Saturday’s child works
hard at jobs that never cease
could wage to a fault
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photo by Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa on Unsplash
the day you were born
according to the calendar
and I’ve checked
it more
than once
I was a Thursday child
and so had far
to go
which is a mystery at
least
to me
for
don’t we all have far to go
to get somewhere
in life and maybe
afterlife
in face
that after this is done
does not the distance unfold
grandly
for each one
and
all
so what is far to go
maybe
far to go for satisfaction
for fullness
in breathing and work
(the
work of breathing)
or
maybe for
philosophy to gain and so to carry
through
the trials of thought and feeling
faced in the world
wondrous
fallen
virtuous
Calvinistically depraved
pursuit beyond a declaration
for a nation
or
to help secure it for others
affirm at least when
despotry breaks in
then
attempting to persist
so maybe it is
freedom
and the distance we all have to go
in
service to others
and ourselves
in that
somewhere is far to go
at any rate
metaphor for what’s ahead
and
an assurance that little will happen toward
instant completion
loving and giving
for
Friday’s child
so says
the rhyme
loving and giving as if
starting qualities and to
sustain through
live
and to go for everything that’s needed
to keep going in this way
through
all the time and all phenomena
that happen
requiring
a bounty
I should think of
faith
and confidence
to have the wherewithal for these
and to secure the job
that funds the giving
and
might fortify the loving
so
where should Friday be if not
in a good place and
with resources
all
the time
so who loves and gives in Ukraine
just now or
Gaza
or pick a torn-up
place where one is likely to lose all
and
have to flee
get wounds bound up
also
to deal with loss of health
and companionship
of
family
as well as neighborhood and one’s identity
not only of the circles as
they Venn
but of the single
self
that comes at the beginning and then
knows the joining with the rest
somehow
I think
Bonhoeffer
managed loving and giving through
the rise
the war
the horrors
and the sacrifice of
life
like the prayer of thanks
not
to be a guard
and more so for the pastor’s life
to give it
in the camp so that another
person
live
and so the living and the giving
the worst in the world
plus
the best in spirit
and so
in surfeit or in want
the capacities
for each to
live
as Friday
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Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor and theologian who was imprisoned and killed in World War 2
photograph by Jon Tyson at Unsplash
VIA SACRA
full of grace
Tuesday’s child
what
kind of grace
I wonder
doctrinal or
looks or
manners as in good at dinner
or knows the steps
for
a party
maybe it’s the kind of luck
that person shall
have
the good kind if not
grand
as things fall together
for school
or work
or family
by belief the certainty of heaven
after
such an afterlife secured for
in feeling by the clear and
dovetailed angel
management
of
life
full of woe
(a Wednesday poem)
finally
some color outside both windows
nothing brilliant but
tingeworthy
and shall there be honest fall
or shall this aspect of climate change
cause too many to fall brown and
withered
from too-soon dessicated
branches the season
unseasonal
went
too hot too long
for riotous autumnal virtue
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photo by Ahmad Odeh on Unsplash
Ramallah Contemporary Dance Festival 2018
invocationing
I pray
for you
for my niece
and her brother
and
her parents
for the healing of my brother
after
surgery
for continued success
in sibling and grand-sibling
lives
I pray for peace
but more immediately for
binding wounds in
Gaza
and Ukraine
in
Myanmar
Tibet
and for this nation that it heal
in all the needed and
surprising ways
not
by bringing home the military to
enforce
unconstitutionally
and
we remember founding documents
in
establishing
policy and practice
affirmation
action
toward the three things guaranteed
in a declaration
leading to a war of sacrifice
to make
and keep us as that great experiment
in democracy
you know
I think you know
so
I also pray for strangers
names I know
and don’t
groups
and for those loving impositions
values
in treating fair
respecting lives
all
colors of the outside
plus
you know
the sameness on the inside
pray
for differences
and similarities
as
both are needed for a person
family
community
nation and we may look out
to take in
the versatility of the cosmos
with
what goes the same
and all uniquenesses discovered
for
one
and for the Earth
and far beyond
and really close inside
amen
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photo by Ben Gillam on Unsplash
sabbath call
and Sunday is for God to rest
or how you count
could be
another day
the seventh
and I just heard it might be only once
for God
after creating
and
thus also
a model for the rest of us
once here to take that seventh day
ourselves and by directive
slowly
breathe
and without doubt
to
rest
and
well
I hope it’s God and us who rest
each time
since creating is a constant
and should not the breath of God
go easy for God
too
at
times
say
once a week
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photo by Frankie Cordoba on Unsplash
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
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