Lion and Lamb
By Cora E. Cypser
ISBN: 0-9625774-4-8
Published by KIM
PATHWAYS, 1992
Seek and You Shall Find
Lord, be with these
hands
that they may write
only what is so.
Be with this mind
that it may think the truth
and reason out the truth.
Guide me in wisdom
for with all my heart
I seek to find you.
1
Isaiah 25:6
On this
knoll rising
out of the infinite
the Lord has set a feast
for all peoples
a succulent word of life
of meaty thoughts
a banquet ushering in
the reign of love
for all.
We here can see
the shining of each other.
The plague of death
is gone forever
banished by that which hosts
the banquet table!
2
Psalm 39:12
Yahweh, I am your
guest
in your house, earth
and I partake of all the
bounty
at your table.
All good things
you dispense with lavish hand.
But what of those
the beggars at your door?
Please let them in
that they may share with me
and know you
for the generous host you are.
Must I play host for you
and leave my favored place
to draw them in?
Why, I am but a puff of wind
a thimbleful of spirit.
How can I act for you
whose deeds declare forever?
Beyond Flesh
When they ate the produce of the land
there was no more manna.
God feeds us
until we can feed ourselves.
God supports our bodies
until our spirits can live
without bodies.
3
Roadway for The Ruler
Make way in the
desert
a highway for our God!
There are winds of change
blowing
the sands drifting, stinging
suffocating.
It is frightening
but the ruler is coming.
We must clear the sands
and lay stones for a highway.
Gather your white robes tight
over your faces
friends, sisters, brothers.
Pass the round worn rocks
from hand to hand.
Lay them.
Come!
Make the highway!
4
From Competitive to Cooperative
It’s time to take
a jump for
young mankind
a new direction, a new
focusing.
Look how he runs,—
competitive!
The race is to the swift.
The laurels, to the wise.
The gold is to the brave.
Are you a winner
or does anyone win
in all these races?
The winner is the loser—
jealous associates know him as
fallible.
His run is criticized, his
gait, his wind.
The others are too close
behind.
It’s only chance that sends
him
splitting tape, across the
line.
Let’s cut these races and
cooperate!
5
To Bless or Blunder?
Why did
God make
us?
To fail and blunder?
Through the hot summer
to lose our sense of wonder?
Where is the cool breeze?
The long iced draught under the
trees?
Did God make us
that we might know sin and
disease?
Where is the bond of brotherhood?
Always coming soon?
What good is it to live?
To live for what?
To touch the moon?
What good is that?
What good to fail and blunder?
Through the hot days
we lose
our sense of wonder.
God says
“I made you all to laugh
So laugh and bless!
It was a difficult task
to make a laughing life
and tie it in
with such a dangerous
and
majestic world.”
6
Whistling in The Dark
It is
dark
and it is scary.
This whole world
is kind of hairy.
So I praise
the God who made it
ask, I not be
afraid of it.
So I whistle
in the dark
like a silly
light-struck lark
waked at
by the moon.
I hope I whistle
the right tune.
On Lions and Lambs
The
place
where the lion lies down with the
lamb
is the place
where the oppressed and the
oppressors
can enter
into concerned and respectful
communication
with each other.
It is a secure spot where each
agrees to listen
and where each
is
guaranteed a hearing.
7
The Purpose of Gods
We make gods out of
need.
You can explain so much with gods
who won’t explain their ways to
men
but merely show their power.
You can explain the earth
made by some crazy god
who threw his weight around.
It helps to keep our sort in
line.
We placate gods so they won’t go
berserk.
Who needs bolt-throwing gods?
Give us some gentle folk
who’ll teach us how to love
how to control ourselves
so that there won’t be cast-off
lepers
rapists, and nuclear disasters.
8
Someone’s Creatures
The wise men and the
scientists
grew great in their conceit.
They said, “We’ll cure disease.
We’ll conquer space.
We’ll grow vast quantities of
food
so none can starve. We’ll check
our offspring
so that every child will be a
wanted child.
This world will be a wonder world
with all the universe to grow
in.”
They said, “We have no need of
God.
We can create our heaven without
a God.”
With these words they killed God
in their hearts.
Just to be sure they had no need
of God
they briefly looked for God
and since they could not find God
in their hearts
concluded, “God is dead.”
Then they proceeded to the
business at hand.
They knew so much and were so
very wise
the lesser people of the world
looked on in wonder.
They learned to cure some cancers
but a strange thing happened.
A young girl they had agreed no
one could cure
was cured by love.
They learned to fight disease
but another strange thing
happened—
as soon as they would cure one
virus
another group of wise men
would invent another virus twice
as bad
and set it on a shelf to save for
some day
when their hate was strong enough
to use it.
Still they insisted, “We do love.
We wish that all the people
were as wise and fortunate as
we.”
They proved their kind philosophy
by going out into the world
performing great conversions with
their science.
They made elaborate weapons
and forced these in the hands of
lesser men
and said, “You fight for truth
and freedom.
Shoot to kill.
Who disagrees with us is better
dead.”
Perhaps they were right.
Where is this better world
our heaven-reign home?
Godless we roam
through a scorched, burning world
love, all unknown.
Churches are burning.
Schools have been blown.
Birds have stopped singing.
Scientists, men of wisdom
take away your world built on
men’s pride.
What have you left us but the
passions of men?
We need God. We need love.
We need the gentle deed
the self-effacing hand.
We thought we were giants.
We thought that we could make the
world perfect.
For this presumption forgive us.
Forgive us, Lord. We thought
that since we touched the moon
that we were gods.
We forgot that we were only
Someone’s creatures.
9
Asylum?
Yes, perhaps some
people
find asylum here.
Some cannot find
asylum from their tortured minds
in all the earth.
For them
there is no resting place
no cure
no healer.
When death and hell
pour forth
at time’s own end
then, too
will these receive release.
I beg you, God
my God who made
these stumbling feet
these flashing eyes
surely, you’ve made the love
to help and heal them.
The Womb of God
God’s womb is
the
universe
and what does God produce
in this vast cavity?
God produces God!
The earth provides the setting
from which the spirit in humanity
gives birth to love.
10
To Anyone In Authority
You,
there
you in the chair
cut the matter clean.
Strip it bare.
Make it square
if you care.
Only you
can do.
Bow to you
because you have this power
for such a little hour?
I should bow?
Why and how?
You are human
like me
and fallible.
You will see.
Tell them all
before they fall
on bended knee
that you are only man.
Then if you can
stir the matter
thoroughly
thoughtfully
vigorously
so only truth
rises in ferment
above the sediment.
11
Controlling Lions
Peace
is not
necessarily calm.
It is not a swan resting on blue
waters.
Peace is a riot of color and
movement
held in place by concerned love.
Sixteen geese at twilight
swooping
cavorting in concert across the
full moon,—
who is richer than I with such an
expression
of God’s creativity? Suddenly I
know
why the human was made—
we are the mirror that reflects
God’s wisdom back to Mystery.
Peace is creative action in
community
such as this arc made with myriad
wings
in the deep blue radiant sky.
Peace is not taking yourself too
seriously.
Peace is the turmoil of the ocean
and the boisterous wind being
used
by the human free will
to further the progress of a
boat.
The lion will lie down with the
lamb
when a creative human
controls wild nature
and another creative human calms
those who are fearful and
trembling.
12
It was
June when
we came
a golden June
with the daisies dancing
and the birds in tune.
My little son
wished to see the crosses
not knowing the meaning
of sorrow and losses.
It was June when they came
a darksome June.
The night was black
and without a moon.
The noise was fearsome
when it came
with points of fire
and bursts of flame.
They clambered up
through ooze and mud.
From the hill to the beach
was red with blood.
Today there is
willow-oak and pine
and bowers
where roses intertwine.
I ask my heart
“Do they rest in bliss?
Will we ask other lads
to climb hills like this?”
Never my son
on such a raid!
Never again
such a hell man-made!
13
Jeremiah 22:3
Yahweh speaks in
the
heart—
but loudly. God’s word
echoes across the heart’s
chambers
like July fireworks
bam bam
bamming back and forth
across the hills of celebration:
Do justice! Bam!
