dearest friend
writing from a land-locked place
God
I turn to you for love
and I bring it
with me
not like yours except as a shell
with hopeful and stifling
stuff
inside
we could walk on the beach
early in the morning
while the same
seems most
shiny
and firm
and we could listen
we could
talk
we could listen
and would you hear me and appreciate
my hesitations
so that what is unsaid
could
finally be sent
and then the day would have to start
I guess
and we in it
though we could meet now
and then
even
on a bench to watch
the beach get
walked on
while
the shore erodes
then
night
and we could talk then
too
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photo by Ibrahim Rifath on Unsplash
picture imperfect
snowy castle
in a picture
I guess there are snow castles
made by snow like sand
though
I guess clouds are
easier
depending on the day
and the sky and who
might
be looking
up
an Aurora castle
from the original that’s in
the picture by
the way
or a fortress as a series of blocks
forboding with the arrow slits
in made-
up
stone through which to shoot
or
whatever the imagination
wants to invent
then
guiding the body to make
maybe with a follow with whom
the vision
could
be
negotiated
or you know the fort
large enough
for two
and
to set up against another
to
let the snowballs volley
and never mind the winner since all those
win
who get something warm to drink
once
back inside
and this for some could make
the snow day
that
we
well
the children are having
today
Monday after Saturday’s
and Sunday’s
storms
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photo by Tienko Dima on Unsplash
how are you God
how are you
Lord
how are your angels
how is heaven
these days
ten thousand years a day
our songs could
count
transparent gold and as a metaphor
or actual
I don’t get
it
and
don’t need to
so much about eternity
honestly
it can
overwhelm of course by normal reckoning
though
you understand our senses
having you know
making these
and
eternity to ponder
thank you
Lord and I might ask
for
help with the imponderables
not
only to apprehend but
to carry
by
the muscles
outside
inside
that we have
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The twelve gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.
Revelation 21:21
(NIV)
photo by Phil Hearing on Unsplash
water through the pipes
warm trick for winter metal
an old-house problem
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photo by Sigmund on Unsplash
(based on storm forecasts)
Friday like any day
I’m nodding
without sleep except
to doze
being sick sucks
doesn’t it
and for
some
for many of us sickness becomes
conditions to
endure without an ending
that
we know of
for this life
and
I’m not sure what else to say
since waiting pre-
Valhalla is
what we have with my understanding that Sheol
goes the same plus wherever Thorin says to
Bilbo
must be where the chief of Dwarves
is going
in the passage where
he also prophecies about the world
he’s
leaving
our world
our own Middle-Earth
which would go
merrier
with respect for simple cheer
from food and
drink
and with companionship
and
how these substances as issues must
be hard-won
at
times
as there are hungry
thirsty
and harassed who
must endure and invent measures to take
to have
what’s needed
basically
and
for that cheer that Hobbits know
and
certain Dwarves prognosticate
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“There is more in you of good than you know, child of the kindly West. Some courage and some wisdom, blended in measure. If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.”
Tolkien, The Hobbit
for children as well of the East and North with researchers and penguins to the South
me (as Gandalf means)
photo by Valentin on Unsplash
the poet-friend
I heard it from a poet
once
that there was no following
because
grace was dispensed
by
those who claimed authority
to give it
and
by their terms
I’m imagining a water-cooler with
a foreign hand on
the tap
a line that goes away
from
there of those to drink
who
are bestowed with an upside-down
triangle of a cup
inside
of which are stips of official
pardon and
toward
the price of another metaphor
a ticket
to
the show
while grace if free
and
has no agency but God
if I may say
three parts to
one
with grace soaring everywhere
and everywhere it’s
needed
to cover and to heal as
that song-balm
the sin-
sick soul
and why not fly by music
of
the spheres
an angel chorus to announce
and
to remind us
freely given is the love and salvation
of the Lord
and
is the vision made
the poetry
perverse
and I don’t know but that it’s better than
the tyranny of will that despots
try
and yet prohibited by better will
and inside each
of us
a part
as if to fuse with our own
elements
our spirits to
save
grace
angels
our own will
and we are saved
if
against the world
and
those disillusioned and me
angered in
their
favor for who dispenses
grace
and blessing but
the Lord
and not the red
and black
the gold of breaking majesty
while
what we have
on our own
even alone if need be
faith
and love
forever
freely
grace like justice flowing
even better
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photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
love God
out of love
things happen
things
are made
by hate
destruction
agenda of a nothingness pervades
since
hate can’t build a thing
except for stone
of an illusion
love
then
closer to God
closer to substance
if
without which
material
any sense of material
goes empty
choosing faith
then
by belief and so response
to invitations
at least
two of these to start
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photo by Lucas George Wendt on Unsplash
then whose Earth and who decides
rated S for sad
1
cold or hot
the future is
uncertain
well
of course
it is
there might be winter forever
after cloud cover ironically
from heat should shield
us
tragically
from the sun
or we could heat
so fast
a melting Earth
with
torching skies might be
all
there is
it’s the unnatural future
of concern
we cannot escape or
even
evade
not really
it’s the planet
after all
the one we have affected
are
changing now
the profiteers believing there is more
to eke out while
the Earth
is
held together
more
and much more
and
a little more
before things crack for good
and then
things crack for good
2
leave the Earth go
a billion years
or so
leaving time to build
allowing time
to heal
the Earth will crack eventually
on its own
in
relation to a dying sun
all that we’re doing
so adversely
here
happen
naturally and by then we will
be ready
we’ll be somewhere else
by
then
happy to be there
too
as we can imagine if we cooperate
with the planet
now
rather than take
a few make money
leaving the consequences to
the children
unmindlessly
a consciousness to let the world
die
here and now
with
the suddenness of
a generation against Earth’s
own ages
our children
or
maybe their own
maybe
left with hard gold
to chew
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photo by Daniel Christie on Unsplash
resignation
there might be a good kind
God
where are you
I mean
in the flesh
please
in the God
or whatever form you take
to bring your presence
to us
to talk with us as you talked in the garden
or if a bush of
fire
is needed
well
the unconsuming kind doesn’t burn anything else
does it
I guess I’m asking
and we could talk
and if I deal
with abject
terror
I might remember that you talked this way
in a garden
with a naked couple
who were unashamed
and
I know a great deal has
happened
since then
but
God
I’d really like to know you
I’d really like to have
you know
a real conversation
my needs
well
they feel sharp today
and
you know there are problems elsewhere
too
and if we talked
and you gave me directions
then
I’d know how
to follow
though
I don’t how to build an ark
or lead anyone through any kind of
desert
but then
the orders you gave were new
to Noah
and
to Moses
or Deborah or Judith
who lived by calling and by prayer
and maybe found one through the other
which
I guess
means
something
for disembodies prayer
and
I so wanted to say
the books
the formal worship
aren’t enough
and
they’re not
but openness to ask and then to listen
or to listen to myself then ask
of you
I guess these could be enough
they would be like talking
like a conversation
after
all
sigh
all right
I’ll try
and though I could not wrestle with an angel
maybe
we could talk a little plainer
time to time
and I won’t ask for garden miracles
though
in the clouds or something
I could guess at least
in
something of
your presence
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photo by Alistair MacRobert on Unsplash
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