Monday morning
everyone needs easier
a half an hour
and I haven’t really
said
anything
but what would you like to hear
on a Monday morning from
this culture
to
your part in it
or within other lines
I’d like to talk of God and imagine a Monday
morning church
clean
from Sunday
shining surfaces not having to be bright
but
burnished from use
and now
the building takes a breath and welcomes
truly interested
to work
a clean church
from
being mostly empty and a day off
for the pastor
a chance for visitors to enter
and
to breathe
and to wish good Sunday for the Spirit there
and then and now
a restful
presence
as if the sabbath were on this day instead
when
we might pause or at least
work
with less intrusion
if intrusion is the way
but
everyone needs easier
hours
you know
like the Genesis example
a good
day of
taking in the quiet noise
then
all return
outside
n.b.
and could be Sunday in the temple
for the same
or
in the mosque the time before the next
call
to prayer
bless the cleaners
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look forward in anger
awkwardness and shame
and so I force
myself
to show up at things
a gathering of nearly any kind
friends
church
the
store
and I hadn’t had this thought ‘til now
years of wishing
I suppose
as I had been reinforced
to be
alone
and to an extent perceived maybe
by
the company I kept
though Jesus knew sinners
after all
and
Jesus knew me
somehow it’s a child’s feeling
too
perhaps
due to how I was treated
how
some awful thoughts took hold and so
would not let go
and maybe I’ll be free
someday
maybe the demon will be forced to leave
since
it can’t be comfortable in there with
all
the praying with the supplication
yet
there are claws as hooks and
to ask
how pleasant is a life a hell
disappointed by
one’s lord
so the demon will stay
encouraging
the awkwardness and shame
not
to mention all the anger over Prufrockian
plotting and
not hearing angels
sing
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a reference or an allusion is made to “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,” a modern poem by T. S. Eliot in which the protagonist quests to find mythic meaning, that is, to find something beyond oneself (yet connected to)
there is also an opposite use of the title Look Back in Anger by John Osborne, a play from 1956 about post-war life with meaning
while the feelings plus divisions mentioned in the poem are my own
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what comes shadow dreamed
waking life add shaping time
lamp dream to vision
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Psalm 119:105
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visions
having heard the word from a character
and it’s important
something about young people
having then
in
time
when prophecy is elevated
and how it moves along
with
God’s direction and may we
say
revelation
for it sounds like magic
like
mischief
like things no one should get paid for
that is not a regular
job
and how might mystics earn their living
anyway
out of a ring by patronage
I guess
provision of a family or other non-
profit
providing of a cave
outside of
town
somehow
funding
the anchorite approach
then do we take away the prophecies
relegate them to
extremes
that are unhealthy for the nine-
to-five of us
the sort
that earns and so can buy and own one’s breath
not saintly but
with
the relief of practicality
so no visions
thank you
or the crusades that follow
if
believed
dream on your own
in
your own time
and
don’t get paid
or expect encouragement even when
we need you
for
our work and then the way
we play
so come work
come play
with
the skeptics
maybe
spend time with Julian
and the cat
maybe when no one else is looking or the rumors
heard
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In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Your young will see visions.
Your elders will dream dreams.
Acts 2:17 (citing Joel)
Common English Bible
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vicissitude
Luke 22:44-46
if I were tired from sorrow only
that
is exhausting
and stillness took over my body to
sleep
and I slept
and then I were scolded
after the supper
after
being called friend the first
time and
having been asked specifically for
companionship
awake
and praying with
the Lord
and wouldn’t I be exhausted
too
and so could lose my way through praying
and it is night
and it gets late
and
yes
it’s Jesus
and it’s also human me
and if Jesus said to wait and pray
would I not have been invested
with
the energy and other wherewithal to join
and
maybe I had received
and still
slept
anyway
so there’s not excuse
but an excuse
and
I’m made of willing spirit and unwilling
flesh
and how to feel when Jesus tells
me I
have
failed
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44 And in His anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.
45 When Jesus rose from prayer and returned to the disciples, He found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. 46 “Why are you sleeping?” He asked. “Get up and pray so that you will not enter into temptation.”
Luke 22
Berean Study Bible
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manna
the kind that doesn’t keep ‘til the next day
God
forgive us
and help us
for
our daily bread
please
and we might forgive but need the bread
regardless
and there
is
something about stones given for bread as in
don’t do that
but
feed the children
and feed everyone
as
a spiritual need
that our bodies
serve
and that connection is the way it is
the way we are
and we have the capacity
to give
as well as to consumer
to do the sharing of our lives
which we
are also made to do
and so forgive
and
don’t offer stones though if begrudgingly
to give the bread as well
or
if we’re merchants sell the bread
for us
to take home
or to bake
maybe with interest
maybe with need because
this is
the world we know
in which we must make what we shall use
and provide
to use
and this is family
this is neighborhood
and
for some of us
what we resort
to
when the war or the wildfire is on
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number by Venezuela
numbers rounded
so far
as six thousand five hundred rescued
seventeen thousand wounded
three thousand five hundred have died
yet
they are numbers needed for
aid groups
and to give perspective there while working
there on this
alone
and is there judgment
and
forestall it while
the human toll is taken
and
before and after
count
addressed
and who’s there
and many
and
many will be going
and I don’t be
I have to
say
and from a distance
well
I pray
and have given money toward relief
though I’m old and poor and
my family gives me grief
while I should go
on
and they are giving all the while
and fiscal easier
as well
and there’s material in prayer and that’s the point
and it isn’t
but
to give to help
however that is healthy
honest
toward their lives
and
sanctity
having been made by God and natural indifference
notwithstanding
yet
is the God of love and has directed us
by that aspect
even
alone
or through which to send
everything
we send to these in every status
of
the need and our
response
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1 Corinthians 13:13, “And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love.”
NIV
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up hill and
well
I wasn’t sure
you’d really like to know
or I
and
so let go the pedals
that I might
on the hill
the downward side
coast a while and like the trite crossing
I could
look
yes
at you and around
and listen
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two poems about risk
reason
it is a message
then
of love
the god who gave of god
throughout all parts
of
itself and for the creatures
on the planet
all
were made
and if making demands gratitude
and
service even out of
model sacrifice
then
we have
our purposes should we ever
wonder
for we create attitudes
and moods and
state
our purposes
we make jobs and art
as jobs
we stand for office
and
we own responsibility
and we make
people
which were ourselves and
then
the new generation and by
all things made
all
of us
to count
for service
and so always
something
good
for us to do
theft
so I took the advice today
based
upon a perspective of creation and
divinity
and everything went wrong
worse
I was robbed
and then a second theft
for you robbed me
of
protection
plus my own amvition
and
now what
I must regroup
and
you know
recoup
and then what
set myself up to lose even more
to ask
and I suppose you’ll say
therein lies the answer
since
loss is a part of life against
what
by love is gained
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