nebulae discuss
all sorts of stars to birth
how many each kind
if stars go along
the nebulae’s decisions
all creation wills
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photo by NASA Hubble Space Telescope on Unsplash
warfair
there is a war
as a peacenik I admit it
we
know the places
and we don’t
since wars are also fought in secret
secret
or open
the field is the mind and heart
more so the spirit
of
each one
and who shall win the big war is
determined
read
hear about it anytime
as for the small wars
the wars of each one and by
our
families and friends
they go on
and the victory isn’t called
and it is
all
perilous because
the fight is in the self by
which the better weapons
are
love and will
and there is temptation to give up
or
to give in
because the other side
entices
as if it were so shiny
even
though it’s moldering since
part of heaven
lost
and we say
fell
though there was no real direction
but opposite
and now two sides and
well
since
Eden
and we choose
and there
remain
though it’s gloriously odd
that we might
turn
away
but then may turn again
old betrayals resolved
if
imperfectly for now
and so the war of spirit shall go on
until the Megiddo
victory
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sorry, the title is a pun in English; I’m not sure how this will translate (“war fair,” as it were, rather than “warfare”)
photo by Lisa Forkner on Unsplash
“High Stone Wall in Megiddo”
rich
(not Buddy though the music’s cool)
if I can’t
know God’s will
though I ask
then
maybe it’s not that I should give up
asking but
that I should change the asking
its parameters
per se
to know that God is there and hearing
and speaking as God might
in large and infinitesimal ways
and
I don’t get it
Well
I don’t
and can ask pardon for my not being attuned
but still wanting to serve
like Merton’s famous prayer
I guess
about not know direction but hoping
that a willingness to travel by approval
might
bring approval
even pleasure
from the Lord who
then
might speak if Thomas and I and all
who aren’t in synch
might go
not recklessly
since
we have our codes and liturgies
for attending and asking
best we can
formally
and then to stay in dialogue
the spirit of it
anyway
to say
like Tevye
maybe
that and to indicate at first
that it’s okay to talk
to ask
to guess and to complain
even to posit
being wealthy people
though wealth is relative by kind
and
degree and following
and maybe
wealth is having daughters and a village
on the edge
and
rich to have our lives in love and faith
you know
by God
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Thomas Merton’s well-known prayer begins: “My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following Your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe the desire to please You does in fact please You. . . .”
Buddy Rich was a famous, fantastic drummer.
photo by Vitalii Khodzinskyi on Unsplash
To Serve with Love
(and what more)
I am very tired
Lord
And what do you have for me
Anyway
To try
And in the promises
Accomplish
Until the will is to move
Something else
Along
And there is a part
To play in
That
And with unknown others to complete
And so
Let my service for you
By
Your will
Maybe have
In part
Divine surprise
And if I suss well
Be
Satisfied
With the enormous will
I do
Or will not know
If in
A cloud
Of unknowing
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Photo by Daoudi Aissa on Unsplash
(The Cloud of Knowing is a medieval text of Christian mysticism.)
a study in ambition
(working on it)
a study
in ambition
because I think it is
a one-by-one thing
and not a group
thing
except by change
now and then
the space race
a national ambition
and was it
I was a child
I don’t recall contributing
except with attitude
and I was
child
someone spent a bunch of money
making things
sacrificing
lives
so we could
go to the moon
and I was there
before the television
for the launch
then on the day
to see
the landing
then the steps
and would say
that was great
and was it
even then
as
I wondered
about people starving
wherever
trick-or-treating
for UNICEF
and all
the smaller things
good for the economy
the space race
microwaves
ballpoint pens
tin foil
(well
aluminum)
okay
and now it’s easier to see
that vanity
is pushing us
back to the moon
and higher
on to Mars
wanting
to respect that
and then wondering
again
about the starving people
and maybe we won’t have
any safe water
or a safe Earth
with no space on the moon
or Mars
for all of us
I do think
Pangloss is wrong
and that it’s good when we
consider things
together
but the dreams must be owned
and we must have them
one by one
and study us
each one
learning
growing
getting
each thing owned
by one
and then we can think about
negotiation
and a kind
of communion
maybe
if we
simply had a planet
whole
each one satisfied
to live
and to consider
as it is
we will go
we will do anything
beyond the one
for money
for politics to win
for
another one
claiming to be a party
let alone a nation
or a national
ambition
ambition is good
not the way
that fictively we say
that greed
is good
because it’s not
but in the way
that use of us
by one
by one
and then we’ll see
is good
that energy is good
and its
expenditure
even a joy
sometimes
that use is good
and better when
compelled by good
dreams
virtues
and such
but that what is Earth
is finite
and each one
in our systems
and so there’s saving
even caution
to employ
so feed us
end our thirst
let each one work
and also
dream
envision something real
for a dream
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energy is eternal delight (William Blake)
who also wrote of embracing contradictions
photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash
Sometimes a Celestial View Required
Sometimes it’s as simple
As it’s wonderful
Lord made us
And Lord loves us
It might not seem that way
In hospitals
Especially in cancer wards
Burn wards
Terminal compartments
But there
Is love
It’s in these places
In the prayers
And in the spirits
That are struggling all
Around
Where angels
Set themselves as well
To listen
Watch
And weep
On assignment
Forsaken
Never
By the ones
Remaining
(and that’s most
of them)
On our side
A war in heaven
Wars on Earth
Extant
Allowed
By a God who loves so much
To keep us on our own
Even though there could be
Cosmic automation
And so there are
The sides
The wings of war that
Transitory fly
Sinless disease
Conditions
Damage
And those fighting all around
For health
Finally
For all the foes
Of war
Of what we cause each other
And
Disease
By what happens
For a reason
Or by anyway
Keep going at it
Kid
Keep going for the healing
And all you
With the kid
In the battle
All the battles
On
After
The battlefields
Stay with
Us
Keep us going toward
All the health available
On this
Side
You know
And
Yes
Perfectly
The other
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Photo by Bernd 📷 Dittrich on Unsplash
we know they’re there
Gospel according to for good or ill ourselves
a summer’s day
what is there for us
now
it is too hot
the rain too helter-skelter
flood or famine
for the ground
the seeds
the shoots
the corn that reaches
in both ways
we are
uncomfortable
the heat
too much
the night whose only solace
is the dark
but not cool temperatures
that are not
happening
hottest on record
set the year before
the year
before
and thank goodness
there’s no climate change
and that it has
(thereby)
nothing to do with us
we’ll keep
burning things
beyond what is
suitable
for Earth
sending ersatz smoke into the sky
and the chemical equivalents
dump in water
chemicals aren’t evil
as we know
they have no moral value
as we know
we do this on our own
discover poison
then we use it
to make products
to make money
for the products
and the jobs
that making all the poison
does provide
we need the jobs
we know this
we could
do something else
I mean both
searchers and
providers
we could
do something else
for Earth
and on our way to other worlds
we could launch
in all directions
a fleet of possibilities
against the poison
in favor or
the sanctity of everything
organic
and how about
ourselves
bless the Earth
and pray for it
we humans can
and ask the help of heaven
should that be
our wont
and bless each other
too
as far as humans may
without the sponsorship
indeed the surrogacy
from the Lord
who blesses first
and blest
and should bless or curse
our efforts
as they are
and
(Quijote)
as they should be
it isn’t hard
and it’s hard
goodness
we know it’s hard
to change a world
and severer
in a subatomic way
to change ourselves
the knights are out
(they’re Artemis
and Ares)
while corsairs with full sails
assail the edge of us
while we are sieged
from monsters in the hall
that came
from deeper parts
the deepest parts
of us
yet deeper still
there are solutions
like a treasure
to unearth
and bring to the Earth
starting with the skin
of us
and all our will beneath
new will
(if we will)
not
to recall the knights
but let them quest beyond
to share
their discoveries
there
while we hobbit-heroes
have our work
to do
and bless the work
in turn
O Earth
and Earth’s lord
that has been waiting for us
blessing only in small ways
while waiting for
the rise
of each of us
our families
and the world of us
quietly
yet firmly to say
we know at last
whose house this is
and whom
to serve
which is
the layers of creation
so serve the core
the mantle
and the surface
all the water
all the land
all the creeping
and the soaring things
that we may use
(with water
land
and air)
with apology
(both kinds)
in order to explain
excuse
and also
to define
and thrive
the Earth
is not one
and doesn’t have to be
so many parts
to allow
expressed
yet from the outside
(and the inside
on occasion)
see compressed
as of a jewel
in and of
the cosmos
joining with other lights
both
light and dark
that make the sky
and give us all we need
to dance
beneath
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photo by Man from Forest on Unsplash
Birch Grove on a Summer Day
If Silent Providence
And where is God
In this
And God is here
Loving
Showing how to love
If yes
Annoyingly
Invisibly
Except it’s God
And we should respect
The way of God
Being
You know
God
The maker
Ruler
Loving
Loving
Perfectly as both
With all the power
And regarding
(perfectly)
The will
Inside of us
Allow
Into the world
Regardless of effect
Though there be consequences
You know
Real consequences
(if sometimes
as
metaphors
like
monsters on old maps)
A situation
Then
Call for
Unseenness
Un-hearingness
From God
Except for evidence
With sometimes
The approvable
Prophet
With a prophecy
That
Un-affirms
Nothing from the Lord
But steadies love
And
Words it for
The current age
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Photo by James Chan on Unsplash
The Invitation
God is love
And if you wish to live with love
Then you could know the source
And be encouraged
Helped
In this life
To the next
And if you wish to live with hate
Then you could get to know the source
Of that
The nothingness
To have
In this life
And the next
That’s pretty much
The way of it
Love or
Its absence
Choosing one
Or the other
The rest is ignorance or luck
And it’s likely as you read
You will have neither
For your own
Lesson and
Salvation
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Photo by Richard Gatley on Unsplash
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