Do righteousness! Bam! Bam!
Deliver from the hand of the
oppressor
the one who has been robbed.
The farmer in Peru
why should he farm another’s land
and give another profit?
The kameen
in Pakistan
why should he haul the sewage
forever tote the refuse of some
priest
whose insides are no cleaner than
kameen’s?
The echoes roll across the
world:—
Rulers, you must not wrong
the alien in the land.
Good God forbids all violence to
the alien.
Those who are roused to boiling
point
to throwing stones
talk with them softly.
Listen to their gripes.
Never respond to stones with
stones.
Never shed innocent blood
in God’s
Care tenderly for widows
and the fatherless.
God speaks loudly in the heart.
Those who have hearts
can hear God’s message.
14
Right Here
Let me go out
and work
for you in the world
God of Love
where lesser nations spew their
sins
on blood washed shores.
The answer came back clear.
“This is the most evil spot in
the world. Work here!”
Yes, you are right, God of Love.
This land is evil.
The blackened trees with their
branches dry
reach beseeching, thirsting to
the sky.
This country is the one to fear.
The answer came back loud and
clear.
“This is the most evil spot in
the world. Work here!”
Where, God of Love?
In my home, where we have named
you ruler?
You find it not just that we
should have much
while others starve for food and
warmth and love.
Then send us out to spread our
cheer.
The answer came back clear.
“This is the most evil spot in
the world. Work here!”
Where, God of Love?
In my heart?
Yes, it is so. I have built up
walls so I could not see
the evils seeping out of me
walls that could hide the wild
strong will
and the lack of love and the loss
of joy.
Help me rend the walls that blind
my eyes.
Make me into a garden, Lord
where hearts may rest.
15
The Dove Waiting To Fly
What do you
want
white dove, in your cage?
You have feed and drink
a clean perch
music to sing to.
What more do you want?
Freedom, you want?
What is that, white dove?
She waits there poised
with winnowing pinions spread
impatient to be off and out of
sight
her jeweled eyes begging you
to aid her flight
oh, God, to bear her up
where star lights shed
dartles of
dreams
above the cloud and storm.
All cast aside the cracked
protective shell
eager she waits
ready to serve you well.
What blackness can be cut with
that white form!
I think of doves who set out for
the sun
only the sun, the moon
such near-by things
that I must fret for her
on egg-wet wings
dreaming of nebulae.
Our destiny
oh, God, is praising you
is reaching far.
Let her gain I beseech you
at least one little star.
16
Man’s Work
I like to watch
men
lifting boards
and heaving stone, and making
things
rippling their muscles
in the sun of early day.
I like to watch men destroy
the old decaying structures
blasting in the sides of
buildings
with great machines
unmasking centuries of rot
exposing the damp mold
to the face of the sun.
I like to watch men working
doing good with their hands
getting a little nearer to
heaven.
In
a shoeless
girl
child wriggled onto
the velvet footstool before the
white jade Buddha
and said a gentle prayer.
Did the Buddha’s enigmatic smile
increase ever so tenderly
as he reclined there on the edge
of eternity?
17
Immortality Projects
We each need one good
enemy
to keep us on our toes—
yet good enemies are few and far
between.
Most enemies are bad, and
scarcely worth
our being annoyed at them.
Comparing enemies, I’m lucky to
have you.
Everyone needs death
to become a whole person.
Without death there would be
not much point to life.
Death makes us stand up
and use our assets.
He keeps us from getting
complacent.
Dear enemy, as enemies go
you’re similar to death.
Your knives are never in the
back.
You are disarmingly
straightforward.
You operate without
benefit of antiseptics or
anesthetics.
18
Opportunities to Love
That’s
why Jesus said
to love our enemies—
he knew there would be
people like you.
He gives us
so many opportunities
to love one another.
That’s why God said
the world God made
is good.
Life is all about loving.
Love is the important quantity
that oozes from all this
air and dirt and water.
It really stirs
the molecules within
to love an enemy
who is cutting your heart out.
We humans have it made.
If we choose to love
all those who flashily inflict
their cruelties on us
we rid their ids of sores
by rubbing them on us;
we turn hate energy
to love—
a miracle!
We turn what’s bad to good!
Look—
every new today
is a fresh opportunity
to forgive those who have wronged
us
and those who’ve hurt us.
19
Blessed Are The Poor
How blest
in spirit, the oppressed!
Rich yearnings for what is
Yahweh’s
burgeon within their treasure
chest.
This wealth is manifest in eyes
catching ours in magazines, TV
gracing our souls with
plattersful
of that which really matters.
The poor grow Jesus in the womb
of their tears, toils, and
troubles.
They birth the righteous God
in the stable stall of rubble
where there are feeble few
of the foul foibles that distract
as in the palaces of kings.
How flourishing in spirit
those with peaceful
seeings
nourished with I-Am Being.
Yahweh, wash us of worldly
yearnings
that we, too, may feel support
from gentle, minute things
like hovering bluebird wings!
20
Jeremiah 22:13
Woe to him in wealth
who builds his house
by unrighteousness
and his upper rooms by injustice
who makes his neighbor
serve him for nothing
and does not give him his just
wages.
If the debtor nations
refuse to pay foreign bank loans
God justifies them
if they have already
paid back the principal.
Wiley men contrived exorbitant
interest
which God condemns.
All that is owed
in God’s eyes
is the principal.
All else is of men.
If those who had foreign debts
refused to pay
would the banks fail?
Would the banks pass on the
unpaid debts
to those of us in wealth so that
we could no longer run our motor
cars?
Then we might see
that our exports of militarism
have not benefited anyone
but only served to bind
and to lead to famine.
The end result may be
that our allowance of the sin of
militarism
will fall on our own heads.
The wealthy will go hungry.
The collectors of exorbitant
interest
will have no shelter from the
rain.
21
The Three Times of Buddha
A molded golden
poem
with three stanzas
flowing into one another
the great
Buddhas
of Past, Present, Future
together sit in crafted majesty
on lotus leaves in Yong he Gong
willing artifacts, substantial
things
which lead our minds beyond material.
The message of the Buddha on the
left
is that the wise creative spirit
has been with the living world
before forever. It is
not touchable
but yet the source of all we
touch
of all our being, all we’ve done
the understander
of our past mistakes.
The healer of present human
errors
the helper in our everyday
distress
are symbolized by the middle
Buddha
raising up his hand to bless
the wisdom possible in our todays.
Love is a splendid spender
and love will spend for us
and shield us day by day.
The Buddha on the right reminds
those worshiping that future,
too
will flash with Buddha Spirit
with they themselves the giving
ones
whose duty is to permeate the
world
with caring love and noble
thought.
The wisdom found when meditating
here
is much more valuable than many
statues.
22
The Hatching
This
brittle egg-shell case
that holds my soul
this shell
so carefully preserved by me
handled with care
polished, protected
when will it hatch the bird in me
with golden wings
that will go soaring off
my God knows where
leaving a broken shell?
Of what use to a bird
is a broken shell?
23
Reflecting God’s Word
If I were a house
on the hillside
the sunrise
would catch the glass
of my windows
with flaming gold
so that those
in the darkness of walls
in the depth of the valley
will gasp
at the glitter
of what they behold
at the marvelous
masterful mirroring
of the cascading caldron
of atoms
that boisterously
burns from of old.
24
Holocaust Syndrome
On the
edge of hell
one loses perspective.
A people subjected to holocaust
may be temporarily blinded
as to proper treatment of others
because they are confronted
with the large hideousness
of what has happened
to themselves.
Thus the molested child
frequently becomes the rapist
when he grows older.
The horror in his mind
finds release in this fashion.
God, work through all of us
to help persons and nations
realize their tremendous worth
in your plan for the earth.
The Size of God
My God is bigger than
this church.
God loves beyond the confines
of these doors. God acts and
comforts
in all times and places,
encompasses
the world, covers the stars
and all that is, yet still can
fit
into a tiny corner of my heart!
