trees and roots and growing things

7/29/2019 Trees and Roots and Growing Things

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A CORNERSTONE PRESS CHAPBOOK

Jon Trott

CORNERSTONE PRESS CHICAGO

1994, 2000 Jon Trott. All rights reserved.First web edition.

Cornerstone Press Chicago939 W. Wilson Ave.Chicago, IL 60640

ISBN 0-940895-33-1Printed in the United States of America.

97 96 95 94 4 3 2 1

and Roots and Growing Things http://highromance.com/poetry/jbtrott/treeroot/

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To Carol, my beloved wife.

Your love is the most continuing, tangible clueI'm onto something.

Poetry is idolatry refined.--Kierkegaard, StagesOn Life's Way

The heart has its reasons of which reason knows nothing:we know this in countless ways.

--Pascal, Pensees

Contents:

A Farmer's Song

Love You, Love YouThe Gardener's ReturnLove is the Way You LiveKiddles and RiddlesHere We Are, LoveThoughts of You in Random PatternsCarol Trott's LoverMoonscapeInterlude in LovemakingA Cup of CoffeeDancer Me

A Brief Exploration of the Origins of LoveLooking at You Closely in a Horizontal PositionLife Burns ByLovers' WorldLove Has Bad DaysSolomon's FollyThe Flags of LoveCarol's LullabyAbsence of MeaningThe Cynic Observes His Sleeping ChildrenThere'll Be No Marriage in Heaven

Trees and Roots and Growing ThingsEpistemology I: Preliminary CategoriesEpistemology II: The Woman and the Half-Baked PhilosopherBlow AwayTeacher, TeacherThe Wonder, All AliveThis, and ThisWords and KissesA ToastWithout A Compass


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Sweet Things and NeedfulSelf-IdentificationOn Experimentation with Static Electricity

A Farmer's Song

Tell me if you ever saw

A field of unripe wheatThirsting in the summer sunWithered in the tortured heat

Tell me if you ever heardThe thunder of the stormOr felt the sting of hailstonesThe wheat fields smashed and torn

Tell me if you ever watchedA fire consume the grain

And smelled the smoke-filled skyA black/blue angry stain

Tell me if you ever weptOver remnants of the springSo much planted, so little leftLove nothing left to bring

Plant the seed againPlant the seed againPlant the seed again

No way of knowing but to believe

Plant the seed again.

(c) 2000, Jon Trott, all rights reserved

Love You, Love You

Across the space of who I amThe gap I fill a mote in Reality's eye

I see you standing, walking,moving, talkingAnd wonder how you feel insideWhat your thoughts are as I stand, greasy-hairedRunning my fingers absently acrossThe stubble of that absurd thin mustache

Love you!Says the voice

You turn and speak


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And I dream of being oneYour white dressThe quiet warmth together afterwardAnd down along the inner pathsWhere a man's thoughts roam, his ownYet so easily taken captiveBy Cheap Desire's multitudes(Even Solomon's wisdom wasn't enough)

I walk now as an older childThe baubles of sin still glitterBut I know a cheap imitation when I see oneLike the cricket's chirpingMore insistent when one is most silentI hear love's whispersEchoing in the chambers of thisFlesh and blood placeAnd I watch you and wonderAt the symmetry of normalcyThe shouts of children

The shyness of your smile which saysYou wonder at love, too

Love you, love youSays the small voice

But build the fire slowlyI will I say and prayFor in the window your reflectionReminds me of His gracious pathsThe holocaust of rejection

So recently escapedThe promised land of loveJust now being entered....Let me be worthy--no, merely obedientTo the way of loveAnd no other way, high or lowLet me woo this womanAs Boaz wooed RuthAnd the lover his ShulammiteI love loveToo much to harm its slumber

Enough to praise its powerEnough to act on its behalfLove you, love youSays the still voice

I whisperLove you, too.



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The Gardener's Return

Our hearts rose and so convergedUpon their object of desireWho in turn made of them oneFilled with joy and faithful fireAnd rooted in his endless love

Our soul-seeds twined their tiny leavesRound and round each others' livesFor love alone all things believes

So we live in love's own gardenNot the flowers with their charmsSeasons see them fade and perishWhen cold wind their blossom harmsWe, two trees, will lean togetherKnowing sun and wind and rainSheltered in each others' arms

Until the Gardener comes again


Love is the Way You Live

Dancing slowly, here she comesAcross the mem'ry of my mindSmiling shyly, winking slyly

My attention is confined

To her face and to her passionsTo her hopes and to her dreamsTo her kisses, my sweet missusThe way she is is how she seems

Tender is the way she woos meSlender is the hand I holdLove the garland round her tressesShining story Christ foretold


Kiddles and Riddles

What does me wriggling my nostrils mean?Why do you laugh when I do it?What do you think when I'm hiding unseenAnd you scream when I jump though you knew it?


