James Weldon Johnson was a writer, poet, and social advocate. He joined the NAACP in 1917 and later rose to leadership in the organization. Johnson is also famous for creating the Negro Spiritual called The Creation.
Continue reading God’s Work
Imagine a part-time Antioch Church
Showing up every other week
Saying to Paul, “knock yourself out”
“We’re with you in thought.”
Some in the Hebrews church were afraid
Dropping out of church life
Never considering how their fear might spread
Causing Indolence and retreat
Imagine the possibility opening
Of Democrats and Republicans
Voting together for the commmon good of our nation.
The opening of a new day in America
A day of good jobs, paved roads, strengthened bridges
Bringing an optimism that things might change.
Your face is a facsimile
Just like Lincoln on a penny
Telegraphing your mood
Helping friends see the inner you
Your mien a gift and welcomed clue
The day’s events accrued
O God of paper and ink
Like a nib –
fine, medium, or broad,
stub or italic,
You press into my life
and make your mark
sometimes scribbles
rarely neat or calligraphic.
Your ink, the Holy Spirit
Gives form and visibility
To the power of your influence
in my life.
Your beauty in the shape and
decoration of the pen,
and its ornamentation.
Today, O Lord, write on my heart
Let me see what is true –
messy or neat.
In Jesus’ name I pray this.
Amen.
I’ve been reading The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. It’s a handbook that seems, most obviously about developing a life of artistry, but hiding within its lines are secrets about life in general. The book has prompted me to think more seriously about my own life and what I want to accomplish in the future.
Simply stated, I want to write more. Of all the writing I have done, my greatest affection resides with poetry. But, poetry is a stern task master and will not tolerate inattention. She has taught me some lessons that I believe are life lessons as well. There are six of them.
Here they are.
Continue reading The Writing LifeI’ve been thinking about the role that social media plays in our lives today, and especially how it insulates us from one another and even gives opportunity for the snarkiest, rudest, and most alienating words. “Words Without Eyes” is a reference to the words we paste on FB posts, comments to a post, and Twitter posts that destroy the fabric of our democracy.
Words Without Eyes
21 September 2018
Words without eyes
Easily written, disembodied
Sent with the press of a key
Weaponized and deadly
No gazing at the Other,
No asking, “What do you think?”
No sitting in stillness
No legs under the table of hospitality. Continue reading Words Without Eyes
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.
Glory be to God – Father, Son, and Spirit.
Not a pantheon or god aloof
But purest love and divinest secret.
Glory be to God – Father of the Earth.
Source of all mind. Infinitely loving.
Origin of Creation. Giving life its birth. Continue reading Triptych
Starbucks is his living room,
A borrowed car his taxi.
Scruffy beard and sweatshirt top
Look like a man down on his luck.
His vocation is applying for work.
Fifty, sixty times during a shopping season
He haplessly faxes or delivers his résumé
To employers who will ignore him. Continue reading A Homeless Man
I did not expect the reverie that overwhelmed me
As I walked up to the lovely Bear Creek home.
It was dignified, expensive, and well-coiffed
Much too nice for the smell of manure that greeted me
As two workers tilled the natural fertilizer into flower beds. Continue reading Granddad’s Garden
MonoLogue 