25
St. Therese, Priest
She thought of herself as having
many vocations, the priesthood included: “And at the same time I want to be a
priest; how lovingly I’d carry you in my hands when you came down from heaven
at my call; how lovingly I’d bestow you upon men’s souls.
I am
a priest
ordained by God, not men.
I carry Jesus in my soul
so lovingly.
How can you
call me anything but priest?
A priest is one who gives
of God to people.
This I must do
and you must do it, too.
We must reveal God
to each other.
God hides in his transcendence
beyond our vision.
Only in those who walk beside us
facing after him
can we catch glimpses
of reflected light.
I am a priest to you
and you to me.
You carry Jesus in your soul
so lovingly
and with your open hands
so lovingly
give him to me.
26
Jonah and Others Such As Myself
My friend Jonah went
to Ninevah.
He was a good prophet
but not a very loving man.
He could preach fire and
brimstone
with the best of them.
“Turn and repent and love one
another,”
he thundered.
They saw sense in his words.
They shook in their sandals
and obeyed.
The Lord said
“I will be merciful to them.”
(That’s the way the Lord is.)
Jonah didn’t approve.
He forgot all about loving and
said
“How embarrassing for me, Lord
to say you will destroy this
place
and then you don’t back me up.
Folks will say I’m a liar.”
God laughed as only God can
laugh.
God said, “You’re no false
prophet, Jonah.
Go to them in love.
Take my love to them.
Say that I have heard their
prayers
and that I will be merciful.”
(That’s the way the Lord is.)
27
Paying My Way
Thank you, whoever
made the
earth and me.
I value dearly all that you have
given.
I take with joy all gifts that
you provide
but I insist that I must pay my
way
to show my thanks. I’ll push
myself
to do a kind deed every day to
pay my way.
Today my achy bones give this
long drive
starting before the dawn, to pay
my way.
You have rewarded me with silver
moon
sparkling the frosted February
trees
etching the cat tails in a reedy
gulley.
What possible return can pay for
that?
Like this, the morning’s coursing
moon
you go before me, colorful and
blessing
the world that meets me and
recedes. You rise
too, in the sunrise blossoming
behind me
which reaches up its tolerant
hands of light
to tousle tops of mountains still
before me
where the moon settles to rest
comfortably on a pile of blue
clouds.
How can I expect a heaven when
life is done!
This is enough of joy and
overcoming
a very fair exchange. Just let me
say
how glad I am to pay my way.
28
The Creators
If we
could
create
we would want to create
creatures more perfect
than ourselves.
(Witness how we chide
and guide our children.)
As we learn
the problems of creation
we see that it must proceed
along certain natural lines.
We start with the problem
of how to get life in a test tube
(just like God did).
We rise up
through fishes and land monsters
(just like God did).
We finally
get a man-type creature
(just like God did).
And then we have to be patient
(just like God is)
until man fulfills himself
and learns
how to perfect himself.
29
The Idol Maker
I am
what God
created.
I must not take created things
to represent my God
as if I thought
I could carve out a God
from my surroundings when in
reality
One Mystery has made all things
and authors all.
We can’t reverse the roles that
way.
Official idol makers would like
to think
they have control of God, of
earth, of destiny
as their idol has sprung
from their work, their hands.
The powerful and rich, religious,
firm
affirm, “God speaks through what
I made!
I have designed a faith
a government, an economic system
through my power.
Those who would be on my side
on the side of power
worship with me!”
But God, you made us.
That’s the way it is.
You speak through what you made.
You speak through us.
Yes, Maker God, your voice
speaks through our voices
because you made us in your image
capable of love.
How can we reflect your love
and yet divorce ourselves from
idols?
30
Rag Man in The Park
The dogs
are
friends with unknown dogs.
If he were dog, the dogs would
rush
upon him wagging friendly tails
and mouth him with a friendly
mouth.
Since he is man, he has no
friend.
If he were dog, we’d throw him
bread
and pat his shaggy rumpled head.
Since he is man and stiff with
dirt
we leave him to his ragged
thoughts.
What Is Man?
Lord, what
is man?
It is time we should know
and no one here can tell us.
Are we strange devils
mutants on your globe
or have we evolved
with the evolving earth
to care for earth
and praise you?
It sometimes seems that we are
rats
ready to run
the hawser onto land
knowing the ship we’re on
has rotted in its hull
helped by our constant gnawing.
If there were shore to run to
we would run
but we are far from safety of a
harbor.
31
Apathy
The three
small
monkeys sit upon the ledge.
Wee See-No-Evil does not see
bombs fall
but does he feel himself slide
near the edge
as the ground sends up vibrations
that shake all?
Imp Hear-No-Evil does not hear
the sighing
of the mothers and their young in
pain and fears.
Even grown men across the world
are crying.
Soon he’ll be floating on a flood
of tears.
Wise Speak-No-Evil has no word to say
but one can tell for what high
thoughts he stands
like— “We here who can never go
astray
defend the good and noble in all
lands.”
How well and thoroughly each
deceives himself!
How long before they tumble from
the shelf?
All The Living
Though
our
throats are quite parched
it is true
we can sing and be glad.
Joyous words
come more loud
from the hearts
that have known being sad.
32
Mansion Thoughts for Everyday
The Buddha built
himself a
house
with widespread wings upon tall
turrets
and flew to passive peace.
Christ urges active peace and
busily
prepares for each a marvelous
manse
depicting a delightful domain
reigned over by our
God-Companion-Parent.
Christ cordially invited me to
lay
wild weapons down, forget foul
fears
and thus unburdened, follow on
to where God has a pleasant place
special for me
with golden scriptures graven on
the walls
bright clarified by many a light
filled pane
a gabled, crannied, fairy spot
where I can entertain
the oppressed poor
the hampered lame
broaden the view of the short
sighted
a mansion fine
with brocade hangings
polished woods, pure porcelains
sweet seats beside fast dancing
fountains
a structure quite superb
containing all I want to do and
be
where pulsing Spirit penetrates
the halls
a holy spot where wrongs are
righted.
Who could turn such a palace
down?
But we must help God crystallize
God’s dreams!
We must assist each other to
these places.
In such a manor we possess
both Christ’s and Buddha’s peace.
33
We Must Do
Glorious Deeds
Our
deeds
must sing Glory
to the parent God
apparent in all creation
and to the offspring of God
found among us human beings
and to the God blown spirit
that breaks into our daily living
from transcendent heights.
Surely, we can swing across great
chasms
with such a triple braided rope
of faith
for our support.
No Time
for Tears
For myself
you need not sorrow
though I’ll see your face no
more.
I have learned to view tomorrow
as a kind of opened door.
Passing through, I put behind me
what was pain in yesterday
and the future still will find me
with some trust for the new day.
For myself you need not sorrow
though I’ll see your face no
more.
I have learned now how to borrow
love from life, and how to soar
up above both grief and madness
to a sphere of joy and rest.
Through a disbelief and sadness
I have learned my lesson best.
34
On Being Jesus
The
message
of God
has come down to us in two ways.
One way is
in the form of a human being.
A second way
is in a treasured book.
It is much easier to cry out
from the pages of a book
with the title of God’s word
attached to you
than it is to stand
in a
or on a street corner in
beseeching the troubled
to love each other.
It is simpler
to donate Bibles
than to mouth God’s word
in a city prison full of druggies
where no one has faith
in healing hands or hearts.
May God’s word
God’s message
be in every woman and man.
May it find its way
into every crevice and corner.
35
Early Fisherman
He
stood in
the boat and rowed
old and stooped.
His arms moved slowly on
and his gray head drooped.
He saw us not
looking out at him
on his morning way
but toiling over his oars he sent
sun to our day.
His wet oar shone like a silver
flash
to our beach-side view.
His wet oar mirrored the morning
sun
and he never knew.
36
For Faith Growth
Heaven-weaver,
Earth-hurler
flush us with victories
flash us with star power
gash us with godly joy
like yours!
We don’t want to be lap dogs
cuddling
cowering
yapping
feeble barks of fright
into unholy night.
