Like Lilies of the Field

You search me and you know me,
You've seen me,
You've heard me,
and you're still here.

In my weakness, you showed patience.
In my hunger, you satisfied.
In my troubles, you consoled
and beckoned me. Where?
To be determined.

Breath

Freed. Fetters once binding now serve vainly.
How has renewal found its place here?
By what means does He call me?

Moved, I cannot return to this place.
Every pace plodded makes place for progress,
yet doubt darkens eyes to see it.

Like a breeze drifting on dormant shores,
Your breath has swayed my inmost being.
Changed, I cannot return to former ways.

Led by Your call, I face forward.
Refined by Your fire, I am unburdened.
Breathe on me, that I may see.

Stained Glass

How, o sharded face, do you,
in all your stillness,
 in all your beauty,
radiate such calm?

With hands unknown,
beyond your speckled surface--
sought to draw one's eyes
into the mysterious.

Though...function fades
when purpose prods the
pristine portrait for
"perceived" purity.

Behind your pigments,
between the rebar;
who are you?

My own eyes are kept,
veiled to who you really
are...beneath the stains.
Blinded to the window
of your very essence.

Though unseen, though loved
for your disguise;
I knew you. I get you.
I see you as you.

51

Just as waning wicks seek completion,
my heart aches for You, O Lord.
In stillness, in silence, in fragrant clouds;
Thy words and my words rest unveiled.

Why me, my King, do you reveal
Thyself? These eyes, these ears sense
only feebleness.

But worth was never in question.
Desert was never your cause.
A broken and contrite heart,
O Lord, you will not spurn.

Indwelling

Enclosed behind these gates of gold
is greater love that none hath told.
A cause for joy--a hope divine,
a grander gift than bread and wine.
I sit--I ponder of Your face
and wait upon Your warm embrace.
What others see as bells and smoke
I know to be what Truth hath spoke.
Alive within Your sultry gaze
I come to seek and know your ways,
that all may see within my eyes
Your motivation to arise.

"...when he made firm the skies above"
In confidence, I knew Your love.

In The Shadow

It was finished.
Oh high, the source
of light and warmth
knew what happened
here...retreating from
the sight of this.

As thin plank darkness
stretched across the
soiled ground, cries
became the only
hymn as Earth
fell silent--as
hope was murk.

And then it happened...

A Paschal Lamb!
Came from Its side
the Blood and water
Most Divine!
It sprinkled forth
upon the face
of man and all
the human race.
Though cold and lifeless
still we saw,
we knew commands
to drink and gnaw
a wine and bread
made Him unique
to sate what every
heart hath seek.

You took the pain and burden mine
as in The Shadow, we're made Thine.

Consolation of the Poet

With you before Me,
all choirs obey my baton;
withdrawing itself
that you may hear.

I speak. I rise.
In wholeness I wait.
Peace, our hearts did
find in solace.

Hear! He heralds hope,
healing heartbreak,
humbling haughtiness,
hampering hatred,
heaving humanity's
hindrances.

I am...here.
Patient. Gazing at
you.

Like Silent Giants

For God made it so--
that they may dominate
all the eye can see.

Rustling--swaying with
every caress of wind;
Cooperating with the silence
and breathing sustenance
for all His creation.

There they stood,
Like Silent Giants,
waiting to be a home
for all who dwell;
giving of themselves
for all who dwindle;
existing in our midst
to dwarf our prideful hearts.

The Standard

Who am I?

Created like the

Brazen Sun. 

Like leaking dams,

my heart holds not

the love lavished--

furrowed within

my solemn soul. 

An image brought to

Judgement. Unblemished 

by the Flood's stream. 

Will wiles win? Or

shall I dwell in 

the City?

"You can have the world,

but I offer you freedom."

The sword shall strike the

old to their youth.

And I, but observer,

shall take up the Shield?

I am but portion

made full by You. 

A morsel made meal

at the Banquet set forth. 

Red Light

Enclosed within your

vitreous hold, burning

away the every sound. 

Flicker--ebbing elsewhere. 

A sentinel on guard 

of the Treasure at rest. 

It's you who keeps 

best company as eyes

rest...as hearts beat. 

It's you who points

to that Greater than

thee; than us. 

In the beginning,

a spark ignites duty. 

At end, you've given

all yourself in hope. 

For now, you watch

as time stands still. 

"Abide in Me, you shall remain"

In this, my greatest hour of need,

I come to Thee with humble plead

to further water--nourish the seed

so planted by Thy potent hand. 

Though stumbling as I try to stand, 

my effort shall not be disband 

until my feet find perfect land 

where which I'll find the path Thou lead. 

Enlivened, heighten is my sense

for all the graces Thou dispense. 

Like oceans vast and ever dense,

I seek--I long to see Thy face;

To have Thy merciful touch erase

my past transgressions. To alter pace

to be consumed by endless grace. 

Thy Love, I cannot recompense. 

Come, take my soul and mind and heart

that I may never be apart

from Thee, my Love, who ever art

In glory, honor and power reign. 

With Thee, I fearth not the pain

of finite triumph and glory vain. 

Let all my pride be rendered drain

so humbled, hearts will find restart. 

My Lord, My God; I cry to Thee.

You hear my want: That I may see. 

Was saved by grace but called to be 

disciples for this foreign plain. 

"Abide in Me, you shall remain",

The voice that soothes my every pain.  

Eternal life is what we gain

When I'm in You and You're in me. 

A Heart Expounded

Lead me. Far have
I strayed but lead.
Guided in trenches
of fallen promises.

Surefire were my eyes
but hollow my fruit.
Rest so desired
but whisked was I
from my yoke.

A twinge. A speck
reflectant of hope.
The trickling water;
pilgrim to an end.

So I followed. Led.
Upon our shoulders,

we bore.

Offering

To know Your will is my desire, Lord;
To give myself entirely unto You.
To have my heart be pierced by the sword
of Your eternal love and light so true.
Please take from me all which has kept me blind
to wholeness set before my broken eyes
and grant me greater peace of soul and mind,
that Satan's snare be not my grand demise.
I thirst for you, O Lord: my heart's desire,
for in You I have found the hope in being.
Where wisest fools are taunted by the lyre,
Your joyful trumpet blares are ever-freeing.

My entire self, without reserve I give
to seize this opportunity to live.

If the ceiling were the floor

If the ceiling were the floor,

the sky will be no more

or more like sky becomes the ground.

Shakes normal to its core. 

If the ceiling were the floor,

great peace our hearts'd implore;

for we would see beyond our walls

and find what time has wore. 

If the ceiling were the floor,

we'd settle all our score

because our dreams would be availed;

we'll see what Love has bore. 

If the ceiling were the floor,

we'd open wide our door

to blessings and the futures bright

and graces over pour. 

If the ceiling were the floor,

our souls would always soar;

for hope and faith would be our shield 

and charity our sword. 

If the ceiling were the floor,

The curtain'll find it tore

revealing truth to all who seek

the treasures now in store 

For if the ceiling were the floor,

My spirit would be poor. 

All glory, honor, praise to Thee

both now and evermore. 

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.

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.

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?

Duplicity

Do you hear that noise?

A hissing of the mind

Offering so called happiness

Leaves its victim blind

See that luring sight?

A beauty deep as skin

Powered by emotion

What truly was has been

Feel that rascal pelt?

So from pernicious beasts

For at this point you've lost

And gracefulness has ceased

We all were once but young

And when we know what's true

This Greater Love redeems

Our innocence anew