Bread of Ice Do I not bleed money? Are not my five wounds five decimal points? Is not my crown a woven star of diamond? Am I not scourged with your defaults? Do I not bear a heavy cross of gold? Does not my cup run over with petroleum? Is not the spirit I breathe […]
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? […]
Those I Love That dark trail As thick dusk solidifies Beneath the tall trees Cathedral or tomb of memories Then to break through At the uphill end of the track To the green meadow and the open sky To see spread overhead heaven’s bright work Those strong swift clouds in the light And how they […]
Rising Wind Rising wind Falling fire Life abiding Soul’s desire Word speaking Babel cure Earth renewing Spirit pure Claim us Cleanse us Make us Yours Stephen Pohl
By The Sea of Galilee Walking softly to where he is I kneel on the sand Then rest my head against the stone He sits upon In the breeze His cloak brushes against my cheek I look upon the sea He gazes on Feeling the breeze that he feels Smelling the sea as he smells […]
Nothing Lies in Silence Long Hold up your hand or stamp your foot A movement makes the mountains tremble, Footfalls stop the rising sun If in the place and time most fragile I saw the truth of this today When something dead began to breathe, A memory I once retained Took up a thread, began to […]
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. […]
The Prodigal One Scorching heat awakens the man No outline of large tents offering sweet cakes, soft pillows, and shade No sign of attending figures who embrace and kiss their lost one No drops of the many wines that flowed till well into the night when Large glittering stars camouflaged the velvet-black heavens… No remnant […]
Why Reach for What Does Not Exist? Why should I lament my son Who lived in flesh by death undone? No one would grieve for wind and dust That in the body placed its trust Nor for phantasm memory A fond and dim sterility That spills away like morning mist I rolled inside the […]
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 […]
Somewhere Somewhere there is Shangri-la Where men and women never age, Bird song is an opera And every infant is a sage Drowsy weather always spring, Beneath the willow rivulets Gently flowing trill and sing To fishes at the minuet In Shangri-la there is no greed, Rational it is to share The harvest and there […]
Olivet To Olivet, where psalms were sung before the kiss of death had stung, where he had healed with but a touch the servant’s ear that Peter cut, the risen Lord returned that day, gave friends the charge to preach and pray, then to heaven was lifted up to set the place where we shall […]
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 […]
Who Would Dare Smile? Don’t read this if your heart is soft, Your heart is not of granite stone I speak of Patrick, less than two Whose parents beat and broke his bones When officers arrived too late To save his little life, febrile, With broken back and broken ribs Sweet Patrick tried to smile […]
One of Us The old ones saw like us A great wall rise and crumble Admit, expel Barbarity and anarchy Defend and give away Concord and stability But now the wall divides The human from the inhuman The creature and the function The soul from the switch And it is derelict, a ruin The dark, […]
Wondering Bones The late afternoon sky reminded me of old, worn out bones, gray, ashen, but filled with a holy spirit, mine and God’s. and I wondered if my life would be as much of a Gift to those who have been such a Gift to me… Niles Comer
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 […]
Citadel It wasn’t just a place to name the animals To guard the Tree of Life To know the good of life and not the evil It was the citadel impregnable, a refuge of the trees A rampart of the oaks and tamarisks Walls and towers made of limbs and leaves There was a peace […]
Ready for Silence Then hear now the silence He comes in the silence in silence he enters the womb of the bearer in silence he goes to the realm of the shadows redeeming and shriving in silence he moves from the grave cloths, the dark tomb in silence he rises ascends to the glory leaving […]
Restless On the morning of the third day having redeemed the house of Adam Jesus, restless in spirit threw off the linen shackles of death and took up his body anew. Stephen Pohl
Bad Night A seabird driven landward by a storm Circles overhead, expected guest, We have been waiting for the wind to form, Apocalypse approaching, east to west The Christ of God comes riding on a cloud, No vapor any more but head and flank, Steed of Consummation and the proud Recoil, the angels rank on […]
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 – […]
Whirling Dervishes of Winter The wind whips the snow around like a whirling dervish lost in the truth of ecstasy: a pure white ghost dancing wildly like a Banshee of God over the snow as it coaxes and teases the dying sun, glimmering pure blindness off the icy whiteness of the world as it settles […]
This is the Time of War I tried to write an anthem for the future What will be and calls to us unseen Committed by an evil to encounter Sing for us until we come to be There will be a war not thought of yet Those who know it not will know it then […]
