Life, faith… and poetry
Photo credit: dreaminginthedeepsouth
Photo credit: Reflections
Photo credit: Artifactuprising.com
Photo credit: @CutterStreeby
Photo credit: @CutterStreeby
This road runs as if charted by drunken hands,
Winding across lands shapeshifting from flat crop fields
Fused into horizon’s edge, highlands curving ’round
God’s foggy ankle to jaded settler towns
& native villages that defied time’s advance.
I watch all this behind a back seat window as
Pat Matheny’s guitar transforms the landscape to
Nabraskan prairie & Colorado Rockie;
Helps me dull exile’s longing & celebrate
A world that is shrinking before my very eyes.
Note: I have decided to use a new format for posts using segments of poetry over images. Let me know what you think!
Watch her drift beyond shore’s edge
Body half risen, half submerged
Observed by faithfuls on the bank
Robed white as if for rapture.
Watch preacher dunk her under
The cool, murky shallow & up
Into searing midday sunlight.
Watch sisters receive her with
A towel & embraces
like a newborn damp & alive.
Watch her take to the road alone
At service end, returning
To her own sacred ground that
Heals scars water alone cannot
Cleanse, that full immersion cannnot
Undo.
His return was
not an Ode to Joy,
*
But a quiet oratorio
publically unannounced.
*
She, a devoted fan,
was his first listener
*
Reacting, at first, as one does
to the loss of an old friend.
*
But his voice makes this new tune
old for her again, resurrecting
*
lessons at his feet &
works of wonder & mercy.
*
His solo proclaims another hope
implied in apologues & private revelations.
*
A pre-release track, so to speak,
promoting the real thing.
*
& she carries with her
this comeback song
*
Ready to be heard by those
with ears to hear.
Don’t assume responsibility for making
the essentials like mac & cheese,
stewed chiecken or collard greens,
the old hands got them covered.
Expect the whole fam there, or,
at least, the ones who return emails,
phone calls & don’t have personal beefs.
Expect to find the men lounging on living
room sofas, watching Saturday night ball
on the flat screen, debating the MVP race;
the women crowded around the kitchen
table passing gossip with a bottle of wine;
kids tearing from room to room ’till some
sharp parental looks send them outdoors.
Come expecting your grandma, aunt & uncles
to give you a tight embraces that leave back &
shoulders aching; the dense scent of meals slow
cooking in the oven, on the stove or waiting pre-
made in tin plastic trays. Expect some names
to shine more brightly than others in your mind
& to discover a new life here to replace the one
seas, continents & distance of time has left behind.
Afterwards
Children resume
The street soccer match
