Baited

I am a sinner but my sin I am not,
yet of temptation, my aversion be rare.
In guilt and shame, my person's distraught
and falleth I into the fowler's snare.
To take what ought as object of want
is a greater sin than avarice, greed or lust
and he who's poke and lure and taunt
will turnth man from formthed to dust.
My strength, I'll forge perfection by hand
and mine be the victory o'er acts impure,
but now my pillars have turned to sand
for I was a trout that took the lure.

Yet though humility and virtue I lack
plucked from the hook, His hand threw me back.

Virtus

Foretold realities, you place your trust in;
- Innate desire for something more
on Days and nights when sadness creeps
and Emptiness is finally felt. Do not
fear. Senses cannot detect what you seek.

Sorrow may enter into your life like
a Prowling lion, but fear it not for
in Every day and age, failure
was Subsequent to the beast's efforts.

Come, rejoice in the rock that saves us!
- Allow the streams of grace and peace
in Radiant glory to fill your soul. Let
the Incessant needs of humanity become
your Trail into gifting your strengths and
speak Always in the person whose
mighty Sacrifice gave us life.

Transubstantiated

Of simple wheat-
plain and bare You are.
Dull in state and stark
in complexion.

Of all vessels, why this?
Ordinary and boring to
all senses but one.
I see a circle.
I taste wheat.
I feel a fragile wafer.
I smell nothing.
I hear nothing...but
that's precisely it.

Silence. Fluid nothing
interrupted by the breathing
from the gift you gave:
Life In Flesh Eternal.

Brown

With boots upon my feet and Joe in my cup;
one cream, two sugars to combat the
bittered blackness of which it was brewed.
Each step towards rest I take upon
this yellowed-reddish blanket of leaves
is, as they say, "blackening" but more revealing
the packed earth below it--step by step.

To gaze upon the barren branches renews
our sense that growth will come again.
Within sight, the cabin, built by hands
of generations past. Pawing on the door, my
friend, who's coat is not black nor gold
but somewhere in between. He waits and
greets his lifelong pal, who left but moments before.

Removed are my shoes and the caked mud
that accompanies them. With the chimney asmoked
and a fire now roaring, I seek my fill
in the chestnut cabinets above the darkened
limestone countertops and drawers of aged oak.

This loaf of wheat just waiting to be toasted
to a crisp and be adorned with peanut
butter: the spread of divine providence.
With newly gathered eggs and bacon sizzling
away, the time to rest is drawing near.

Placing the feast on the wooden table before
me and finding a seat upon this handmade
chair, I breath and sigh and know,
"This is home."

Redemptio

Your grace, O Lord, hath saved all earthly souls
and ever holy are your words of truth.
How easy seems the task to follow Thee
yet many stray with claims of lack of proof.
Not priced yet precious is thy heavenly grace
transformed all hearts for which approach thy font.
Reversing, abandoning--for some you will displace
for faith is changing; grasp need and offer want.
Desert, ambition--functions of our will
are set aside in order to allot
a home, a rock, a source of endless fill
from He who will and is and was Begot.

To lay your life and love before such odds
takes strength, takes glory, takes might--not yours but God's.

Hail! O Holy King of kings!

Hail! O Holy King of kings!
Your gleaming golden surface shines.
Your Face makes silent rooms,
be it I or nations knelt,
harden silence everywhere.
Breathing...breathing.
Silence.

But a thought audible, though faint:
A whisper would deafen all around.
The presence and power,
You melt away the snow banks
of our frozen hearts.
Name above all names,
We adore you.

Boundless is thy musing

Boundless is Thy musing.
The words, which appear
on this blank slate-
These words, which come
to and shed light.

So deep are these great
Mysteries. Unknown is every
stroke before their inception.

A gift beyond comprehension.
My work made reflective.

Unworthy are my hands
to convey Your love.
Untamed, my mind, which
receives Thy message.
Unprepared am I to
grasp these passions sowed.

Yet moved are my fingers upon
this blank canvas of letters.
I listen and You write.

Make me an instrument of this lease.
That I do not seek to write
as to receive dictation.

Ex nihilo

As now I stroll the greenery path ahead
mine eyes are captured by the falling piece
that sheds from silent giants fast asleep
forever as they dwell in endless peace.

For if that fruit forbidden was not bit,
myself, like them, would I be placid stay
and blow in breezes as the days turn night.
By nature, all the demons held at bay.

But why do these, the leaves, fall scattered here?
These titans follow every law He's made
and no offense do these kind creatures show
yet in its time its green will slowly fade.

For they were made and he declared they good
and I, his image, pondering, there I stood.

The Mustard Seed

Lover of the Light;
fear not the ever growing
shade that engulfs the fresh
that grows stale. It is your
gentile smile that gives the
river raindrops. Drop by drop.

Your are the sand grain to the
desert, the seed to the
pomegranate, the flake to the
snow bank, the kernel to the
corn husk, the acorn to the
oak.

The dilemma to the
law, the attraction to the
romance, the grace to the
conversion.

Thus do not change. You are
our change. You are our strength.
Without you, how can we start?

Tim

To hell and back, the journey which I'm called
And you my brother, this I do not wish
but honored I would be to be beside
A man like you; now let's go fish

Fish we will to save the broken bells
that toll deceitful melodies askew.
Let now our efforts not be done in vain.
Let's set what's ripped and tampered now anew

Fish we must to guard the sapling trees
that bears the fruits that follow now in time
We give the water, freshen now the leaves
Ensure the future's harvest be sublime

Without the knowledge of what we had in store
You came in freedom; 'Twas my task you bore

Emily

My heart, entangled evermore
by pulls and sways within me.
What is this I feel inside?
I want desires to be free
But now I come upon this open door

I did not ask for this but now I have
a push to go pursue this
A hankering to approach thee
A drive for eternal bliss
A vow to keep until my grave

Greeting thee, I fear, will taint perfection
Unworthy am I to think of you
Immaculate you are in my eyes
But can this feeling be true?
Let love point me in thy direction

Anna

Crowned with streams of sunlit waves
the mane that sits so soft upon thy head
what beauty comes from such a radiant sight
reminiscent of earth and heaven now all wed

Oh peer into my soul, thy lovely gaze
Like oceans filled with grace and perfect peace
So bittersweetness fills me with the thought
that such perfect from above is on but lease

But if today my breath will flee my chest
I'll know that life awaits me now beyond
for you are but a mirror of what I'll see
of what I place my life and faith upon.