first actions
light and dark
become day and night
the spirit
moves the water
and
the land
yet maybe water first
because there is
so much of it
then the peaks allowed to rise
to bring the valleys
plains
and
deserts along
toward the unnamed sky
and all of this now
wait
for habitation and then
the incident
of naming
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photo by Ryan Parker on Unsplash
to near
nearer
my God
to thee
line-making by me
speaking to God
a prayer
this is the aim of the singer
and the sayer
same folk
together though for those who fear one’s singer
could read or hear
and
share along
which counts as prayer
as
worrying over what may count
should
go
there is mention of a cross on the way
or I guess
to
finish it and a rock cited for
rest
while yet on Earth
then to find that everything’s renewed by
the greater faith
that we
acknowledge
and
through salvation join
which is by
will
and what is near is imminent
for
concern or for jubilation
an attitude that’s
set by
choice and then by
eventual
to wait
as one who’s
still
and also one who serves
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“Nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee!”—first line of the hymn, from which the title’s taken (the poem was written, arranged, and published in the middle 1800s)
the hymn was reported by survivors of the Titanic to be the last hymn played by the ship’s ensemble
photo by Moritz Mentges on Unsplash
1 Nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee!
E'en though it be a cross that raiseth me,
still all my song shall be,
nearer, my God, to thee;
nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee!
2 Though like the wanderer, the sun gone down,
darkness be over me, my rest a stone;
yet in my dreams I'd be
nearer, my God, to thee;
nearer, my God, to thee, nearer to thee!
. . .
the wild wood
there is a church there
according
to my mother’s favorite hymn
I’m not
sure if the church is
supposed to stand against the wild
or
to complement somehow
as in the kairos
of God
in
creation
and I imagine church is for order even to call
the program that
and
often that is how peace is associated yet
the day an age of having made
well
everything by God’s design
and by the will and by
the hand
for
actual or metaphor
and since we cannot measure cannot
count
so many things
and
good we try
for many
maybe it is mystery the mind
and the enactment
of God that from a mortal distance we can guess at
and
yet as a paradox of understanding
must
believe
if at all to believe
and so something uncounted in the wild
might
be acceptable
number of stems
petals
branches
leaves
while for leaves we might count pages
in our books
and
have the ordered time together
though in between
the solid
and ephemeral
we
might emply a medium of
humor
to keep us honest
time
and
or
in the wild at the church
that was
my mother’s favorite
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I know the hymn as “Come to the Church in the Wildwood” (though I tend to separate the wild and wood words); it is known as hymns are known by the first line, which is “There’s a church in the valley by the wildwood.” The song, by reason of its lore, also has the name “The Little Brown Church.”
photo by Leo_Visions on Unsplash
n.b.
the song is about
a church that did not yet
exist
but was the verse-fancy of a writer
passing through
the Midwest
town and then there was a church
and yet is
my fancy
has me thinking of a Baptist church in or near
Bell Buckle
Tennessee which was where my mother
lived
and grew
and did the family go to church
I do not know
though she was
became
what have you a person of
faith
clc
the speculation
that God is love
and somehow that is wise
a God
to have
that world will make fun of and
withhold promotion
for the sake
of itself
against the virtue
yet
the way to live
when necessary
to profess
alone to make a job of it
or
finding friends
and so
inside the world
to hear God
and
fashion love
like sculpture or an E-I report
to credit God in all
however
large
or
small or seeming odd to credit
and through any jeer
or
other barrier
to hold fast and better yet
assail
the world with love
knowing the gates of hell
at first and by the last
shall not
prevail against it
rather by
Amor vincit omnia
to live
and wait as in to anticipate and
also
true and imperfectly
to serve
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photo by Alexander Kaufmann on Unsplash
not safe but good
sigh
what’s to keep expression of anything
from ranting in
frustration
even to sound virtuous
and
winsome
as dark forces look attractive
by temptation
as
a strategy for falling
for knocking down by fear or envy
or both
as it is
and yet there is good in the world
not
that it’s good but there are pockets
there are corners
there is
here and there with some
and could be
more
to let out hounds who yap for joy of running
farther out
and
further on
really
there is
love
that nature in the smaller ways
has taught
and is the marker and
the guide
could seem like that signpost up
ahead
or
not a twilight zone so much
rather the lamppost into
Narnia
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a trying prayer
and maybe for a Friday before Saturday or any day before another day or for the day
God
I am so through and through
as
if my nuclei
are crying for more
rest
in a way that is child-
insistent
and it is frustrating that there’s nothing to
rest into
for the body and closed eyes for
a while
so let me sleep and awake again
with
more to look forward to
that affects the how
then
there’s what we might work for or have
provided
from I think
a net of sharing
as
the better way we are connected
with respect
by
listening and encouraging
what
is needed by way of what’s missing
and so arranging
on and for
the Earth
as
well as anywhere we go
so
God provides and so
we have
the model for each other
please
amen
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incumbent
pray
‘cause prayer is good
not because
it’s perfect
but
typically it’s good for us
we think more of the world
in an asking way
so
have perspective
and
we care
though
pray for enemies as well
at
least we may
God will approve
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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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the process of the psalm
how did the psalmist write
I wonder
how was the work composed
what
was the process
if
in paper and with pen
or quill or frayed papyrus
were there amanuenses
who
waited for each word
or
was the draft done mentally
and with the harp
at hand to test the measures and then
to set down
and
then all gone over many times
before the purpose
of subtitles
realized
by singers in or near the temple or at
the shrine before there was
a temple
serving
as the composition served
and
served through generations of us
in this age
and
we have the paper
anyway and some give music for an art
for
what’s on there for conveyance
and
we can replicate the act
when all
the people gathere or
for one
depending on the intimacy referenced
and yet it’s all
there
for use
I suppose
if sometimes there is an I or a you or a we implied
and underlying
sometimes to say
the Earth itself should sing
to praise
provision and the might
that is
implied
or saved until a parting of the sea of
food fall from heaven
should
be needed
and did we think of these or simply fear
our need
and then the exigence addressed
though miracle
of
power
and
yes
we could say of timing
that we need what we need
when
needed
though we don’t command the schedule anymore
than the agenda
of what
God can do
or
when
so sing to the Lord or
read it off the page
our
expressions and intentions
as we might own
what
is given there and over centuries
and to you
to me
to us
and now
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Psalm 96
1 Sing to the Lord a new song;
sing to the Lord, all the earth.
2 Sing to the Lord, praise . . .
[NIV]
photo by Joël Vogt on Unsplash
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