Let us grow
Omega-like
as a deep rooted tree
by the living water
shooting out green tips
in God-time
till we touch heaven
and become
rain fashioners
sun hoisters
man makers
truly God-birthers.
37
Non-violence
Thou shalt
not kill”—
the hordes went forth to war
and those who took the sword
have perished by it.
There was not one stone left
upon another in the
“To him who smites you
turn the other cheek.”
Those who preached
grew hot with their religion
and Holy Wars were started
and the
remained in unholy hands.
“Love your neighbor.”
We are neighbors, one and all
on this small globe
and so we choose to disobey.
We devise new ways
to destroy peoples and nations
and kindreds
and tongues
and the world.
Miseréré
nobis.
38
The Dwarf
Condemned...
I see you as condemned to life
life different from mine
from all of us.
How do you see yourself?
Do you weep at evening?
In the morning do you grit your
teeth
combing your hair before the
mirror
condemned to life
unequal, pitied?
But I have seen you laughing
singing, making others laugh.
Is this the burden you have taken
upon your stubby shoulders?
Did God whisper to you
that we are all unequal
all short changed, all weak
all full of problems that we
cannot solve?
Is this the reason you can joke
and why you try to make us smile?
Christ has fondly let you climb
up on his knee
and is using you for his mouth
piece.
Oyez!
There is
something
out there
that can be in here
if I will open myself
and let it in.
I can be more than me.
I can be charged with Majesty.
Oh, Profundity, enter!
My welcome mat is out.
39
My God
I have a
God who
loves me hard and fast
with rhyme and reason
across the bridge of race and
creed and caste
and time and season.
I have a God, a Universal God
a First Great Cause
who holds me not with sweets or
lifted rod
or threatening clause
but with her love for that which
she gave birth
by her own plan;
whose spirit fills the emptiness
of earth
and mind of man;
the God of Brahmin, Arab, Indian
prayer
Catholic and Jew
the God whom all who seek, will
find is there
I have. Have you?
To Cardinals Who Act Too Seriously
If I
were
cardinal
I would not wear a long red cape
that swished and swashed
as I went striding by.
I cannot picture Jesus swishing
cape.
I would not let the lowly kiss my
ring
or bless benignly with superior
grace.
There are no lowly lower than
myself.
I have no better blessing to
impart
no grave position, honor, to
uphold
but only friendship with
equality.
40
The Viewing
I stood
on the
vast plain
and watched them die
the old, the toddling child
the cursing warrior, the sweet
faced girl.
I cried aloud in fright
in horror at the agony.
My guts melted. My legs froze.
Who made all these to live
only to have them die?
What cruel fiend
made me to watch this hell?
Hell stood there loud yet
voiceless
but answer came
back through the red-black night
to reassure my reason—
“Who can wisely choose
between heaven and hell
who has not seen them both?”
The Size of Man
I tried to
convince
the important monsignor
that to visit those in prison was
a Christian act
but he did not want to hear.
“At least,” I pleaded
let me talk to the parishioners.
Let them make up their own minds
on this humanitarian subject
as responsible individuals.”
“No,” he said firmly ,“we care
for our own folk.
That is enough to do.
What have those evil prisoners to
do with us?”
41
Bias and Basketball
Quiet, he
stood for
a moment, with a cat’s cunning
quiet, the
Then he reached out his long
rippling arm
and sent the moon spinning.
His sudden run was leaping lightning.
The moon was by his hand again
small next to that giant hand
and then its golden orb was
flashing
straight at the sun. Others stood
back in awe
small next to that giant.
There stood the Colossus.
They made him to be that great
one
Apollo, young, beardless.
He slew the wild python with
sunbeams.
He was a man wiser than others
son of Jupiter, gifted, player of
the lyre
averter of evil, bringer of help
punisher of crimes
with cubits of muscle
rippling in sunlight and sea
wash.
He stood there seemingly flawless
unbelievably real
ready to love life
and ready to be loved by life.
A flabby brown slug crawled
listlessly
by his glistening heel. Being
small,
it could see the weak spot. It
chortled—
“He is black
so the white world is forbidden
him.”
The Colossus heard the small
voice
and shook violently.
The quake sent him sprawling down
into the curling Aegean.
42
An Exclamation
To
serve
you, God, God of the jostling throng
God of the just and right, God of
the wrong
God of a million worlds that push
and press
through time and space that think
not
of you as they whirl and race
across the star-hung void
God of a wealthy church
that hoards its gold
that lives in splendor
as its heart grows cold
as nations starve
as man treats
fellowman
inhumanly
as love is
ridiculed
to serve you
if I could
I would.
To serve
you
now
but
how
!
43
The Armor of Faith
He gave up
faith for
charity last night
in a warm fire-lit room.
I watched him wondering.
It was a wise move.
His faith was made of steel bands
more to protect
than draw to God.
His faith would never step aside
for love
until last night.
His faith would never question
never dare
a “who” or “why.”
It was afraid of answers.
Faith like that is merely a
convenience
a little wall we build around our
minds
to protect them from life’s wild
winds.
But I have grave concern for him.
He may not be quite strong enough
to meet the world unarmed.
He will be very small and scared
in the dark night
without his armor.
44
To The Galilean
I do not
know the
way you traveled
through the dim woods.
I do not know the path
but only know that where you
passed
the grass grows more softly
and the trees stand more proudly.
I do not know the way you
traveled
but I follow
feeling, if not seeing
the greatness of you
as I go searching
ever hastening
but never catching up.
Always there is only nothing
but this strange feeling
of being on your path
for if I do not follow
where you seem to lead
the leaves rustle too
boisterously
and the little green plants seem
to grow
without any aim of being
beautiful.
So I shall ever follow
tripping over stones that moved
for you
and catching on rough tree
branches
that bowed themselves out of your
way.
I can never hope to be as you
but someday, perhaps
I shall catch up with you
in a golden meadow
and there I shall find out why I
followed
for I shall know what the sun
looks like
when the trees do not hold it
from view.
45
The Dream of The Messiah
When I
dreamt
alone
it was only a dream.
When I brought you into my dream
it became reality.
Now all these people
are dreaming my dream with me
so it becomes truth.
The Cripple
Stretch forth
your
hand,” he said.
I stretched it forth.
I wrenched it from its crooked
grip
against my side.
feeling it creaking from disuse
seeing its spastic twitches
from the corner of my eye
as I watched his face.
“Surely he’ll wince to see this
mangled limb,”
I thought. But, no
there was no horror in his glance
like other folk cast constantly
my way.
“Now use that arm to aid your
fellow man,”
he gave command.
I hardly heard him for the joy
that surged all through me
like crashing cymbals.
46
Joy!
To
sense the
Lord!
Oh, there is joy!
To early rise
and seek God’s face
to find God
in the temple place
to fill me
with abounding grace—
yes, that is joy
to meet the hidden God.
Thank God
you spoke the word
that sent me there
to search and seek.
Deception
The
a waveless,
ripple sea
yet how deceptive!
Somehow it’s like
our Christianity.
We think it loving calm
a pure placidity.
But with the sea
so suddenly
the waves rise up
and hurl the beach stones far
across
the Highway of The Palms at Nice.
Then we know this is no cozy
scene
this azure earth spinning in
space!
True Christian thought requires
our hurling justice at
oppressors.
47
Man Should Love God
God sits
weeping
in a corner
cowering
under the weight of the creation.
Depression haunts God.
“I have made this miracle of
stars and moons
and possibilities of love.
Who cares?
Who sees it all as something more
than hapless atoms thrown
together?
Who understands
the purpose of it all?”
Belief lies only in the human
mind.
Christ understood God’s love.
He saw the immaterial, the
spiritual
the river flow of energy
accompanying the mud and stone of
earth
the workings of the process God.
Clearly Christ calls—
“Come from your corner, Abba God!
I’ll do your will. I am your
way!”
Christ, be in us
that we may comfort
God.
On Education
What
grows in
mud
hard baked by sunny sky?
Who learns
when minds that teach
are stiff and dry?
