Places 24: You Will Know Me
Revisions of You Will Really Know Me Waiting Often I have sought You— pushed aside the lures of night, fought to find Your Glory light. I’d wait with seeking heart until Your Love would find— to realign my weary mind. Today, I’m tired of waiting, encased in aching aging bones, my weary soul waits on, […]
Places 20: That Day
Was nature still? Or did winds stir? Did leaves whisper or branches rub to sigh? Were there grasses high enough to bend and sway, to worship their Creator upon that Holy Day? What sounds surrounded Him? Did footsteps on the road near-by slow down to plod, trod and tread in quiet fear and dread? Could […]
Places 19: Impaled
Note: Impaled reminds me that over forty years ago, I heard a Middle Eastern man tell how, while still young boy, maybe 12 or 13, he saw Jesus hanging on the cross. He said that he was, in vision, actually taken to Golgotha. While he watched Jesus’ crucifixion, the Lord looked at him. He was instantly […]
Places 17: Gethsemane
In the fun of colored eggs and family and all the beauty of the lilies and the “Hallelujahs” of Easter, I can focus so fully on the joyous triumph of “He is Risen” that the fullness of why Jesus denied Himself and choose His Father’s will—even death on a cross— falls in the background. Revising […]
Places 15: Waiting for Wind
Note: Here are two poems. The 2011 poem describes summer heat. The 2021 version is a work in progress. Inner impressions that surfaced while reading Carl Trueman’s The Life of the Mind slipped in. Trueman says our culture elevates immanence (materialism), unbelief, and the importance of our inner individual feelings and physical desires over external authorities like […]
Places 13: Cedars
Cloud brushed cedars
gently sway
into the darkening skies.
Birds that crowded
summer skies
Faith or Fear
On December 11th, I looked out the window and wrote a poem about the wintry view before my eyes. I was surprised that it ended up about fear and faith. What is in us has a way of coming out, doesn’t it. I rarely post new poems, but put it on-line. Dissatisfied, I revised it. Here’s […]
Places 22: Jesus Said to Thomas
Then Jesus said to Thomas Cut out those whispering doubts that won’t believe. Bend, man, bend to truth! Touch my side, receive. Don’t hide, don’t hide. I’m here right now, I’m here. I heard your grief, I felt each sob, each tear. I know you cried and cried. I know your faith and hope had […]
Places 12: Holding a Moment
Note: This Advent Season poem is not my usual. You may think it cynical, laced with negative subjectivity. I actually do like some jazz and blues— but not stuck records or tapes that never end. And the anomaly of night club music on an early Sunday morning in an upscale hotel lobby all lavishly decorated […]
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 05: Streams
Late winter rains pour down, flood deep / filling gullies, lifting creeks. Flushing ice from caves— where creatures hide…
