whose to know
I know you
as I
(existentially)
might know that goes
from
much to nearly
anonymous
as I don’t know you
and so
don’t know
what’s
healthy for you except generally
and to an extent
doctrinally
I hardly know
myself
it seems
and all the parts inside that work
well or that are inclined
yet
to rebel
not in
appreciable or creative ways
and so who am I to say
except I wish
for
wellness
I pray for healing of my niece
as I might know you
I pray
and encourage you to pray less blankly
more fully
(knowingly)
for what others and elsewhere need
also
you
and I guess that’s it
let’s pray
and might we know there’s power
in that
intercession
as well as
self-directed
if
could be with the proviso that
faith
hope
and love show up
by prayer
and anyway
and are willing to remain
first
two
the third especially goes nowhere
if all
imperfectly through us
and
perfectly from the one we know
and seek to know
even
through evidence unseen
yet
so believe
to ask
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(1 Corinthians 13:13, Hebrews 11:1)
photograph by Christina Ioannidou at Unsplash
Chamaemelum nobile.
Corinth, Greece
a life only for Teresa
miracle
like so many products
and
mystery
like so many books
and plays
becoming movies
miracle
and mystery
foundations for
an extraordinary life
of
visions
mountaintop
and valley encounters in
the world
but more so of
the Spirit that both inhabits and
visits
the attending and inquiring
soul
and
do we elevate in ecstasy
and what of those who
don’t go anywhere
but stay
below to pray and hope for on-the-ground
situations and
experience
those of us who do not move
who cannot leave
not
to paradise
or the next
town
who are tied where we are tied
and shall go to nowhere
save
to struggle like the caged
or otherwise enclosed
or simply call it
where we are
and where we work
for now
not
to leave with any notion of abandon
not
to go wild
but
to stay put until Parousia come for all
and so
free or encumbered
we might hope to know God
yet
must live where we are
between the peak
and the vale
hoping for
interior conviction for
a life of faith and
love
a life somehow material
and holy
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Saint Teresa de Ávila wrote The Interior Castle
photo by Florian Haun on Unsplash—I was out working for our local newspaper [photographer’s story]. The weather was clear in the beginning but changed quickly. I turned round and saw the hut called “Zimmereben” in the region of Mayrhofen/Zillertal/Tyrol. The black and white gives that photo a touch of mystery to.
an intrusion of angels
a well-written angel in the story
and
how many stories
“Littlest”
“The Bishop’s Wife”
Clarence
you know
we know
also in A Wrinkle
and in a short story by Donaldson
a while ago
I read
if
starting and ending mid-
sentence
and with the might and glory
of
that being only appearing in the moment
when most needed
then
to humble
if
homeless into the next assignment
and I belabor this
(and
these)
because it seems we like the angels
or
we fear them
or
we need them
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“Unworthy of the Angel” by Stephen R. Donaldson—I looked it up to remember
the word for a group of angels, well, there are several words—choir, host, flight, pinion, and legion—and I made up intrusion
photograph is by Dennys Hess at Unsplash
(oh, the prompt is a depiction of an angel, so I believed or decided, in a teleplay)
older now
I have to move and around
so many things
and did I want
sure
I did
or perfected beyond style or budget
and these were simply hopeful
the things
that should now go away
because
the space around me shall go smaller
I believe
as well as
somewhat institutional
organized by age
and
as the stage from which to go to wherever
next
and how to feel
and I don’t know I feel
a plan
and execution
then
a feeling
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photo by Zalfa Imani at Unsplash
smally divine
we worship
sometimes through living
sometimes through talking
over
the smallest things
if to say
thank you silently
patience in the car or
in
our thoughts that run too fast
reactions to
most everything
with
questions
or apologies should there be an expletive
if mild
if inside
still
to rub the slate a little more
here and there by hope
of
pardon not
to rasa
but
to have some clean spaces there
in hope of heaven
should it
go that way
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tabula rasa, clean (razed) plate meaning the state from which we begin and to which (on which) we add our experiences as we live on, John Locke being credited with the name and formulation, though the idea goes back to Plato and, I imagine, ancient others
photograph by Benjamin at Unsplash
available for hire [says photographer]
(the photo is not of my vehicle—though as goes the song I can dream, can’t I?)
terminus
it is finished
and
it wasn’t
but
to Jesus in that
time
it was
in that moment of unliving
it was done
and to be
plain
there was no more
and
who knows of surprise
from God in
having
or unhaving this
the finality
of death
not
to feel the body released
from iron and wood
to be
taken down and carried
who knows where
at first
though finally to stone
small space rolled shut as all of
space rolled
shut
in all systems everywhere
it might seem to
us
and to angels likely
and who knows
but
to God as well
even some knowing
might not
shut out the pain and then the nothingness
to have
in all the heavens
as with us on
Earth
we had our prophecies but forgot
or forgetting to believe
and
did it happen right away
the resolution
and
the glory
and was hell harrowed
right away
or did the sleep without sensation
go a while
so
it was death
complete
even more so than our own
though the moment did arrive
when
the stone and
the space inside the stone
were
not enough and there might have been fire
in release
and
so to heaven
and on Earth
so much a timeline
we don’t
know
though we believe
and who knows how difficult for God
who gave up being God
to
live and
die mortally
totally
by our count for three days
and then
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photograph by Lucrezia De Agrò on Unsplash
late(ish) fall bares trees
spiny soldiers guard the land
so the ground may sleep
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photo by Samuel Bryngelsson at Unsplash
bless the wild
better than
form
is the love you place on wild things
blessing
these with
spirit and adventure
to
let them go
while under care
to dance and run and
love
in all the untame ways
that were
created
then released
while forms are fine for form
but
let the lightning-forces go
never the same
to strike
even with danger in
the magic
risks
in release
but how does freedom that you show
go in any other way
so model this
and
everything outside broken cages
as
the bars are devil’s interest
and love is as roarious
as you
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photo by wallace Henry on Unsplash
going my way
I might
have confessed already
I used to do my homework
by
Monday Night Football
which ran longer
than
primetime typically allowed
I might
have
paper
pencil
later pen
typewriter
while
on my own
I worked through ersatz responses
to
assignments that I’m sure would have
gone better had I
allowed the proper
situation
such as
a cell in a scriptorium
yet here
I am
years later
with tinnitus
and so
doing the same
as
when Cosell told me
that they won a game
they did
not
deserve to win
which and whom
my brother
Rick
liked
to cite and recite
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photo by Klim Musalimov at Unsplash
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