GRACE

"You who are seeking to be justified by law, you have been severed from Christ; you have fallen from grace." Galatians 5:4

when my father died
i was ready

he was not perfect
nor had we perfected what it meant to love each other
but the love we had covered a multitude of sins

that's what it means to die in a state of grace

SX

I've abstained from the vowel all these years
With the hopes of savoring it all the more

With the one
the only
the everlasting

There are those who say I am missing something
And I suppose I am
For how can a person compose a word without it?

But just as the Jews considered the name God so holy
That they wouldn't write His name with the vowels
YHWH
I suppress the urge
To ooh and ahh
As much as possible

I've dabbled in the "S"
And given in to "X"

And I've had it

THE COPPER BEECH

If I could do it over again

I would recommend we investigate that ancient tree
Put our arms around it 
And touch hands

I would suggest we continue our conversation
Before lying on the couch
And rolling on the floor
Before scaling the wall
And lying in the grass

Despite the meadow
And the moonlight
If I could do it over again

I wouldn't

UNTITLED

I am beginning to feel like a peony
blooming and ready to be picked
but fearing to die on the stem

FRUSTRATION

nobody knows my sorrow
and the dead bodies piling up around me

in the past four years
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
father, uncles, cousin, aunts

dead and gone

if they only knew
perhaps they would be more sympathetic

and less mean

DECEMBER 26, 2011

On the night my Uncle Billy died
I went outside and watched the sky
I saw an illumined plane go by
Is that you, dear Uncle, mine?

It was cold as I stepped outside
I coughed and saw my breath
The sky was clear and the stars were bright
And the heavens ready to receive your breadth

UNTITLED

I certainly want many of the normal things in life
a husband, children, a home
but not at the expense of living a life full of risk
perhaps nothing scares me more than being too comfortable
being shielded from life's elements in such a way
as to become immune to the storms that come
deaf to the cries of the poor
tuning out the voice of my Lord
settling down in such a way
as to store the hitchiker's spirit in me
I want to be up for an adventure
whether all I have is a pack on my back
or a mortgage on my shoulders
a bird in the nest or a bun in the oven