one forest remains
energy needs more than air
leaving machine world
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photo by Maximalfocus on Unsplash
better news
1
better news
that God loves us
and sent
the child of God
to
live and innocent and perfect life
and then to be
killed
by the powers of the world
and the princes of the air
and
yet not have that be done
be it
and there is so much
more
because the child came back
up to Earth
if that was the direction
out
to all
to offer the child’s resurrection
from death to life
to a life for each of
us
and life that goes on
forever
finally
on a renewed Earth
beside or somewhere near
or in
a new heaven
and that’s our job
believe
2
feeling Christian
this morning
or
recalling who I am
and
that God sent God through
the Spirit of the Lord
so that
not only this
sect
but the whole world of us
might
believe and so be saved
from death
and
for this day and
the next and
on
be saved from sin as well
the whole word
John 3:17
remember to share it this way
a gospel for everyone
3
and will
we guess at
for
fun or profit
or in what we might
take
as the conquest of space
whether or not
Jesus
came to Mars
on comets
inside asteroids
and
shall Christ be there
awaiting lunar Artemis
as we
begin again
which is all right
‘cause Jesus has saved Mars
comets and asteroids and
first for us
the moon
for
the silent planet speaks again
and all that happened
here
to revive and fallen
pick us up so we
might
carry on again
miracle
new song
and our own arriving
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C. S. Lewis posits a cosmically quiet Earth and us in Out of the Silent Planet
photo by Petri Haanpää on Unsplash
dire psalm
off the edge
I get
too close
even though the fog of consequence
is in there
over the last safe line
no
not that way
this way
where we were
all the steps
before
and if the land were not so hale
at least we knew
some
of the demons wandering
sometimes by
name and if we could not contend
could be
content enough to breathe
here
and stay that way
(breathing)
in the fog
I doubt there is evangelism
though
I’ve heard of
the harrowing of hell
and
I guess we must remain alive
to share words on
this
side
or hear the ones we need to hear
dissemble
for hypocrisy
we’re simply scared
before
and contemplating after
the billows of unknown
the formless clouds
which is
their form
so caught between the sure thing
the condemns
and what we’ve heard of darkness
and
temptation to go there
so where is the safe place
where
might we live
in confidence despite moral contraries in
the ways of the world
is there balm
and where is Gilead
for
that
or what is the prescription
more so the order to have medicine
brought
local
say
to the heart and mind
even as we are
or
where we are
well
you are in both places
I believe
and we believe and maybe there is
confidence
in faith
or maybe not but you are with us
in the doubt
the cloud of our own making
and unmaking in
the shapeless and yet fearful places
of
the soul
the needs to go somewhere
and
wherever
might we go with you
and to that we might
if like temerity
enough even boldly to affirm with
if not selah
then
an amen
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photo by Kristaps Ungurs on Unsplash
truth tectonics
(the plates of who we are might slide)
I want
to love
believe me
but
I’m sick
and illness doesn’t love
or
adverse conditions one must live with
so
forget love
except
to keep it on a list
in someone else’s closet
kept
until all things are better
then I might
open certain doors
to find
what had been put away for me
and
now I’m ready
reticence
with
reason
don’t you think
I must be whole before
I might share
parts
while the parts must be sound
so that
among other things
I’m
acceptable
also persuasive
solve the problems first then
share
unless
ah
there’s
some truth in the parts
some sharing beyond bleating
beyond bleeding for
my cause
that is
only proper to exclude myself from life
and also stay away
from
real worldly exchange
and
what is that
a thorn I hear about
that is never pulled
that
can’t be sliced from the otherwise
acceptable
plant
and yet one speaks
truth
to pain as well to virtue
and both might
count
in discourse
even to influence the larger
better lives
and
maybe so
I could say something
out of insufficiency
that
could be heard and might change
even hale things
lives
to find they have their splinters
too
even fractures and the broken parts
that never
seem to heal
hmm
so many
could it be all of us
who suffer
something broken
even
shameful
and still might have to live
to share
all the truth of how it is to live
fallen
and to find
like
um
everyone
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. . . but on my own behalf I will not boast, except about my weaknesses. . . . a thorn in the flesh was given to me, . . .
photo by vegonaise on Unsplash
practice fields
I wonder what
I should
do
and wonder if I’ll ever have the moment
stretched a bit
in
which some contentment
to relate
to myself and anyone who wants
that
what I do is enough
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photo by Camille Mercer on Unsplash
the tiger or the tiger
which might the point
of the story
what
to gain
what
to lose
might be the tiger
anyway
with clawed results
whichever door
to
choose
depending on agendas that
are hidden
making modern beasts
out
of us all
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“The Lady of the Tiger,” a story by Frank R. Stockton, published first in 1882
photo by Gurpreet Singh on Unsplash
most easy or most difficult
simply live and love
and help
others to
which might be all
for us
to do
to have it good
and well
bodily and soulfully
successful
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photo by Joshua Bayliss on Unsplash
I looked up to fall
blue and red and green were clear
traffic noise behind
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photo by Bryan Dickerson on Unsplash
“Fall Breaks Out in Texas”
complaint department
(customer service?)
and is it punishment
and it could
be
at least I have to think so
for
all the wrong
the sins
the sin of stupidity
along
with more direct trespass if
and or
according to a moral
vagary
I don’t know
how we are punished
while
on Earth
we punish ourselves
of course
and endure
or
are extinguished by
the punishment applied
by
others
yet all demons
are not of our making
if at all
though we might make much
of what we have done wrong or
try
to re-manage
re-arranged the into a rationale
itself
tortured by reason
beyond
self-exorcism and the instruction of
pain and suffering
there
are demons
actual that
try the winning us to hell
that
our souls should go denying or
fist-shaking at
any goodness from the Lord
many
reasons
many sources then
for
adversity
among these the reality
of bad things
happening
you
know
Rabbi Kushner
no punishment beyond
reality
that the Calvinists might say
is
invested by depravity
from how we fell
and all
that fell with us
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Harold S Kushner wrote When Bad Things Happen to Good People (whom and which I mean to cite respectfully)
photo by Intricate Explorer on Unsplash
read the story behind this photo: https://www.intricateexplorer.com/adventures/618 [invitation from the photographer]
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