The Oeuvre

The Oeuvre

(“Your righteousness, God, reaches to the heavens, you who have done great things. Who is like you, God?” Psalm 71:19)

What lies behind the sky, and behind that, what shines
to light the fires of prying men and women, short on bread,
but long on invention?

What hums below atomic structure, and inside that, what twirls
like wind within each bit of matter that momentary men and women,
short on time, wish to rewind to see it all again?

The days are gray only until the clouds pass away
and reveal
the open pastels of the polished sky.

Overhead, underfoot, we can shake, we can look
and never see or always sense the genius intentions
of a world beyond imagination…If only it would behave
one long minute.

You, Oh Lord, are not deus ex machine, arriving with fanfare
before the paint has dried and we are cornered. I would happily
drop a coin and another to quench my thirst with a soda
and buy an invisibility cloak the next time I am about to blush
from shame or guilt or memories of the same.

You, Oh Lord, surround our idiot currencies, double-siding
our front-side only presentations. You pass through the
spaces between atoms and pass over our aspirations that
never quite get off the ground.

You, Oh Lord, are our delight. You are the not the final act,
but the entire body of work, the oeuvre, corpus Christi annotated
on every unaltered space of time. We will recite, not rote
memorization, but the ineffable lyric unbound by our
nearly rhymed effort to join words to worthy expressions
of joy.

Trusting in the Shadow

Trusting in the Shadow

“But I keep praying to you, Lord, hoping this time you will show me favor. In your unfailing love, O God, answer my prayer with your sure salvation.” Psalm 69:13

A university student was seen with a large "K" printed on his T- shirt. When someone asked him what the "K" stood for, he said, "Confused." "But," the questioner replied, "you don't spell "confused" with a "K." The student answered, "You don't know how confused I am."

So Familiar

So Familiar

(“Come and see what God has done. See what wonderful things he has done for his people!” Psalm 66:5)

Come and hear what the jazz is saying behind
the new café outside in the alley where tables have been set
and customers sip light wine in waiting for the late rays
to withdraw from their al fresco experiment. Chain-link
separates
the alley from the sidewalk; but the sweet saxophone
slides between alley and street without the slightest interruption.

Come and watch the way lazy snowflakes take their time
from heaven to winter’s soft landing. Focus on the trunks of
of the sub-alpine firs; evidence the storm sifted in from the north. A
broadbrush
stripe of white runs up the trunk to meet the branches
demarked in high contrast in overcast afternoon light.

Come and listen to the old man’s song, the words altered and
the tune so familiar you swear it is someone’s birthday. The
cracks at the edges of his mouth and the chasms between notes
in his voice salute the truth of a life well-lived; he sings and
smiles and tears up because you have smiled at his life and
all he wanted out of every day from the moment the magic happened
(the moment youth becomes adult despite the customary age)
was to live on this borrowed mud and dome, pay his rent proudly
and have enough awe and numbered days stashed away to
fill the air one more time

With the stories of good and better, how the God who hid
had been nearer, most of the time, than he had expected.

You Did Well

“The master answered, ‘You did well. You are a good and loyal servant. Because you were loyal with small things, I will let you care for much greater things. Come and share my joy with me.’” Matthew 25:23

It is good to set our sights high, to have lofty dreams and hope to achieve great things in our lives. In fact, Scripture often encourages us with phrases like “Set your mind on things above” and refers to believers as priests and kings. The difficulty lies in the leap we make from the effort needed to accomplish those dreams and the big payoff we are hoping for.

New

“The priest shall take some of the blood of the guilt offering, and the priest shall put it on the lobe of the right ear of him who is to be cleansed and on the thumb of his right hand and on the big toe of his right foot.” Leviticus 14:14

In our most honest moments I think most of us would desire one thing; to know we are completely free from all the contaminations of living an imperfect life in an imperfect world. We would love to take back the cross words, the flirtatious looks at another man’s wife, the small lie to enhance a business deal. We would wipe out the black marks on our children because we stayed too long at work and left birthday parties too early. We would erase the tears on our wife’s cheek brought on by a sharp-tongued reply. In short, we would love to be able to begin again.

Never in Shadow

Never in Shadow

“For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” Matthew 24:7)

Never in the shadows, never shrouded by raucous trombones;
He will not arrive in secret this time, nor hidden beneath the
world’s auto-phonic songs.

The silence will be smashed, the humming shattered by the
blast that disrupts each foolish pursuit; begun, newly ended
 or in-between. The Son of Man will not wait for each
bank account to be depleted and each investment,
replete with final bell percentages. The Master
returns on His own terms, without searching the
critics’ reviews.

Ready; He has published His arrival this time.
Prepared; He will not knock faintly.
Look up; He will flash, will thunder.
Awake; the sleeping will be startled,

The observant, with faces shining like the silver mirror,
the silky river reflecting the sun, will not know

Whether to stand and cheer,
fall and weep,
kneel and pray their name is inscribed
(reason and faith, the cross and grace are the
preface to the Book the Lamb authored of life).

In the twinkling of an eye all history will flash,
an orb embracing an orb; and time will meet
head to tail…when the Son of Man

Wipes the dark-storm wonder from the panorama
of human falter and the Divine Again.

Bike Path

Bike Path

(“You are to make a distinction between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean.” Leviticus 10:10)

In the background, gnats stirred the heavy molecules of summer air;

dragonflies darted and parted the thin walls of warmth rising from the pavement,

the deer were in the shadows, bullfrogs greeted the ear with throaty baritone and

blue jays argued over a corner of sandwich crust left on the picnic table.

The bike ride listed from left of the forest to the bottom hollow out of the sun.

Midmorning sun traced the letters silkscreened on the back of the rider’s t-shirt

while he found the rhythm, feet like pistons on the pedals, and breathing between

each well-timed downthrust. Exercise, prayer and meditation aligned as

Breath and mind paid attention to the cycloramic portrait

and loved the new words found to describe the Artist of it all..