48
Brimful
Sun-gold
God-man
brimful of truth
swing walk across
the flowering meadow
and love gaze
the crippled boy
till he ups and dances after.
Blood-red man brimful of body
agony
battling for broken breath
through bleeding lips
why has your father
left you
lonely for him?
Renewal
Every
morning
we awaken to a new day
a change in weather, wind, or
wave
within our outer world
the same sun apparently rising
but shining on different
circumstances.
We must also recognize changes
within.
After each night of rest or
restlessness
we rise to a new self.
The variations may be subtle
but we are always different,
always new
always renewed. With what awe
should we respond to these new
days, new selves.
What tremendous awe should waken
in our collective heart
when we realize that the past is
done
that all humanity, whether lion
or lamb
has a new day with new
opportunities.
49
God and The Individual
It was
night
when you said
“Seek my face.”
I heard you, God, with all my being
and I said, “Your face, God, I
will seek.”
The moon splashes gold on the
night.
The sun nourishes the day.
Day or night, where shall I seek?
Shall I seek in amongst the
people?
How can all these people
be known by you, oh, God
house after house of people, town
after town
that the moon splashes gold on by
night
that the sun nourishes by day?
How can you know all these
people, oh, God
all these millions of them
when I cannot even remember
the faces of those who live on my
street?
How can I seek you in all these
people?
I am drowning in people.
How can I measure you by myself
when you have made the universe
and I have done all things
imperfectly?
Still I must ask, “How can you
know us?”
But I know that you know me
(preposterous impertinence)
as the moon splashes gold across
the night.
How can I know you?
How can a feeble human know total
strength?
How can one discover her maker
in this noisy place called life
where the sun nourishes the loud
day
and the moon crashes across the
busy night?
50
Fog-bound Night
Through the
pea soup
fog that shuts me in
I hear echoes of voices
silenced in
in
in
Feeling my way in the damp
darkness
my groping hands bump rotting
flesh.
My mouth hanging open in the
thick air
tastes dregs of truth from the
cup
of humanity’s springtime dreams.
Intermittently a lightning flash
reveals the panoramic landscape
where trees are lesser
Christs
reaching up mutilated boughs
to beseech heaven’s torrents.
Compassionate prayer
can transform night to morning
where bright trysting birds
proclaim in burgeoning trees.
In The Fire
What
energy,
what warmth
is released from the wood
when the licking flames
consume it!
What love, what spiritual force
is released from our bodies
when the fire of God’s love
takes us in death!
51
Catering by Women
We women often
cater to
the men
because we’ve been subdued
for generations.
We accept
patriarchalism
due to our low self esteem.
One example is women accepting
that authoritative methods of
operation
are preferable
when kindness and gentleness
are vastly superior in God’s eyes
to domination.
Often we find women
who think they must be
domineering
to be successful.
They jealously copy the traits
of their oppressors.
Both the oppressed and the
oppressors
must be gentle with each other.
We are such fragile carriers
of life and love.
Come to Me
You Heavy-laden
Just
to brood
on our cares
like a hawk
hovering high o’er the plain
will not bring
a release from our sins
or a surcease of pain.
52
Return to The City
After twenty
years we
found it
a deserted city with abandoned
tenements
the fine old brownstones
crumbling, blackened, bruised
graffiti-spread
the windows all barred up
if there were windows left at all
the burned out hulks
the stores with iron gates
no longer selling merchandise.
We found a fortress town
with garbage-ridden streets
a playground all
enfenced
yet, children playing there,
fenced in.
Near-by, a school with all its
windows shackled
to protect it from the street.
Emblazoned like a banner bright
across the front door of the
school
reads the design
“The truth shall make you free.”
I tell myself that even
can be transformed
.
53
The Things I Knew
I knew. I knew.
The things I knew
were terribly real and terribly
true.
They lived with me through busy
days
and proved themselves in
countless ways.
I thought them through long
nights of care
when death was near and fear was
there.
“Be true, we must!
Be kind, we must, for God is love
but God is just
and death’s a friend who visits
all.
We must be ready for his call.”
But then one day I chanced to go
to a gathering I did not know
and found their thought
was not my thought
and they did not seek
the words I brought.
They lived in joy
and showed no fear.
The things I knew, they would not
hear.
Gently they smiled like it didn’t
matter
and my wisdom was just foolish
patter.
Their audacity caught my breath.
They would not even speak
of death.
For them to seem so sure at heart
could they, perhaps be right, in
part?
They had no fear of God’s being
just
but I had lost my childlike
trust.
54
“They Shall Not Worship Me On Any Mount
But In The
You said,
“Clean up
my church!”
and we said, “Yes.”
We took our dust cloths, vacuums
scouring powders
we took our willing hands
and eager hearts
and went straight to the task.
The dust was easy.
The gravel underfoot
was obvious
but where to stop?
Should we tear down this cornice
on the altar
that crumbles all to shreds
and varnish up the blemish?
What’s necessary, here
to worship you
our God?
The Shy Christian
I
have a
pocket
in a velvet shirt.
I keep God there.
If I’m with friends
who will not laugh at me
I bring God out for air.
55
We Are God’s Delight
Why did
God make
the world?
Would God do the unnecessary?
We must somehow be important
to the scheme of the creator God.
God is love. To exist as love
does God need someone to love
someone who can turn to God
or who can spurn God?
Forced love is not love
but a cruel exercise of power.
Love compelled from need
is a self-serving thing.
True love frees those it loves.
Both God and we must be free
to leave and to destroy
or to turn delightedly
to what we love.
Knowing this our God
has made us free
created us in joy.
He does not tie us down
with abstinences and negations.
56
Society Condemns The Convicted
You
confined
to prison, crawling worm—
you know you are a worm.
You know your place
is in a tunnel in the ground
eating dirt.
Someday we will let you out—
what then, worm?
You must not expect
sunshine and fresh air;
that is for ants.
Perhaps if you wither up and die
we ants can gain a bit of
sustenance
from your carcass.
We’d better keep you in your
tunnel, worm.
We ants need someone
to look down upon.
57
Saving The Oppressors
The spiders wove
a web of
lies
and sat there waiting for a
prize.
A thud, a tug, a cheer— Hi Ho!
They’d caught a fancy fly named
Joe.
They felt him over carefully—
he was so big a guy—
was he some sort of spider type
or just another fly?
He tight-rope-walked along their
strands.
He bowed quite low and shook
their hands.
The question raged along the web
“Is he a spider or a fly?
Should we poison him
or let him go?”
Joe said, “This whole web is a
lie
so the truth is—
I am not a fly.”
Those of you who are in the know
had better place your dough on
Joe.
I think they’re going to let him
go.
It takes a charismatic guy
who understands the spider’s
needs
to counteract the spider’s deeds
and liberate the oppressed fly
to save oppressors from
themselves.
58
The Moses Men
The young
men are
like Moses.
They murder the oppressors of
their people.
Then they flee into the desert
but do they have mountain top
visions?
There is a blue robed Medjugorje virgin
on top of every mountain
smiling on us, loving us
if we would only see her.
The young men in the desert
have no faith in virgins.
They barter trivialities of the
moment
selling their souls for ecstasies
that perish
murdering each other
forgetting the way to the holy
land.
Souls
and Poems
You
prefer
souls to poems
you, who are infinite soul
and infinite song.
You would rather find my feet
wandering a thorny path
in search of silly sheep
who fled imagined wrath
than find me plucking on my harp
on some warm hill in the sun
praising your wonders.
59
Why Have You Forsaken Me?
Your
very cry,
Messiah
implies you knew God once
that you and God
walked hand in hand
through vistas of aching hearts
and broken bodies
dispensing love together
from the fullness of your
comradeship.
I do not know
why God forsook you.
I only know
I envy you
your walk with God.
To be Messiah
to be totally filled
with the message of God’s love
requires that one be totally
empty
of one’s self.
Only when one is totally empty
can God completely fill him.
Poetry Is Frozen Music
Poetry
is
talking to God
something like prayer
like opening a window
to get a breath of air.
60
In Me!
To be!
To have God everywhere
within my being!
To have only God’s words
burning my lips
like coals of fire!