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What do you think when I flop on the couchRight when you're losing your mindChildren are crying, and inside you're sighingAre you sure I'm the best you could find?What do you think when I burp like a pig,Then mumble 'Excuse me--please pass the bread'?Would you like to examine my stomach's insidesOr maybe examine my head?

What do you think when Christopher laughsAt tales of mine, a dark ployHe could have been such a wonderful childBut I'm busy creating a BOYThe girls are weeping, Trev made them madCan you really quite blame him?He was taught by his dad

Disgusting, revolting, pigheaded, and strangeAre these some nice words to describe me?

You insist I'm nice but it's clear as thin iceLove's stricken you hard--you can't see!


Here We Are, Love

It is easy to loveWhen love is easy going

But harder to loveWhen love itself is tried

Trembling loveLove stuttering before painAfraid to love wellBecause wells are deep places

Blinded loveLove without insuranceFaith urging "Take the leap!"

Poor love wants to go home

Here we are, loveHere we are

In ChristIn loveIn Christ's love.


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Thoughts of You in Random Patterns

The darkness

Over us like a cool breath

Your shoulder bareAgainst my face

Movement

Silence

Except for your heartbeat

Words without importancefor now

You kiss me softlyI hold you fervently

Glad in a wordless way

I love you so

This moment...

for eternity


Carol Trott's Lover

You sting my soul with longingHair, eyes, and l ipsMy rainbow's end

me?

I'm just Carol Trott's loverBlessed by grace

And the kindness of a womanWhose face always turns toward me

Why do I deserve this?There's no reason

Except the love of the Heavenly Fatherfor

Carol Trott's lover


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Moonscape

The craters of existenceBlurt out their citizens

In the city heat where truth liesIn the vacuum where compassion dies

HereIs where

Fear

Rules.

The arid surface of the streetsOffers footing to spacemen with guns

No life exists without oxygenNo life survives a world in sin

HereIs where

Fear

Rules.

Yet rumors of a distant rainA desert changed to green fieldsSome say there will be dreams

I hold you in love's endless streams

HereIs where

Fear

Loses.

Yes, it is trueThere is a God

Two lovers can remain in love

There is life on the moon


Interlude in Lovemaking

Garbage/shopping/shelving/cannedgoods/brushteeth/sacklunch


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/argueroomdecor/talktalk/spankingif youkeepdoingthat/where'smycoffee/paintthat/didyouseemyglasses/turnthatdown...

lloveyou

nowdidyouseethoseglasses...


A Cup of Coffee

Three men, meeting by chance on a train, discussedwomen they considered to be thefinest.

The first, young and handsome, told of the wonderful girl he'd met in Paris. She'd been

a model therefor a year, and was as good a lover as she was a looker.The secondman, solid and respectable, told of the woman who'd worked with him on an importantproject, and had come up with a solution that had eludedhim. He dated her after that,and she was as lively atparties as she was focused on the job.

The third man seemed uninterested in the discussion. After chiding from his newacquaintances, and amoment where he scrubbed at a slight stubble on hischin, hespoke at last. He told of hiswife, a completelover, a great friend, a hard worker, andmore. Whatmore, the others asked. "When I come home at night, hesaid, she'sbeenwith four children, done our wash,tidied our home... and she alwaysserves me acup ofcoffee with cream while I just sit there." He twistedshyly at the wedding band on

his thin finger.

The other two stared politely. A cup of coffee doesn't seem like a lot, one ventureddelicately. Ah, but that'swhere you're wrong, said the third man. Love in Paris isa quickaffair, no worries for you and hopefully none forher. Love at work and at play isnothing; nothing isdemanded of either of you. But how long will either ofyour womencare for you after they see you, day in andday out? Willthe model care about you ifyour looksfade? Will you care for her?Will your office friend carefor you if you aredemoted, maybe fired?Will they makeyou a cup of coffee ten years from now? Andshouldeither of you have the nerve to ask for it?

Embarrassed at his outburst, the third man satback, silent in his seat. No more wassaid for the rest ofthe evening until they neared the city. A railway employeeapproached and asked if anyone wanted anythingfrom the buffet. "Coffee," the first twomen blurted inunison. The railway man turned to the third man,expectant.

