22 November 2012

O death, where is thy sting?


Job 19

Then Job answered and said,
How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?
These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me.
And be it indeed that I have erred, mine error remaineth with myself.
If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me, and plead against me my reproach:
Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.
Behold, I cry out of wrong, but I am not heard: I cry aloud, but there is no judgment.
He hath fenced up my way that I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths.
He hath stripped me of my glory, and taken the crown from my head.
He hath destroyed me on every side, and I am gone: and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.
He hath also kindled his wrath against me, and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.
His troops come together, and raise up their way against me, and encamp round about my tabernacle.
He hath put my brethren far from me, and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.
My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.
They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.
I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I intreated him with my mouth.
My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children's sake of mine own body.
Yea, young children despised me; I arose, and they spake against me.
All my inward friends abhorred me: and they whom I loved are turned against me.
My bone cleaveth to my skin and to my flesh, and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.
Have pity upon me, have pity upon me, O ye my friends; for the hand of God hath touched me.
Why do ye persecute me as God, and are not satisfied with my flesh?
Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!
That they were graven with an iron pen and lead in the rock for ever!
For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:
And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:
Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.
But ye should say, Why persecute we him, seeing the root of the matter is found in me?
Be ye afraid of the sword: for wrath bringeth the punishments of the sword, that ye may know there is a judgment.



1 Corinthians 15:50-58

Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.

So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.

O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?

The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

13 May 2012

Following a Conversation with Robinson Jeffers


How odd it is that by our mere attempt to witness beauty
Beauty is diminished.
(The larger the parking lot the less the need of parking).
Burn down your car, house, phone, camera in one starlit blaze.
Is beauty meant for eyes of trees alone?
Ears of grass?
Tongues of Flowers?
Loose your interpretation –
Wash clean your mind –
Listen to the prophesy of water.

04 May 2012

To A Wandering Soul

Wrench out your eyes if you cannot see
          Sight without vision is a hollow tomb
Loosen your tongue with a blade if you cannot speak
          Speech without communication is a tumorous growth
Maim your ears if you cannot hear
Still the blood in your beating heart if you cannot act
But above all, poison your pride if you cannot kneel
You will find yourself taller on your knees

17 April 2012

Scribblings

Each atom
is a bomb
exploding every inch
into a cosmos -
millions of proton planets
with whizzing electron moons;
the music of the spheres
bursting into symphony.

And here I sit
feeling the immensity of a god
and the smallness of a man
who dreams of stars.

31 March 2012

Heartbeat

Bluish static licks through my arm
Bursts of lightning without a sound

Thoughts stray to dreams
          Cosmic prophesies of Joseph
          Mild mutterings of Freud

Thoughts diverge
Like the Nile in my arm

United by the rhythm of a heartbeat

19 February 2012

Afternoon Vigil

trees point
            cathedral walls
to a sky
intangible
            fingers stretched
overcome by birds
chirping alleluias
            wordless doxologies
candles lit
            afternoon vigil
by sunlight ethereal
enthralled by
dancing atoms
only a
creator’s eyes
can see

01 February 2012

Grace And Beauty Intertwined



In these fleeting hours I chase the sun
Both for heat and light
Before the rosy sheets are pulled for night
The light is flickering across my pages faster than I can read them
So I make my way to a tree where the last covering is the bed of the horizon
A couple is chatting across the way
His neon green sweatshirt offsetting the fresh grass
I whisper a prayer to the wind as it moves my hair
Back and forth
Back and forth
Back and forth
Until its sound is synonymous with the surrounding grass
I turn the page as the last lash of light whips through the horizon and disappears