To dream only God’s dreams
through nights of prayer!
To desire only
what God wants me to desire!
To be full, infinitely full
of God’s great goodness
so that love pours out of me
like some vast sea!
To be!
To live, joy, aspire, pray
to be consumed by loving!
To be like Christ!
For this you have created me!
Frightened, I ask
if I am equal to the task.
Our Offering to God
We bring
you this
water in wooden buckets
pure, clear, dripping from the
spring
but to hold this life-giving
water
wooden seams must be saturated.
They must be permeated
with the crystal clear liquid
so that the seams swell out
and form a seal.
The buckets must be soaked
in living water
to hold up effectively.
61
Credo
I
believe
in God—
(God, help me to believe!
Some days there is no time
to think of God
to do good deeds
to rest in God
or even time to grieve.)
God as Almighty Comrade—
(You have placed us here.
Some crowded days
I cannot question why
or think of infinite love
but move only in haste and fear.)
Maker of the heavens—
(Today I cannot even think
if heaven is.
The world shuts in
on every side.
Oh, what can heaven be
and where?)
And Maker of the earth—
(Yes, earth is here.
That statement I can get a grip
on.
Shall I believe in you, my God
because you made an earth?
Some days the earth is all I know
but someone must have made it.)
62
Amen
Amen—
You have created me!
You have called me by name
and I am yours.
Amen—
You have made my soul
like a sparkling diamond
and I must not hide it!
Amen—
You have made us all
to give you glory.
We will praise your name!
Amen—
You have made us to know ecstasy.
You have made us
that you might dwell in us!
Need and Greed
The
prosperous
American
entrenches himself in his castle
armed with security systems
tied to police stations.
Why is he so fearful?
Does his innermost mind suspicion
that it is unfair for him
to have so much
(that he doesn’t have time
to utilize effectively)
when others are denied
food, housing, and respect?
63
The Price We Pay for Order
When
Abraham
gave his tithe of battle
to peaceful Melchizedek
was it an attempt to justify
the strife arising in his soul
from his taking of another’s
goods
and ending of another’s life?
Surely he could have saved his
nephew Lot
in a less violent manner.
When Melchizedek received the
tithe
from Abraham so graciously
was this righteous, peaceful
ruler
accepting for all future
generations
of those who gather tithes from
the imperfect
a measure of their greed and
bloodletting?
Abraham involved the just
in his revengeful act.
The lion needs the lamb
to dwell in order.
The Price We Pay for Freedom of Religion
When
of religious worship to his
empire
the gentle and oppressed
trusted his motives
and gave their unsuspecting
support
to an un-Christian social system.
The lion often needs the lamb
to maintain power.
64
Squandering Induced by Social Systems
We have
wasted so
many centuries
when we could have been loving
arguing about things like whether
to use
‘debts’ or ‘trespasses’ in the
Lord’s prayer
when Jesus never said either
‘debts’ or ‘trespasses’
as he spoke Aramaic.
We have killed women with warts
on their noses
for being witches instead of
empathizing
with their pain at ugliness.
Jesus would have advised
that only those with no
imperfection
could throw stones on other
souls.
We have confined the angry,
violent insane
to solitary or disruptive prisons
instead of giving them counselors
or friends.
Jesus was willing to listen to
and console
those full of devils of his day.
We have self-importantly
theologized
about the words just war,
instead of seeing
small Iraqi children dying in the
arms
of those who would have protected
them.
Jesus invited children to the
home of his heart.
How we have wasted opportunities
down through the centuries! We
have discarded
pyramidal heaps of human souls
creations that God made and loved
creations so discouraged from our
treatment
that they could not even love
themselves.
When St. Therese saw souls
drifting to hell
she was seeing all the souls that
social systems
have ignored and thus given over
to depression.
65
Listen! God Is Speaking!
Through whom
does God
speak?
In
oracles spoke through cracks in
temple walls
giving godly advice to the
troubled.
Sometimes these voices were from
women.
The loving goddess Isis might
sound rough
or domineering using the voice of
a man.
In
was a wise woman
who could look into hearts
and see their longings for the
future.
In
both priests and priestesses were
servants
of the local gods. The famed Melchizedek
may have been either man or
woman.
Today, what change has come about
that men are thought to be
the mouthpiece for the worshipped
God?
Has God changed
or have human beings changed?
Because Jesus said, “I am the
way,”
are we never to listen to a woman?
We Are All Called
to raise
the world
to heaven.
66
I Heard God Call
I
answered
out of my comfy bed
“Where are you, God?” and God
said
“I am out on the cold night
plains
with the bare sky wheeling
overhead.”
I cuddled down in my warm cocoon.
“Where should I go? What should I
do?
Must I leave my nice, warm room?
Answer me, God!” God said, “Be
true!”
I crawled from out of my cozy
spot
to seek the truth in the chilly
night.
“Send me love to keep me warm.
Be present, or I’ll die of
fright!”
I march, I march on the cold
night plains
seeking our God out where God
said
with others stumbling along the
path
and the bare sky wheeling
overhead.
I march, I march, and I try so
hard
to sing and serve and be unafraid
to be true to the One who called
me out
to love all those God made.
But it’s cruel out on the cold
night plains
with the bare sky wheeling
overhead.
I long to dream in my cozy room
but, “Be true!” is what God said.
67
Together
Fear has
driven us
close together
fear that there won’t be enough
to eat
fear that the stars will crash at
our feet
fear that there won’t be a world
to greet
when we rise up one of these
mornings.
As we come nearer to one another
we find that we like each other’s
faces
that we can enjoy different
creeds and races.
We are close enough to help and
smile
to share a load for a weary mile.
Then love takes over and binds us
closer
Soothing the fears in each
tumultuous breast.
Hate from color, sex, creed will
come to rest
For the God of surprises has
saved us the best--
this time when we all can work
together.
The Need for Community
God
doesn’t
want
one of us
to know everything
because then
we would be
God.
We need each other
to be
complete.
68
The Healer
The crowd
cries,
“Heal me!”
and God hears their cries.
he sees them suffer
and he knows they hurt
but first they need to pray
to rid themselves
of what’s within them
that is hurting others.
When they forgive
then their debts
are forgiven.
When they cause no one wounds
their own are healed.
Jail Bird
Fishkill
prison
stands on a hill
and there is no hunting allowed
so the birds throng there.
The small pond is filled with
ducks.
The pheasants strut on the road
confident as chickens in a hen
house.
Small birds flutter about the
cell windows.
One day a lost parakeet flew
between the bars into Joe’s room
and stayed there like Joe was St.
Francis.
Joe loved him and named him
and was his friend and provider.
Everyone needs someone to love
even God.
69
Pool of Glory
There
is a
plunging
of the cleansing dew from heaven.
It is raining rites and rubrics
hailing, healing
pouring penitence
deluging down
with offerings from swords of
sacrifice
with symbols which can sanctify
the whole sweet earth.
Just look around.
Behold the rainbow halos glinting
glancing their many colored
lightings
from heads of saints and sinners!
See, here is Jesus
there is Buddha
temples in the hearts of people
temples also found in places
earth made holy by the tread of
people
spots made pure with precious
tears
with years of inner-outer
healings.
See the deluge
raining, plunging, pouring
all into a pool of love, oh
Ancient One
all into your pool of love!
70
Believing in Reality
Is
it
reality
that loving spirits lean
tenderly over us
that Jesus lives
in spite of death
that God is love
that evil comes from
man refusing God?
Do we believe intangibles
hold us in cozy arms
like nursing mothers
cuddle babes?
Can we accept
that God sends angels
to protect us
sends us joys and trials
to fulfill us?
Reflect Like Water
Reflect
like
water
blue where it reflects the sky
sunshine from the sun.
Reflect like water
green where it reflects the
trees.
Absorb the darkness.
Reflect like water
gray where it reflects the
clouds.
Conceal the evil.
May I make sunshine
for others to reflect
and hide my sorrows.
71
To Choose Not to Fear
Infinite Mind,
I am
afraid
and I am programmed
to knot up my stomach
and make fists of my hands.
