Category Archives: Poetry

A poem for Ash Wednesday Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return The mark of death weighs heavy on my brow. A mere trace of ash and oil but it brings remembrance of sacrifice and loss, sin and atonement. Surely I was sinful at birth Make me your own, reach downContinue reading “Dust”

I have a problem. But first, let me say happy birthday. Today marks the 114th anniversary of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s birth. Bonhoeffer, as many of you know, was a German Lutheran pastor executed by the Nazis in 1945. Along with Maximillian Kolbe and Oscar Romero, he stands in the pantheon of 20th Century martyrs. Bonhoeffer isContinue reading “Spoke in the Wheel: Epiphany 5A”

Solitude is not something you must hope for in the future. Rather, it is a deepening of the present, and unless you look for it in the present you will never find it. Thomas Merton overlapping unmet lives with this in common: a love for high places and solitude and living within the tension ofContinue reading “Merton & Me”

2nd Sunday after Epiphany Psalm 40 John 1:29-42 I waited patiently for the LORD; he inclined to me and heard my cry. If you happen to be a fan of the Irish rock group U2, those words might sound familiar. On their 1983 album War they appear in the song 40, which is a recastingContinue reading “A New Song”

Gethsemane A poem for Maundy Thursday As if in a dream I see your silhouetteframed against the impassivemoon and cold, distant stars. I would reach out for you,but I am merely a shadow,a phantom of no real substance. My spirit is willing to rise butmy sleep-dulled flesh is held fastin its sandy cradle. You callContinue reading “Holy Week Triptych”

Maybe I don’t hear so well. And maybe I prefer it that way. You can have your “dense fog advisories” I’ll take my “death frogs,” an unstoppable amphibious army falling from the sky doing God knows what, wreaking havoc wherever they land, gobbling down anything that crosses their path. Maybe I live in a worldContinue reading “Death Frogs”

Take time make time waste time all kinds of time.  Time flies, flees and then there is Father Time benevolent and wise. Do you want to know the truth?   He’s nothing but a liar and a cheat, playing a long con, dealing Texas Hold ’em with the ace of spades hidden up his sleeve, hustlingContinue reading “A Measure of Time”

A turning away, or perhaps only a glance: peripheral, brief; but my gaze was diverted and in an instant I was swept from your Presence. In chaos I begat chaos, overwhelming every quiet moment with gray words and hollow actions until – my spirit broke and took flight, wheeling in frenetic retreat. Now in silenceContinue reading “Stillness”

Heart and hands of ash: the remains of a life on offer Evidence of fatted and unblemished sacrifices pleasant in the nostrils satisfying to the eye Blackening the sky in fragrant pillars of good intentions wreathed in incense Straining against gravity to reach you, I watch exhausted and earthbound as the tendrils of smoke dissipateContinue reading “Simple Intention”

October rain pelts red-brown leaves prying open  their desperate grip