Empty You eat from my table, And leave me nothing. Then you lay upon my form This weighty cauldron, Dank and empty. It presses mightily, Withholding air that gives rhyme and reason to life Destroying my frame. I show you the door But you raise your brow and smirk Then folding your arms, you lean […]
Beaded Waves The sand waits for the waves to come home. But they cannot stay. The horizon calls them back to the edge of the world closest to heaven but first they must do the work God asks and exchange brine for the healing balm they carry in each beaded roll. Philip C. Kolin
Praise Christ our Purifier Who filters the spite from our souls and decontaminates our spirits, Who cleanses us from all dross and removes anything ill or gross from our memories and old ways of doing things. Christ we praise for bathing us with His Blood on His cross of wood, cleansing us from sin, and […]
O Eternal Spring O Eternal Spring O sweet refreshment of my soul Look on me And draw me ever nearer Thee. In the furnace of Your Heart Make me like unto Thee, That my mortal frame May melt and meld, To be of Thee, eternally. © 2016 Joann Nelander
I Am: The Divine Mystery of the Triduum (Note: As a Catholic Christian, I have just recently celebrated the Triduum marking the Passion and Death of Jesus Christ. As a student of Celtic literature, I have always been drawn to the style of the ancient Druidic bards, on which this poem is based.) I Am […]
The Baptist by the River Jordan This one is like a comet Long ago promised A white force sent from the heavens To sear the earth- He roams in leather and camel’s hair Set in a wilderness mist Skin black as the fishermen of summer No earthly prince, and yet In droves they gather From every […]
On the Pages Before Me In the evening hours, When the night is still. Comes the Lord my God, To his servant. There he sits awaiting, The God of all Glory. And wonders, wonders, wonders, How is this so? Where in his life, Had he been so good? How in his life could he, Achieve […]
Reaching Eyes A hand reaches out, with eyes behind and yet I may not glance, to avoid the dance of charity not felt for I am a judge in motion ever ready to drop my gavel deciding who is true or false when in reality it is I who should be the first defendant resplendent […]
$cientist$ $cientist$ $eeker$, $age$, $avior$ $ervant$, $oldier$, $lave$, $keleton$, $oul$, $cientist$ Guy McClung Copyright © 2016
I Recognize You, Lord When we walk together, discussing scripture as though we’re on the Emmaus Road. I recognize You in the breaking of communal bread at communion, family suppers, and potluck dinners when we talk of You around the table. Your peace, I recognize within – and without as trouble stirs when I forgot […]
Keep Me Not From the Battlefield O my Lord of Wisdom and Grace, Take hold of me and set me in my place. Therein I shall be for You, All that You wanted from me. Take me now and do me this service, That You may begin Your work in me. Let me be the […]
Note: This is taken from a time when I was going through a spell of severe spiritual dryness. However, playing my bodhran drum for a studio recording helped me remember the Divine Order that is all around me, as exemplified by the rhythm of the drum beats. Bodhran I feel the skin of the drum […]
Your Will I reach For Your Will But I only wave my will instead I seek Your Answers But my answers are the ones I choose I ask For Your Help Yet I insist on telling You what that help should be I decide Your credit Yet I only credit You when […]
Heaven Glow Mr. Lee looked at the child moments old. “Sirius is his name,” said he. Mrs. Lee, cuddling the boy, truth be told, Said “Yes, Sirius Lee” he will be. But he wasn’t. Eyes twinkling stellar was he, Not dark, dismal or dull. Shimmering sparkling was he, Not Sirius Lee at all. Because he […]
My God, my God, why have You forsaken Your life for mine? Why are You so far from helping Your own holiness by taking on my sins? You magnetized crowds with Your love and prayers and healing touch, only to draw sin from us – like a magnet cast in iron nails that tear away […]
(I was inspired to write this after reading an ancient legend about the sun dying every night so that the moon might draw breath. As it was Holy Week for Christians, this inspired me to try my hand on a comparative allusion about how Christ died so that humanity might draw new life) “The Sun […]
Microcosmos When we first started looking through microscopes a cold fear blew and it’s still blowing. Life hitherto had been frantic enough in all its shapes and dimensions. Which is why it created small-scale creatures, assorted tiny worms and flies, but at least the naked human eye could see them. But then suddenly beneath the […]
With the Sun on Our Backs My hand is upon you, As you well know. I walk with you daily In the sand and the snow. Together we are bound, For the journey we take. To serve My Father in this place. Days will come, When life will be hard. And others shall be, As […]
Sweet Presence You are here. My soul drinks Of Your Presence. Here is sweetness pervading, Time with no measure, Eternity kissing the moment, Stillness, though fleeting. Your touch stirs the life of me. I want to dance, Charged with new vigor. I should simply gaze on You But the power of life Is hard to […]
Flowers Without Fruit Prune thou thy words; the thoughts control That o’er thee swell and throng;– They will condense within thy soul, And change to purpose strong. But he who lets his feelings run In soft luxurious flow, Shrinks when hard service must be done, And faints at every woe. Faith’s meanest deed more favor […]
It Takes Families To Raise A Village Men with guns surround the powerists’ vehicles. Mothers, loving, unseen behind bulletproof glass, Their children laughing above run-flat tires, Dark vehicles in caravan, racing through red lights, Unimpeded. Happy on the way to school. The mothers talking, motherly, About goodness, and love, and Daddy and cousins. The mothers […]
Beside my desk, seashells Show evidence of life outgrowing the old self and discarding hard protective layers that once encompassed vulnerabilities. Praise the Lord! You have risen from the grave condition of mankind and found Yourself, buoyed in the Spirit but anchored in us, Your blessed Body on earth. © 2016, Mary Harwell Sayler
Some Like Poetry Some – thus not all. Not even the majority of all but the minority. Not counting schools, where one has to, and the poets themselves, there might be two people per thousand. Like – but one also likes chicken soup with noodles, one likes compliments and the color blue, one likes an […]