Help me to lift my hands
in prayer and praise.
Creator God
I thank you for creating me
to know this futile fear
for it can teach me
what lies beyond.
Without darkness
how could I know the light?
If I choose not to fear
then I learn trust.
The road that turns away from
hate
leads to love.
How Is It So?
We,
weak and
cringing
scurrying, comic, we
a part of that great Spirit
that great One
who master-minded
all the universe!
How is it so?
72
Rape of The Moon
Time was
when the
moon was a riddle
a goddess benign, yet unfathomed.
We have trampled her virgin
hills.
We have eavesdropped
on her secrets.
And what of you, Alpha-Omega
great Spirit of Life who upholds
us
Beginning of all beginnings
will we violate your sanctuary?
Wind
The leaves
blow up
together at the touch
of November wind molded by it
into
some small whirling wheeling
cyclone shape.
The migrating birds chatter
together
on dogwood trees with red
berries.
Then all rise together from the
breath
of some energy which we do not
understand.
Us, too, poor humans, busy
at our small tasks
move in concert
reacting en masse to the furor
of a riot or a revolutionary.
What wind stirs us?
73
What God Is
I cannot
know what
God is.
As soon as I know what God is
as soon as I possess God
then he is no longer God
but something I have dreamed up.
If he is something I have made up
if he is a creation of mine
then he is an idol
and I may offend the true God
by worshipping what I have made
up
(unless the incomprehensible God
is not so easily offended).
The Land Is Filled With Wisdom
Isaiah 11.9
Must I
always be
questing?
Can’t I ever know?
Doubting, searching, arguing
must I ever be so?
How can I be so petty
when God lives in you and me
and fills us overflowing
as the waters swell the sea!
74
God’s Spirit Is On Us
Dream
your
dreams, old ones
these are the days
of hope and love
they have spoken of.
Sit in the sun
and whisper praise
for folk love each other
in these good last days.
God’s Spirit is on us
to do what is right.
We care for each other
black, yellow, or white.
God’s Spirit has fallen
on each mind possessed
who now sits near his teacher
in tranquil rest.
God’s Spirit is on us
to put out a hand
to guide a weak brother
across a drab land.
No one speaks to his neighbor
“Come, serve God, like me!”
for we all are serving
industriously.
Young folk have their visions.
The hungry are filled.
They are helping the feeble
and warming the chilled.
They are curing the sickly
these God-driven youth
and turning the whole world
to justice and truth.
God’s Spirit is on us.
We walk in the light
of God’s truth and God’s strength
making wrongs into right.
75
To Ransom The Captive
My
brother,
how to ransom you
from this prison
from the frown of society?
What coin can I use?
I remember you young
with the sunshine smile.
Who put you in this prison?
Drugs?
Are they another name
for hate, for evil
for devil?
Only love will buy your way from
here
only love, God, concern
only the ringing pure coin
for a ransom.
On The Impossibility of Knowing God
Beer cans
and
cigarette waste!
Why did God make us?
To smoke? Drink beer?
Watch football on a screen?
To build prisons?
To be put in prison?
Those in the know glibly say
that God made us
so that we might know God.
Don’t make me laugh.
Us— know God?
What does God have to do with
beer cans?
76
Danskammer Point
In
harmony
with nature
the naked savages
danced on Danskammer.
Now the electrons dance
as the tall towers
spew out smoke
from their infernos.
My peaceful Hudson
what have they done to you
to supply the greedy needs
of my multitudinous brothers!
The Stones Will Cry Out
Out
of the
stone
God wills them out of the stone.
Out of the stone will God grind
atoms
to form new atoms for new
generations
that will mutate into a new
people
who will praise God’s name
a new children of Abraham.
If we do not shout praise
to the All-good who made us
eons from now a new people
will break forth in song.
It is destiny.
It is God’s dream of evolution.
77
The
Humanbeing
A human is
truly a
wonderful thing!
What else can be replete with
love?
Where else can one store wisdom
that is gentle, kind, and good?
Who else can verbalize to God
save only the human?
Can one put thought in a bottle
or lead hope by a string?
God uses the human
to store faith, hope, and love.
Yet the human is also a terrible
thing!
What else can bitterly reject
the God that made him
to be child and friend?
What else can cast from out
itself
a universe of love and peace?
Can one store evil in a flower?
Does one hoard strife in pirate’s
coffers?
For Pity
Pity the
country
whose leaders lie.
Pity the country whose children
are sated with materialism.
Pity the country
whose schools have no prayers
so as not to offend the godless.
God is a spirit.
Pity the country
that does not have that spirit.
78
A
There is
singing
in the vineyard
and the clustered grapes are fat
but we do not need to cut them
but eat them where they’re at
for there is great abundance
and we’ve many fruits to eat.
The grain is ripe and golden
but it withers on the stalk
for the storage bins are flowing
and the people merely walk
through the fields to see the
beauty
of the wind rippled wheat.
But they’re walking discontented
and their songs are tuneless lays
for their life has lost its
purpose
and they sing no songs of praise.
They’ve forgotten God has made
them
to love and serve each other.
Having all things, they have
nothing.
They are lonely; they are lost.
They get whatever they wish for
no matter what the cost.
As they are all surfeited
they have no need for one
another.
79
Where Love Is, God Is
How does the
human
recognize the God within?
Before Jesus walked in Palestine
the goddess Isis showed love has
power to heal
and taught by her example concern
for both the good Osiris and the evil Seth.
Ancient Egyptians knew
that heaven's portals were open
only to those who did not kill
unjustly
to those who supplied the needy
to those who brought peace and
order.
For them, there was no place
of everlasting torture
but each one yearned for life
rather than extinction.
Jesus’ message
confirmed the thought of
She being goddess could not die.
Jesus as mortal
signed his beliefs with death
and showed that those who love
are like the gods
and live forever in the human
heart.
80
Swords Into Plowshares!
What
evil one
is this who walks
between two neighbors to stir up
trouble?
What disturber whispers to each
neighbor
“I hear your neighbor does not
like you
and I will sell you guns
to protect you from him?”
Who makes blood money selling all
these guns?
My country, my country, is it
you?
Yet listen how the people of my
country moan
that it is terrible to watch
others suffer.
Where did the guns in
Where did
Who upset
I am tired of blood money.
My country, wash your hands
clean.
Scrub out the cursed sticky spots
and turn the swords to
plowshares.
To God
If I
knew you
I would stop seeking you.
If I stopped seeking you
there would be
no need for me.
81
A Crucifixion
The Romans
and
others of our forebears
had few qualms about capital
punishment.
They squished out a life as
willingly
as I would take what matters to
it most
from the small spider
that weaves its wispy web inside
my door
working as God told it in its
heart
dancing delightedly from beam to
wall
fashioning a fragile work of art
giving its all.
What a work of art Jesus
fashioned!
Spiders and men, they neither
last forever.
We treat life unimportantly
when it gets in our way.
What matter that our lives show
forth
a master craftsman master plan?
God’s kingdom comes and overcomes
in spite of what man does to man.
82
Tale of Two Lands
We are
blessed
by God. We travel singing
down quiet roads and roads
brimful of sun
past meadows stretching wildly
wide
with daisy flowers.
We send our happy voices ringing
across the very world and back.
We run
down gentle valley sides and rest
in bowers
where birds praise God
and moss is soft and warm
and nothing on our way would wish
us harm.
But I have heard some stories of
a land
where the traveler is set upon at
night
while during day the sun is at
its worst
scorching a covered head. The
traveler’s hand
must hold a staff, to steady, and
to fight
off snakes. And some there are
that die of thirst.
What can I do to ease that
traveler’s way?
He would greet with scorn a daisy
flower bouquet.
Reverence for Life
Do we
have
empathy
for the person we can’t see?
Somewhere
a desert road
winds up a dusty hill
and there a fellow traveler
is lying crumpled, still
and we are not there
to help him
and we do not
seem to care.
83
All Things From Emptiness—
God
caused
them to be made.
