Your thoughts are clear, decisions made and known. A hope exudes from every word you say. And if you know, then let me ask one thing: Your hope, how does it last through this new change? What would you say to help us take this step Into the rest of life without you there? to Robert Ernst, 2000-2018
Category: poetry
A moment, a glance, and all time stops, Time stops for this moment to understand. Within this same moment is another time, A childhood of holiday memories Filling the air around this face: Christmas holidays, Climbing on the old feeder, Descending into the cellar world, Wading, empty-hooked, in a pond While his dad pulled in his 30th fish. I am not yet old, Yet he, younger than I, Already is gone. He knew how to live, He knew important deeds: To look you in the eye, Say “I love you” with goodbye. And here he looks again at me from the face of this little boy. I must live well and be ready for my end.
Reaching to the sky to be accepted, To be close to the one he so loves. Nothing wrong, no comfort needed, Just to touch, to be near. Mother’s open arms reach to hold him, Straining to bear him aloft. Everything right, love freely given, Just to touch one so dear.
Freely you gave your home Relying on hospitality rather than money to feed the stranger. Ordering the peace of the home Manfully establishing stability. Could you have been the father I did not expect, Replacing the distance of my own? All the rough edges on the surface Purposefully obscuring the gentle interior. Putting forth a good word, Enjoined to your way of love, Rejoicing, we honor your memory.
The fulfillment of the ark is everyday beckoning us to make the same ascent, Ourselves to rise toward Christ to make our heart a ready and acceptable ark for the Word of God, That we too may carry the Bread of Life as our daily life and sustenance, Shepherded by the staff of healing, which guides us to the restoration of our nature and the cure for death. on the Feast of the Entry of the Theotokos into the Temple, 2016
O Strength of the Land, thou art gone. Bringing God forth through thy works And the abundance of thy lovingkindness for thy people, Virgin is the land again, purified through thy labors. Rejoice, mourning land; restore a smile to thy face O ye who hear tell ever new stories of thine Incomparable Power. Myrrh-scented bitterness of thy tears will rise as a Full incense of thy supplications for repose. Of what works do we begin to recall, for Grace bestowed from on high multiplied them beyond number. The land, yea, the whole world despaired of finding a Lord worthy of the honor bestowed upon him. Strength Is finally found in humility, and power With him who bends to touch the lowly. Thee, O land’s new strength, with thee, is power without compare. Blessed are they who lived in your time, for thou Art the blessing most unexpected, in that Thou…
I’ve carried brotherly concern and care Like leaden weights to hold me to the earth For fear the whys would draw me to the clouds, Ever to float, no bearings for to guide. I’ve carried brotherly concern and care Not knowing how to reassure that I Have always held the selfsame anchor fast, Yet that, for harbor true, will I vouchsafe. I’ve carried brotherly concern and care, The first among us guiding silently Whereto, that first day, in our final home He gently tread, estranged from worldly cares. I’ve carried brotherly concern and care Concern extending empty hands to give, But taken, redirected to the downward path, To follow flow, to settle in the heights.
The truth is in the eyes of the buffalo, The way of gentleness which conquers all hate, The life which cannot be put out. He wanders not on accident, as if far from home. He is there to be found, to be taken and led, Leading us through all in the utmost humility. (after reading the chapter “How to Tell a True War Story” in the book, The Things They Carried)