Places 11: Grain Fields
Grain Fields began in my head while driving South on Route 47 through North Central and Central Illinois—back when towns were small, subdivisions far away, cars were few, speed limits vague and farmlands stretched out far. It’s hard to understand if you don’t know the stories behind the images, so I’ve put references in footnotes. […]
Places 10: My Kitchen Door
Two cardinals sail in, softly feathered watchers, they sit and wait upon the deck just beyond my door. The male bird looks into me, straight into my eyes, then flies away as if to say, “Why don’t you come out and play?” Urges to rise and ride the sunshine lift my wings, then die. Today, […]
Places 09: Love Songs
I Open up and sing! When songs resound with tingling life and the winds of God blow with us as we sing, the tones aren’t all our own— we’re not alone. II Listen to words that surge-up unbidden, let loose all the sounds The Spirit is giving. Surrender to rhythms eternally marked, move into the […]
Places 05: Streams
Late winter rains pour down, flood deep / filling gullies, lifting creeks. Flushing ice from caves— where creatures hide…
Places 04: Fog
Wandering through young trees / at ease in this wet woods / my footsteps fade / deep into duff. The air has substance…
Places 03: Patterns Change
steady west winds / breathe hot over grasses / on roasting ground / greens dry to gold, golds fade to brown / clouds cast warm…
Places 02: Geraniums
Geraniums, against all outside snow / Coral lights within my room / Reaching toward the windows white / In winter bright…
Places 01: Snow
This poem, Snow, is about delay, risk and choices inside of changing circumstances—and, though not spoken, about aging.
Places 08: Touch
I Wide and warm and open, the hands of spring drop rain, soften down our frozen ground, courses cut cross gravel roads, fields and hills and streams erode. Waters push away at loosening soils, wash small stones and softened clay from roots too weak to cling. Soakings squish beneath our feet, imprints pool and overflow […]
Places 07: Conversation
For those who like to compare revisions and see how poems grow, I’ve included several versions of Conversation. The last two are significantly better than the first, so keep reading. 2011, Conversation, original published in Places, 2011 Wanting living conversation a word lifted out into time’s tick-tock, Into creche and crush of creation. Human […]
Places 06: Friends
Writing can be a break from pressures—like reading a good book or watching a light movie. Revising this autobiographical poem about my first date in 1952 was a pleasant faith-building diversion from pressures and stress. I hope you can travel back in time and relate to bits of it with me. The line lengths support reading aloud. The meaning? Honestly, I’m not sure—
At the Evening Sacrifice
Your eyes shine life on our turning earth like sun lights up a day; Your love casts Your glory rays upon our human clay.
