg or the cowlick of hair he […]
she: robed and wordless I opened this jewel of a book, hoping beyond hope that it would be filled with the type of poems that would inspire my prayers. I was not disappointed. After reading through the poems in Sister Lou Ella Hickman’s new collection, I am pleased to say she has done a wonderful job. […]
Every Feb. 2, Punxsutawney Phil, a groundhog, is pulled from a tree stump in Punxsutawney, PA. If he sees his shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter. If he doesn’t, spring is just ahead. In a 2010 interview, I asked Phil about a request made by the People for the Ethical Treatment of […]
Calm My Childish Fear Here I am, Lord, sitting at your feet, Awaiting Your command; Lord, what is it you seek? Am I to do a major thing or something oh so small? Whatever it is you ask, Lord, I will do it all. For I know no matter what the task, I do not […]
A Better Resurrection I HAVE no wit, no words, no tears; My heart within me like a stone Is numbed too much for hopes or fears; Look right, look left, I dwell alone; I lift mine eyes, but dimmed with grief No everlasting hills I see; My life is in the falling leaf: O Jesus, […]
The Convert After one moment when I bowed my head And the whole world turned over and came upright, And I came out where the old road shone white, I walked the ways and heard what all men said, Forests of tongues, like autumn leaves unshed, Being not unlovable but strange and light; Old riddles […]
Just As I Am / Through a Glass Darkly Just as I am, All that I am, You behold me. I see so little, So little of me, So little of You. “Through a glass darkly” Sufficiency suffices, In Faith, believing. Mingled here, Your Mercy, Grandeur, clouded in Mystery, I rest as a babe. Just […]
I woke up this morning. I could have instead been meeting my Maker, sautéing like a piece of human bacon in the eternal frying pan or dancing with angels. You must have woken too or you wouldn’t be reading this. Have you ever put much thought in that? Waking up in the morning is not even […]
Christ, Cross, Choice Innocent, Jesus, you were judged guilty and condemned to death. Uncomplaining, You received, accepted, and embraced Your cross. You fell under the cross You had chosen, but you stood up, supporting it, to be with your Mother Mary, to feel her love. Simon helped you carry it and Veronica comforted You as […]
Thurible Dimly-lit church, empty except for the strong lingering scent of spicy-sweet smoke from a funeral earlier in the day. Gray rising clouds no longer visible, stale recollections left behind with memories of a soul I did not know. Lives sputter and ignite like aromatic crystals heaped onto blistering coals, souls billowing and ascending. Tim […]
St. Francis and the Birds The birds flocked To hear St. Francis Tell them stories of creation And how they first played The sky like a huge harp, Their wings plucking Strings of pure air While warbling canticles On the splendor of flight. Philip C. Kolin
A Christmas Carol In the bleak mid-winter Frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone; Snow had fallen, snow on snow, Snow on snow, In the bleak mid-winter Long ago. Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him Nor earth sustain; Heaven and earth shall flee away When He comes to reign: […]
Return A star smile surprise, From me untimely ripped, Tore the wind with Moments of unsilence, then Severed a startled sullen sky, Rising, careening, disappearing. I moaned forever. Left cleft, gored, jagged, One searing, souless scar, Unhealing. Mined like a fertile shaft Through a seam of precious gems, My stellar pebble dug and chiseled, Processed, […]
The Burning Babe As I in hoary winter’s night stood shivering in the snow, Surpris’d I was with sudden heat which made my heart to glow; And lifting up a fearful eye to view what fire was near, A pretty Babe all burning bright did in the air appear; Who, scorched with excessive heat, such […]