"No, I'll wait," he said.



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Dancer Me

Spin me around in your armsLet me feel your hands upon my shoulder blades

Take me against your small warm bodyDance with me until we weary

Tell me of your love for me

I'm not tired of hearing it from your inmost heartWhisper how you feel tonight

Against my shoulder, head on my chest

We are not young as some lovers count youthWe are slow to claim great things

And quick to bow when circumstance blowsBow, not break, for love endures all


A Brief Exploration of the Origins of Love

Where does love begin and end?is a general sort of question

Undeserving any serious answer

Debated among bachelors and lechersThe conversation revolves around

Beauty

SensualityWit(Not too much, thank you)

Social grace

Love comes by different pathsin different ways

and through different doors

Love of soulis urged upon us by King David

Who, despite other wives,desired Abigail for her humble wisdom

And what of the proverbial writer who praisesa woman of industry and moral fortitude?

Invisible attributes to the undiscerning foolbut the first requirement

for a man weary of the world's stupidityand desirous of a fully human being

Love of God


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is urged by example in the caseof nearly every Scriptural heroine

(even when they failed)Eve, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel and Leah, even

Rahab when the chips were down

So there it isAdmire a woman for the unseen first

Because haven't we been worshipping aHeavenly Lover

Who remains unseen until the end comes?

Only then will we see face to FaceBut now we must see face to face

Heart to heart being the more difficultrequirement

For some, this conversation is besidethe point

For others, it is the pointat which love blossoms between man and woman

and between man, woman, and God


Looking At You Closely in a Horizontal Position

Your eyes' depth deepening, a glanceWisps of gray fog swirling inTheir coffee brown insight,

Soul -caresses

Scattered out around your pillowed headYour hair's rich mahoganyAcross mocha shoulders

and the white sheet

Olive skin, salt and sweet perfumeFace hidden, my lips imbibe

A nourishment complete,So sweet it hurts


Life Burns By

The wick blackening


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as sooty dreams spiral ceilingwardand flame jumps high

then sputtersDies

Darkness reclaiming

The wick igniting

as the match's touch brings lightand flame's fl ickers

Shadow DanceLove

Bright overwhelming

The candle shrinkingBut always dark to light again

and you are mineAs wick to

Flame

New conflagrations


Lovers' World

I thought of you alone at nightI dreamt of you in broad daylightI slept with you in purest youth

And kissed your lips in love's one truth

I danced with you beside the flameI walked with you and knew no shame

I crawled with you when Evil ruledAnd crowned you when Love had him fooled

I saw you in the deepest seaAnd took you home to be with meAnd in my arms I held you, bride

A lovers' world now undenied

I'll touch you once and then againI'll ask not what there might have been

I'll hold you fiercely 'til the endWhen Death himself for one will send

Then I'll say good-bye, or youAnd still our love remain, and trueChrist the final Word has spoken


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Death the lie, our love unbroken


Love Has Bad Days

Where do we find itThat moment of joy

Bracketed between the mundane sorrowsHeaped on ourselves, by ourselves?

We know we love

And yet, show our scarsFrom a dance we thought was love'sUntil indifference, masked as hatred,

Stole the show and rang down the curtain

You tired, tired and grouchyWondering why I'm not more attentive

I, impatient, unfull of the SpiritEmbracing unease and harshness out of habit

While Christ waits in the wingsFor us to quit ad-libbing

And if this doesn't seem like a love song...

Read it again.

Love has bad days, too.


Solomon's Folly

"See, this is what I found, says the Teacher, adding one thingto another to find the sum,which my mind has sought repeatedly, but I have not found. One man among athousand

I have found, but a woman amongall these I have not found."

They tell me I must rule youSubjugate you

Shepherd you firmlyAnd protect you from yourself

They dare to tell me

They tell me you are inferiorWeaker, I am superior


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My pride says, "Amen!"But alone I ponder their words

We walk before men who judgeWho lay down law as gospel

And neglect Christ's love(Am I one of them?)

I reject these foolish menThese arrogant and violent men

Mongers after powerThey have Satan in their souls

I want to lead, and be ledTo love, and be loved

To shepherd, and be shepherdedBy love's example

At last I can love and be loved

By a woman after God's own heartWhose ear inclines to my meager wisdomAs the flower bends to the sun

Oh, lover! Oh, friend!

