Reflection and Contemporary Verse

REFLECTIONS:
Relationships, Risks, and Boundaries
“Pursuing a meaningful life of loving, caring, and giving and receiving in relationship…”

The Search for Home
“Is there a common thread running through
the heart and experience of humanity?
I have the recurring impression that we live
a large portion of our lives lost and in
a search for home…”

Words
“Words. We use them to form thoughts,
in meditative, spoken, and written language.
They are the substance by which we think,
relate, and communicate with man and God…”

The Time of Our Life
“The creation of fulfillment and meaning
in my life is not dependent on the
occurrence of the right actions by the
right people or the right events…”

CONTEMPORARY VERSE:
With Only Words
“It is a most vulnerable and intemperate act
To believe myself a writer, to bare my
Heart and soul to you my fellow mortal…”

Night Train Passing
“Shrouded in the night,
A distant, solitary train
Wails a soulful lament…”

Missouri River Rites
“Dawning ascension, light transforms
From gray to amber radiance,
Revealing open fields of rich, brown earth
Plowed in long, even lines and bounded
Between the river and far horizon…”

Wings of Hope
“In the morning, just before the dawning,
When the night’s most long and cold,
And the heart of all creation’s longing
For light to break dark’s ruthless hold…”

The Breaking Wave
“Wave, oh wave upon breaking wave,
I know you well, who unrolls in metered roar
And inscribes encrypted paragraphs of
Your life upon this shore…”

Sanguinary Lover
Orléans woman, you are the laughing, bespangled,
Brassy-voiced singer of songs and incantations…

Amore
“Oh love—
This heart is torn
By your song played
On the strings
Of my heart…”

Find the Day
“Tumbling heart-struck over common sense
Down this twilight terrestrial path,
With eyes fixed upon the surrounding hills,
I lay down every belief and hope…”

What Is
“What is is sometimes what is,
Though what is may be what is not
When illusion disguised as what is
Represents not what is but is thought…”

In Memory of Hope
“Where has hope retreated to?
And when did joy pass away?
Or into what grave for dreams
Has faith been laid to rest..?

Leaving Land Behind
“We set off on this journey knowing that
We would be sailing far from land,
Far from all the human support
On which we have come to depend.
Our eyes scan the horizon, but
Our gaze is met in every direction
by the rise and fall of the sea…”

Heart and Soul Like You
“Peace who are you,
Who holds the calm
While this storm rages
About the ship of my life,
Testing every sail and stay,
Pounding from bow to stern
Every plank that is assailable..?”

Love’s Music
“Is it the bell from which the music rings?
Or hammer’s stroke that’s heard to sing..?”

Permuting Time
“Eyes of impetuous, mortal judgment
See merely wrinkles, a body worn with age,
A character of stark and incidental nature.
But these same eyes with like destiny
Are myopic to the child, companion, lover,
Fired with dreams and passions…”

New-Moon Light
“New moon shining, mere imaginings of light,
Just as delusive dreams of refuge
Promise deeply kissed respite,
And passionate words of longing,
Diffuse at desperate height…”

Longing
“When I awoke this morning
my need for you ached within me. And
finally, I sequestered one fleeting moment
in your presence…”

Mortality
“PREPARE FOR WHAT? A Lifetime
unfolds and he, near the end of day, is sitting
quietly gazing out from the high serene coastline of this familiar country…”

Reflections
“I look upon you, lying quietly in my arms; you are
Slumbering peacefully, head resting against my heart.
I listen to you breathe each breath, slowly, deeply, evenly;
And all the world seems to be at rest about us…”

Run Deep This Course
“River, run deep this course of wilderness,
Mountain glacier’s white-foamed child,
Rushing, crashing, headlong
Down through darkened hills and forest shadows,
Settling slowly into sunlit lowland plains…”

Tenderness and Might
“Grace upon wondrous grace,
Peace upon blessed peace;
Abandoned to your embrace,
As your beloved one…”

Through the Storm
“Jesus, please keep me
Through the storm and through the night
And wrap me in your loving
Arms and hold me tight..”

The Day You Were Born
“When I was ten, I dreamed of a girl 
with whom I believed I would, one day,
fall in love. She was beautiful — tall,
dark hair, brown eyes, olive complexion,
slender, very loving and kind…”

This Time
“If, as in a vision in the night,
God took me back through time,
Before you and I were joined as one,
And I held perfect recall of all the days
That have been granted us until now…”

When Hope is Lost
“Concrete and steel
Join plate and bar,
Lock and key
To render him interned
Whose hope is lost…”

Our God Is …
“Father for the fatherless
Hope for the Hopeless
Redeemer for the doomed
Peace for the tormented
Advocate for the accused
Rescuer for those in peril…”

The Morning Light
“When the morning light is breaking
Over the mountains
And night is fleeing from the
Valleys slumbering…”

The Lamb is the Light
“And the Lamb is the light thereof.
There is no need of the sun or the moon,
For the glory of God
Shall be our light in that day…”