Thursday, March 15, 2012

SHELTER ISLAND

We’ve had a lovely dinner out
Feasting with family
Joy gathered round the table
Outside our daughter asks to walk about
Not ready for the evening to end
We gather our jackets
Our grown son and newest daughter go to their car
She wants to get the stroller but he says he’ll just carry his son
She smiles at us, “he hasn’t seen him enough today”
And off we go.
Our boy, now papa
Carries his ‘little man’ on his shoulder
Dearest cargo,
He holds him close
Can feel his warmth on his neck
Breathing in his ear.
He looks one way, then the other, back again,
Looks down and across
Double checks the way
Puts his hand firmly on baby’s back
Holds tight to his legs
as he wiggles and  plays
unaware of his papa’s worry.
Nothing can harm him
No car come too close,
No stumbling misstep,
No unforeseen danger from the shadows.
His mama lends her eyes too
And her hand goes up as they cross
Mama sign FRAGILE, HANDLE WITH CARE
Papa sign IT IS NOW SAFE TO CROSS
He steps off the curb
The whole world in his hands
We grab hold too, and step out

Psalm 91:11
For He has sent His angels to watch over you and keep you in all your ways.  They will hold you up in their hands, lest you dash your foot against a stone.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

CREATION - original by James Weldon Johnson


Forget watching the video
(performed by Whintley Phipps - great voice)
 and just listen.

Close your eyes, go ahead, and get carried away!

I love the line "GOD SMILED...AND THE LIGHT BROKE!!!!

I hope this makes you smile and shine!

SAYING IT...

Trying to say it. Not
to answer to logic,

but leaving
our very lives open
to how we have
to hear ourselves
say what we mean.
(Excerpt:  'Saying it" by Phillip Booth)

I try to speak of it
Say so many words
they spill out of me
Trying to give it all away.
Gather the story
And stand in this place
Hurling hope to some future day
That is today.
Tell what I see and try to speak it straight.
To let words give form to all that is beyond
any word any of us could say.
Love.  Joy.  Terror.  Mercy.
Darkness or Light-
None of them say it.
impossible, but that’s no reason to stop.
Grace.  Listen.  Thank.  See.
Hold or Let Go-
Good.  God.  Need.  Help.
Touch or Try-
Laughing out loud at the good of it.

I talk with my hands
Wake thinking,
trying to remember
Words floating to the surface
From heart to mouth
How beauty can bring us to tears
Or tears to Beauty beside us

Remembrance of the cup
passed to my hand
and I took it.
Sting of wine in the throat
I can still taste the bread
Mash it together, swallow hard
Eucharisteo
Daughter in the pew beside me
Wraps my arm around her like a cloak
Or a deacon’s stole across her chest.
Diakonia: another word to say it
sometimes I hear the stones sing. 

I am Silent now,
And feel its relief.
Sit awhile
The morning sun is hot in my window
I read the word
Close my eyes to pray
It runs fingers along the brailled surface of me
Finds the pattern and reads aloud to me.

The sun is so hot
It forces me to move.