Never Sleeps

While a pastor on the Fort Berthold Reservation I was honored with the Indian name, "NeverSleeps". It was primarily because I was often responding to particular needs in the middle of the night.

Even more relevant, the Lord Himself, Maker of all, "Never Sleeps".

Surely you know.
Surely you have heard.
The Lord is the God who lives forever,
who created all the world.
He does not become tired or need to rest.
No one can understand how great his wisdom is.

Isaiah 40:28

Welcome to every reader. I am a simple follower of Jesus. He is perfect, I often fall short.

Showing posts with label enter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label enter. Show all posts

Thursday, June 27, 2024

Morning Brings the Next Door

Morning Brings the Next Door

Morning brings the next door to enter,
the next word to define, and the next
chance to chase the sunshine. Even then,
though,
the clouds can unframe the sky till late afternoon.
I’d sweep them away for you
to feel the solitary rays on your face and
a double rainbow defining the hillside.

I’d roll up the midnight into an hour full of
sounds only the creek can make. I’d spread it
like a carpet
while our conversation winds down. I’d send it
to you the moment it was finished. I’d preserve it
for you
for the days when the moon winks from a starless sky.

I’ve debated how to say so many things,
I’ve deleted a hundred texts that I never sent.
I’ve trusted you could read my heart, know my
hopes, and accept my softness that is better than
the brawn that too many call strength.

Let’s talk about love. Let’s let the words flow easily
like wine,
like a stream,
like the breeze rolling down the hills. Let’s talk
about tomorrow and never regret what we say today.
Let’s fill the silence with our quiet words,
with our healing hands clasped like hearts that
were meant to be as one.
Let’s talk about love. Let the rest of the world
scatter in its anxiety. Let’s be sure we say the
words we both need to hear.

Morning brings a name to me, and I will
never be the same. Grace and pain sit behind
my eyelids awakening.

Friday, May 29, 2020

No Sweat


iStock.com/sasimoto
No Sweat

(“When they enter the gateway to the inner courtyard, they must wear only linen clothing. They must wear no wool while on duty in the inner courtyard or in the Temple itself.” Ezekiel 44:17)

Buffy Sainte-Marie said that time is the magic length of God
and I believe she is right. What if time is a straight line,
running from the bees to the hive and to the next century’s meadow.
But lines have no dimension, so therefore contain nothing.
Or everything.

“No sweat,” they said. “Just follow the pattern and the fabric perfectly.”

But what if time is rounder than that? What if bee and flower and hive
thrive within the circumference we call the clock. Seconds and minutes,
they don’t carry watches,
and the meadows arrive on the scene before we’ve taken the time
to see them.

“No sweat,” the replied. “What you seek is less precise; more implied.”

 But what if time is angular like that? What if it ricochets off every cell
and stays inside the hive until it boomerangs with a bee to the purple meadow.
I was stung once twenty years ago, but I can feel it today. And the honey;
every variety dances across time like a cardiogram. And, just like you,
I invent flowers with my thoughts, pictures of tulips from Amsterdam.

No sweat,” they laughed. “Please take your coat off and stay a while.”

I met them halfway, still wondering how to measure God. Could I
put a tailor’s tape around God’s waist and now the dimensions of the divine?
Could I ask the bees who understood nectar, or the lavender who
seduced the bees? Would they mind if I assessed the length
of their life by mine?

“No sweat,” they opined. “We also have been weighed and found wanting.”

What if time is more like weight, and I carry the burden of generations?
What if the plight of the man I’ve never met is connected to my ancestors?
What if God sees the same cruelty and crime as thick as a cotton-picking sack?
What if God carried the mass of it all (and its width, and its essence,
and its pretense, and its violence) like a cross. What if the racist,
the nationalist, the slave owner, the crusader, the president, the shopkeeper,
the police and the beaten are all wrapped in the same teardrop of time?

What if your sufferings and mine meet like bees and lavender?


Thursday, August 15, 2019

Pay to Enter


Pay to Enter


(“And he ordered those who sold the pigeons, ‘Take them out of here! Stop making my Father's house a marketplace!’” John 2:16)

Pay to enter; the school, the church.
Pay to play; the immigrant, the poor.
How much money can you make,
What are your assets to insure your entrance?

Who retouched the photos of God with their own portraits?
Who erected the fence around the altar?
Who sold access to the highest bidder?
Who bartered the sun and the rain?

When did you ever receive a bill for your breath,
a charge for the breeze? When deposit did you pay
to see the dawn, what fee to enjoy the grass between your toes?

And now you auction the Painter’s works that you enjoy for free?
You save your glitter for the best of these and
ration your mud to the least.
You do as you please while the Artist opens the studio windows wide,
the cross-breeze brushing each cheek extravagantly.

Play upon the good earth; the rose, the dandelion.
Enter without pay; the festival, the fire.
How much money would it take
to buy the love that covers the world with
its own resemblance.

Paint on my eyeballs Your perfect image;
deeper than the canvas, higher than the circle of this earth,
broader than borders. Script upon my ears
the song that banishes walls, that is purer
and more fearsome than repeated phrases
shouted at rallies to keep the rabble away.

I will not raffle the Handiwork of the Beloved.