The Date is Wider Today

The Date is Wider Today

(“You were not pleased with burnt offerings or other offerings for sin.” Hebrews 10:6)

The date is wider today; do you feel it.?
The air is fuller just now; can you know it?
We could have ridden all afternoon on the offshore
breezes the cooled the summer sun.
We could have spoken all evening of the
ways of children who haven’t learned our foolish
myths and rituals.
The magical sound of water on rocks reaches us here
above the river a quarter mile away. The playful sound
of children’s voices freeze-tagging each other in the
front yard makes the evening open up like the entrance
of a princess who giggles.
The boys play H.O.R.S.E. sending the basketball through
the summer air for hours at a time.
And not once did any of us stop to ask
why we deserve these unicorn moments. We live in
so many dimensions at once it is impossible to discount
a simple encounter with someone,
battling cancer,
humbled in body,
and a voice lower than he once possessed. It is simply
a question without an answer. And so, we hug,
and hope,
and pray the days will stay wider as the road
winds before him unknown.

I’d rearrange so many things if I could convince anyone
to give me a chance. But time moves on like a runaway
train
while we, curious, wonder how to begin again.
Tonight the aroma from neighborhood grills will fill
the dinner hour. We will stop, if we could, and give thanks
for air so full of summer incense and children’s games of pretend.

Wider Fields

 

Wider Fields

(“But he brought us from there in order to lead us in and give us the land...” Deuteronomy 6:23a)

It should no longer surprise me,
this mud and dirt under my feet.
Red clay from the badlands,
cement soot from the foundation we poured,
pavement dust from suburban sidewalks,
forest loam and evergreen needles,
fallen leaves on steep and slippery hills;
all under sweat, snow, sun, wind and
days that pass while the rain kisses everything.

For all the meander from city to rural sounds
of coyotes on the cliffs and mockingbirds gigging their riffs,
I’m bound inside my mind these days
(though safe, and only alarmed at dreamed
intentions on angry faces)
I still long to wander again,
to saunter past the circles of stringed instruments
who knew the lyrics to everything.

I would dedicate this to you, if I knew where you were.
I would sing my heart to you, if I knew you would hear.
I would hug the fear away from your face,
tell you it was all a mistake,
and gladly invite you to ramble again
past locked gates and lines drawn in the sand.

Would it surprise you that our feet show the
dirt from the sages before us?
Would it persuade you that offbeat is still
my favorite improvisation?
I will not detain you, but perhaps, in this
lockbox of age we will find the wider fields
we once walked upon.

A Circle Wider

A Circle Wider

(“I’m amazed that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ to follow another gospel.” Galatians 1:6)

With a circle wider than the world God
drew the boundaries and intentions of love.
Galaxies cascading in inertia know it,
black holes heavier than time know it,
angels, demons, rabbits and eagles know it;

But the objects of grace,
the jewels of mercy,
men and women who dance inside
manmade halls hear it,
hope for it,
and build another room for the less deserving.

The comets do not beg, the planets do not petition,
the oaks do not shiver, the squirrels do not position themselves
prostrate to gain the favor

We crave.

There is more grace to inhale than occupants of this planet,
more mercy to give than birth and death.
The shadows await the birth pangs to displace every
quantum of light from within the sphere without
borders.

Believe the space is wider, embrace the kiss of the Beloved.

Stop

And hear the staccato chitter of songbirds rehearsing
the overture composed before
the universe was painted.

And sing, for goodness’ sake,
sing. There is a love that embraces
everything.