Your light emanates from the EternalAnd your submission from freedom

I, your husband, wear a crownFashioned in your strong and willing hands

Placed there by God's favor

And your choice

Solomon . . . eat your heart out!


The Flags of Love

i.

When the breeze flaps the flagsOf lovers and soldiers

And the enemies meet on the field

Blood is spilled

In a game between actors with swordsLove is forfeit

Dreams speed-readBlind man's reach


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Grasped, twisted, and left empty

Who will love the lovelessWhen the lovers don't findThe mystery they sought?

You lie crumpledA white dress wrinkled

Like a lover's handkerchief

A wound too deep for wordsStill asks

What is it I wanted?What is it I have lost?

ii.

I listen absently while reading the paperYou chatter of children, and plans for the weekend

You slow, stop, waiting for an answerThen rise and begin quietly cleaning

Who are you, gentle strangerHeart patient with love for this fool poet?

The talk I call "chatter" is of children, and us, and GodReflections of a pure inner heart

Of love

I don't quite apologizeBut take you in my arms and listen

While you tell me again....

Once, you were wounded, and I--despite myself--became your balm of healing

Your golden love God wrapped around my armA bracelet of exquisite beauty

I wear proudly before menI see you dancing in my mind

The gentle maid I married

Raises her banner of love over meAnd I surrender, taken by her love


Carol's Lullaby

Goodnight my beloved, my woman, my selfI pray for your sleeping


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That it will bring healthI give you this small kissAnd strange as it seems

I will be with youTo dance in your dreams

Goodnight, my fair lady, my virgin, my brideI pray for your sleeping

That none be deniedI give you all blessings

and hold all alarmsYou'll sleep here safelyInside my love's arms

Goodnight, my one woman, my mother, my childI pray for your sleeping

Pure, undefiledI give you my true love

A soft, hidden nest

Lay your head by my heartWrap warm in its rest


Absence of Meaning

There is a voidCynics call "love"

Why do sinnersHunger and thirst?

Answer: the meaningOr lack thereof

Strong, the imageMan-beast cursed

Violence, decayWages, new chromeTruth twice deniedIn this word "love"

Will meaning stayWisdom's not home

Words beliedSacrificed dove

Self's universeMammon makes dealsLust blinds the blind

A self-mutilationCling, my darling

Christ's Word reveals


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My need, our loveA true revelation

Of their lack of it


The Cynic Observes His Sleeping Children

tenderly, gently, softly creepinto the room where children sleep

what are the dreams of youth parading?what is the sound of childhood fading?

oh how the years passdoubt building bridges on dreams left undone

oh how the tears pass

the older I get the more quickly they run

easy to mock when life is your toybut teaching a child to mistrust is no joythe gods of the godless are unrealisticfaced with faith in the heart of a mystic

oh how the truths passguilt building bridges on secret dark deeds

oh how the youths passsecure in their ignorance, numb to their needs

sleep, my child, you clue from love's pageI hunger for truth yet listen to liesis there a child, Holy-Ghost-borne

to rescue a man filled with terror and sighs?


There'll Be No Marriage in Heaven

Oh, my love, remember.Christ said there'd be no marriage in heaven.I know the thought is shockingFor God to take back what He's givenBut think on this before you poutAllow your darling to figure it out

Romance a gift, the best our Lord gave us(Except for Himself and His Church)Between us is ravishing love for a life


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And desire's fast-found when we search

So imagine a heaven where sex is a bore!The things God must have awaiting in store!We'll still be true lovers, but in some new wayWhere some great pleasure waits--who can say?So think on this before you cryAllow your darling to offer his why

You don't like my reasons and high-soundingtalk?You don't want to lose me to heavenly love?Oh, darling, it was heaven who made of us oneAnd who made all our pleasures of touch so much funHeaven will be for eternityMy love is from you and for you from me

This theologian's at loss to not make you crossSo... lets make sweet love! Close the door!


Trees and Roots and Growing Things

The sudden intake of breathSeeds blown from the pale treeAnd the branches scrape and groanLike newborns or ancient dying voicesBeating against mortality and

Winter's chill, already upon me

Our voices in a crescendo of soundInarticulate, like the seed and the groundSpringing from giving and taking and lossOur pneuma outbreathed into the other's fleshWith the moan of birth and sigh of deathAnd all of this springing from merest caressThis the full depth of human tenderness

We share knowledge of mystery's need

Branching from pure ecstasy's creedAs we stand, two trees, trunks blendedEach grown on its own, yet clinging, boundWe interweave to be lost and foundStill I don't know the unknowable youThe brilliantly real and unworldly true

You, the dark trunk of my experienceThe whispering leaves of my childhoodSummed up and formed into human likenessI penetrate, penetrate, penetrate


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Down the pale root of beingnessInto the earth's bowelsSearching for significance in the actAnd in the completion of the actSearching for heaven to fill the hurtingAnd to cope with the knowledge of deathApproaching relentlesslyWe grow, twisting together toward the sky


Epistemology I: Preliminary Categories

Knowledge cannot be wished for.It must be read about and retained in the reader's mind.Or it must be experienced and that experience be understood.Or it must be revealed by One Who Knows.