The fish in the sea from nothing
the ducks that paddle through the
water
the swimming otter from nothing
the cat bird singing
laughing, imitating, from nothing
the butterfly, the roaring
airplane
the rocket from nothing
all things in the air from
nothing
and all things that have their
being on earth
these, too, from nothing
the giraffe, the sky scraper, the
electronic brain
and man, the wonder of man from
nothing
and the small, small things
that we can’t see with an unaided
eye
the atom, the x-ray from nothing.
God made them all from nothing.
God was here in the emptiness
before there was anything made.
God was here and there was
nothing but God.
God was nothing that could be
felt
or that could be seen.
In the vast emptiness, there was
nothing
that could be felt or seen
but it was filled with God
and from the nothing, God willed
the something.
Only God can will something from
nothing.
God is not all these things God
has made
because God existed in God’s
entirety
before any of them was made.
But God is in all these things
God made
as a father passes down his
characteristics
to his son, as an artist puts her
talent
into her painting, as an author
projects himself into his
writing.
84
Take Care of Him
I picked up
the book
and read and was afraid.
The words were those of the
Samaritan.
They plucked a chord that hadn’t
yet been played.
“Take care of him until I come
again.”
Take care of whom? I saw the
storyteller’s face
inviting my response, with love
aflame.
I pleaded, “Jesus, I love the
children of my womb.
I care for them!” And he, “The
publicans, the same.”
Take care of whom? My neighbors?
I am kind.
I watch their needs and give them
what they lack.
Why is your face so sad, Jesus,
my friend?
He says, “Invite him who can not
invite you back.”
Invite whom where? Take care of
whom?
I hear drums beating and see
flags unfurled.
Am I responsible, accountable,
Jesus, my brother
for the salvation of the world?
85
Child’s Prayer
What are
you
doing?” they asked.
“We’re praying,” I smiled.
“We’re walking the beach, and
we’re praying
I and the little child.
He prays
when he plays
in the sun
as his merry feet run
in and out of the wave.
I pray when I think that God gave
the sun and the wind and the sea
to him and to me.”
All of Us
We
all shed
tears
and why do we waste days
of life in needless fears
and vain, sad pain, when we could
live
so many ways?
We all can share.
We must be strong and good
for there is care to bear
on our drear sphere, and men to
mold
to brotherhood.
We all can sing.
The angels’ roundelay
would be the thing to ring
across this mad, sad, battered
world
to make her pray.
86
Three Gifts
A
woman
from
sang just for me
hitting every note
softly, purely, surely.
A Marist brother
at my urging
cast a spell on my out-of-tune
piano
with his dancing fingers
and brought Beethoven into the
room
with a host of dreams
from the past and for the future.
My neighbor gave me bird seed
and said, “Stand in my place.
The birds will come to you.”
And trusting birds
lit on my outstretched hand
like promptings from the Holy
Spirit
to gobble seed.
The vial that is my being
over-flowed
like thankful eyes
can mist with tear drops.
May I give others
such brimming over hearts
from the treasury
that God has given me.
87
The Sacrifice of Abraham
Abraham, when
you
trudged up the slope
with Isaac by your side
what anguished thoughts were
yours?
Or did you still have hope?
“How can I kill my son?
I love you, Lord, but Isaac, my
own son
the answer to my prayer
the one whose seed shall be
as sand beside the sea
my promised one
my son
my own dear son.
I love you, Lord.
T’is you I
must obey.
Make clear my way.
Steady my arm
and make me strong.”
“Come, Isaac, come along.”
“Oh, Lord
what love and trust
are in those eyes.”
“Father, where
is the sacrifice?”
88
Night of The Soul
What, is there
no sleep
for my beloved?
Is there anguish in his heart
and he feels that God has
forsaken him?
Oh, my beloved, I do not want
that for you!
I, too, have spent the long dark
night
searching, searching
wondering where God had gone
wondering where I had lost God.
Oh, my beloved, I do not want
that for you!
I have cried out to the night
winds
“If you see the Lord of Love
tell him I looked for him
on the long, gray beaches with
wet sand
when there was no moon.”
Oh, my beloved, please not for
you!
I have asked the stars to be
witness
of how far I traveled
on what great ships
hoping to find him
of how many faces I saw
searching for his face.
Oh, my beloved, please not for
you!
But it must be.
Beloved, without the night
we do not get to see
the red-gold sun come swiftly
out of the silver sea.
89
Each Has Her Armageddon
Will I be on the
right
side at Armageddon
as the nations line up for the
fight
as the atom bombs roar
and the napalm pours
will I be on the right side in
the fight?
When God comes at last
will I rush forth to destroy him
I who have waited with longing
for wearying years?
Will my eyes be scaled
so that I will not know him?
Will my heart be blinded by its
selfish fears?
When the stars fall from the sky
will I fall with them
down to the blackness of forever
night?
Will I be on the right side at
Armageddon?
Will I know which is the right
side in the fight?
Woman in Travail
There is a
road that
I must take.
I know it well.
It is a gusty, stormy road
that leads past Hell.
There is a road that I must go
alone in rain.
Though it has frightened me
before
I go again.
It is Good Friday’s road
a blood red one
but only down Good Friday’s road
past hurts that stun
shines Easter’s sun.
90
Worshiping from Afar
My passion is to
praise
you, Worthy Ruler
Ruler of the long night
Ruler of an infinite number of
worlds like mine
Infinite Ruler of infinity.
How could I hope to glimpse
even the fringe of your garment
here on a secondary sort of world
in a dusty corner of your realm?
We Make The Choice
The people
make the
choice
between destructive death
hate, war, and neutron bombs
and God’s own love in Christ
where we admit
Christ’s way’s the way.
Great God, what will
we people say?
The World Grows Up
This growing
world
is like an adolescent.
Upwards we evolve.
We have been trusting children
but now
we are turning from our parents
and trying to make our own
decisions.
May we become adult enough
to decide for love and truth.
91
Great Teacher
Teach
us
meekness.
Let us see
the wisdom of humility.
Teach us patience.
Let us know
we rise to heaven by being so.
Teach us truth
and let us speak
only the truth
earnest and meek
and purified by coals of fire.
Then shall we other hearts
inspire.
Great Teacher
let us see
your holy face
in those we think are wrong
and so turn hate to love
and sin to grace
and angels into song.
On Race
Color of hair,
skin,
eyes, what does it matter
as long as loud and clear, the
soul speaks through!
But, oh, it chills me when I
think, beloved
that perhaps I would have never
married you
if it were the cold, cruel custom
in this country
to marry only eyes that matched
to you
because your thoughtful, gentle
eyes are brown, love
and mine—
are blue.
92
The Miracle of The Loaves
There was
much
grass there
and they lolled in the warm grass
under the sun
and listened
to truth itself.
When they hungered
then he fed them.
How I envy them—
the warm sun
the soft grass
the full stomach
the companionship of one another
and most of all
their hearing spoken
truth itself!
Then
there was no more care
for an instant of time.
All their needs were seen to.
Even fear had dissolved
before truth.
93
Your
face,
inanimate TV
speaks to me of lovely things
I cannot have
and do not need.
It begs me to act
in ways I know I should not act
if I wish to serve others in
kindness.
It immunes me to violence
to dropping bombs on children
to young men shooting each other.
It allows me to accept
aberrations as normal.
What could be a tool for teaching
concerned love
is usually used to trigger
greed, lust, and envy.
As a world full of souls
destined for marvelous heights
we must learn to control you
instead of allowing you to
control us.
94
Paean for A Prophet
You,
Prophet
you, moldering in the cell of
Herod
wondering, doubting
“Did they hear the message?
Has God redeemed the time?
Are men repenting?”
Do not despair, oh, Prophet!
Press your ear to the wall and listen.
Hear the wild guitars strumming
your music.
Hear voices singing your sayings.
You fulfilled your destiny.
Men have heard you.
But remember
prophets are for stoning
not enthroning.
Birthing The Messiah in Our
Todays
We move
closer to
our goals
by reaching beyond our grasp.
We become divine
by stretching towards heaven.
We have faith
that Jesus can be born
in our hearts.
95
