like the psalmist foe-surrounded
poverty
or
surfeit
which we find by the world
by the devil
have betrayed us
what is left
despite the industries
I
do not know
and
who shall help me
say
with parameters
to break them as I can’t
while I invest my energy instead
on
what I thought I had back then
and didn’t
though I keep going back to
find
and then fix everything
to break the barriers
as bars
not with energy
deserved
but
with the strength shared me
resources to
freedom
by grace that
is
the merit going
graciously
unasked
yet
to be caught
and looped
and unbelieving and still
asking
too often without listening
of
who shall help with the problems
I can’t
breathe through
who shall help me more than
I know how to ask
then
so by asking
once
in forever
though there are the stories
delivered
by
Reverend Henderson
in
sermons and who knows
what anthology from which
came
the accounts
regardless
of the people in a raft
having survived
the wreck
maybe abandoned for another
reason
and what they know
all they know is ocean all around
until
the rescuers
arrive
then tell survivors that
for temerity
or
the lack
they could have reached
down and
drunk at anytime
for they were in the great
releasing of fresh water by the unseen
Amazon
too far the given land
on either side
to spy
or of the woman who had won
a trip
a cruise
(that
did not wreck)
and she was poor
and so ate crackers in her stateroom
for her meals
until
one day the captain should find her
to say
the meals were included in the prize
you should have been dining at
my table
every night
sufficiency
and then amazed abundance
without
question of deserving
to drink fresh water
to
dine with the captain
of the sound
ship
questing all the time
so try
but do not condemn oneself for merit
not canceled but
fulfilled
by grace
that
reminds us
even takes us to salvation
so that the last thing we might worry
over
might be perfection
or to have lost everything by
failing
when like water
like
the feast close by
before us
are set
yes
there is a judgment
and each time for each one
a mercy
clc
(Reverend Henderson was the preacher whose messages I received in church while I was a child)
photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash
the formation of the blues
blue
green lights
that indicate the coffeemaker’s
waiting
where am I
debating bittersweet
maybe bitter like the smell
of mildew
or of certain herbs
sweet
as chocolate or
plain sugar from the bag
in consideration of the snack my
mother got
now and then
of
a sandwich with butter and sugar from
a sack
in the house
on the farm
the kind with after-rain
and the wheelbarrow that so much
depends
on
while the mother of my mother worked
in
a field
and that’s the lonely photograph
with very little spoken
for the story
to us
in the suburbs
where we could have learned
more than
minimal
of
hardship
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photo by Steve Busch on Unsplash
a kind of reference to “The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams
rings of Earth
rings
of Earth
e pur si muove
like Saturn
but they’re
us
and how we
move
in
through each other
and
the systems of alignment
and against the
wrong
with
rebellion
Robin
whose name
by
the way is genderless
and whose forest by translation
could be
could be anywhere
as
any satellite
whose orbit might be
rings
of
Earth then anywhere
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photo by Aluminum Disemboweler3000 on Unsplash
after Nagasaki
we had learned to bomb
the world
war ended by avatar
of I am death to
cite
and
secularly
to benedict
by us
to bless an industry
of
products that should never
be employed
and so
inutility
as the market must stay glutted
with inventory unused
by
desperate hope
bad for business
bad
for sickness
bad for all the death
from
skin softened from bone
all senses blinded
and
then
a memorial to haunting pain
the ghosts of one by one
and of
the nations
we could claim ignorance
we did not know
or
appreciate the scale
we only wanted victory
a conclusion
if
at a cost
of febrile Earth
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photo by Sajan Rajbahak on Unsplash
player-manager
(sequel to yesterday’s)
if demons can get in
then angels
must
their being two sets of choices
of
the same
which leaves the ministry of saints
on which to
suppose
and yet
angels in our thoughts
waiting
like service in the outfield
and
aren’t we the luckiest alive
by
baseball
some would say an angel game
requiring grace
with
lots of space
for spirit-lives to play
while
angel-thoughts might not go ‘round
the bases though there’s
strategy
at
bat and in the field
isn’t there
then
angels and demons could play
to work out the apocalypse
not
that they will
the way
in the northwest
or
southwest
depending
a border dispute was worked out
Canada with USA
by
the score after nine innings
and
as Thurber says
you could look it
up
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(sorry, angels got me thinking about baseball, maybe because of the movies
and my dad, from Olympia, told the story about the local/international border dispute that was decided by a baseball game)
photo by Ryan Arnst on Unsplash
how much the devil
is the devil allowed
to mess inside our heads
to stir
to unstir things inside our hearts
to turn the matter of our spirits
as it were
how much permitted
since
after all the fall
and for it
to be cursed upon the ground
crushed underheel
yet also
the raven of Job
trickster to entice the host of heaven
maybe
God
so that the drama could begin of
awful loss and faith
the playwright has the devil
Scratch
contended with by Daniel Webster
though before
there were ages with the mysteries and
miracles
renderings in which the devil was
a character
and to leap ahead
or
somewhen
there’s the battle between Michael and
Satan
the last fight with armor worn
and scales upon the dragon
and
who wins we know
with all the defeat
why should
it bother
but it does
and how deep it has been given leave
like soldiers to excuse themselves
but
here to serve a relentless campaign
to win
what
the Earth
each one of us
material
and soulful are the gains
to ally with sin and maybe with some error
to twist
the good with the inevitable
especially
while we are fallen
too
to make the worst of it
and how much
how far
to invade
how to much to niggle earthstrings
how far to take the heart
from
its own source
how bad to try to make of good
since bad is not invention
merely
merely attempting to infect the health
of who we are and
what we’ve
been given from the start
resist
and it will blee
what does that mean
and
will it sidle back
or come with force
how final is an exorcism
or is it a tussle with a horror
every day
and while humor’s on our side
it should be hard
night on defeating
to
keep going
but keep going
there is a guarantee
it’s on the page and in
the heart
as well
that we can fight and
laugh
and wait for rescue
try on faithful garments
that will last
with
pockets for
all sorts of reminders
there is God and
we are
and with advising
given all
that we are love
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photo by Karl Hedin on Unsplash
glass undarkly
what’s going
on
I get so confused sometimes
what
do I
know or should know
or what is happening around me
and of nearing paranoid
concern
what is going on
behind
thank goodness
by our lore
to
know
the Lord is every direction from
and for
each one
even
the plotters
I
suppose
sigh
forgiveness all around
thank goodness I’m not in charge
of
that department
only to scurry by its glass doors
trying
to conceal
in
soulful
pockets
frustrating undeep enough
for
my own bitterness
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photo by Anastasiia Pyvovarova on Unsplash
(in Ukraine)
so it is today
and beauty from brown ashes
withered leaves provide
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(I saw so many fallen leaves on the ground, despite it being only early August for the summer)
over somewhere
I wake up alone
and sad
maybe not for loneliness
but in what happens
when
it’s applied
I’m thinking of
Judy Garland’s character in The Wizard
of Oz
singing about the rainbow
really how to go beyond
and more on what left’s behind
not so much on what
she’ll find
since
after all
she doesn’t know
except that
troubles there somehow should melt
foreshadowing
what should happen to a magic foe
in water
leaving the word monotoned
to find the color
that
the screen provides
Oz
the paradise
the peril
and it seems tornadoes must decide
the timing and the means
as if
disaster act like prophecy
shortly after singing
all the wishes
which we might forget about as well
on the other side
in
say
living color
there
like my family room back then
watching with
well
you know
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photo by Aleksandar Pavlovic on Unsplash
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