Example:Did Adolph Hitler have a mustache?Answer:He does in all his photographs. See?

Example:Q: Is this stove really hot?Answer:OUCH! -----

Example:Q: Is God Good?Answer:Define goodness.Q: Smart-aleck. What is goodness, then?Answer:God has written it on your heart.


Epistemology II : The Woman and the Half-Baked Philosopher

She held me tightly, her breath comingsoftly. "I love you," she sighedAnd she kissed my cheek.

I know that you love me, my dear.And I am aware that your excitementis caused partially by that fact,as well as the hormonal secretions


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being released by your body in responseto your thoughts aboutmy psycho/sexual person.

She drew back, looking at me with a troubledexpression.

"I love you," she said.

"I know that," I repeated, "and I appreciatethe fact that you have invested me with yourpassionate attentions.You are a beautiful woman,and I can't help but be honored by yourcontinual adoration."

She continued looking at me in silence. Finally,"Do you love me," she said.

"That is a question I can't really reply to,"I honestly answered."Love is a subjective term,filled with subjective meanings.I appreciate your desire to feel that you are loved by me.The fact that we havediscussed possible engagementshould indicate to you that love is my intention.Be assured that my attention is, when directedtoward women and/or sexual things,completely yours. But

love may be too strong.It denotes commitment,which I am unwilling to offerat this time.It denotes abandonment...."

She leaned forward suddenly, kissing meviolently, open-mouthed. Her white teeth closed.

I jerked back in pain.

"You bit me!" I said.

Blood was in my mouth. I couldfeel the warm trickle on my bottomlip.

"You know all about love," she said."Do you love me?"

"Yes, I love you. I'd die without you, Carol,"I whispered.


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"There's nothing to be afraid of," she said.

I tasted the blood in my mouth.

She reached a Kleenex, dabbed at my lip, thencradled my head on her shoulder."I knew you loved me," she murmured, as iftalking to someone not there.

"But love isn't easy for those whoknow how much it hurts."

She kissed me--gently--and I kissed herback, my cheeks wet with tears.


Blow Away

Tremors

Electricity, youSend me

Shock

To my system

to the neat order

of my supposedly complete

ordered mind.

Blow me away, darling

And the breath of loveSweeps me into a pile

At your feet.


Teacher, Teacher

I jump out of my skinWhen you touch me with your existence

I cannot learn enough about youAnd the brilliant gold


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Of you, completely real, real.

History happens,Regardless of philosophy or booksEvents progress inevitably forward

And you exist, teacherof my heart and mind

I fly off-center,unsure of things as they are

Without your presenceand your acceptance

Do I speak of you or of God?

His love is so blended with yours,I sometimes cannot tell

I miss you simply, completelyuntil your face fills my eyes

and your breath touches my neck, softly

Dearest CarolMy teacher, teacher

What will we learn together next?


TheWonder, All Alive

I lean into the wind of you, buffetedby the playful pressure of your unseen love

And when you're not breathing nextto me, I tremble in the coldnessof a breezeless, cheerless day

I lean into the wonder of you, all aliveNow that you are here, and

In my eyes' sight.

Like God, you endless astonish meLoving me for no apparent reasonMy strength, my woman of Godand this weak "I" your strength,

Strong in another's love

Glory in my weaknessWind-swept in the arms of Strength


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This, and This

Hair in my mouth, like hay, or earth

the skin

of her shoulders,shoulder blades in my hands.

I move a finger, the hair

slides from my mouth.

I clear away the hay from thepale earth.

A pig roots,

a lover nuzzles.

Sometimeshard to tell the difference

except for your forgiveness

and

my willingness to learn.

My lips against her neckand her hands

upon my unshaven face.

We lay side by side

in a world made of this,and this.


Words and Kisses

Restless, filled with longingOh, for Carol's hair upon my face

Our limbs intertwinedIn a wordless dance


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The gray morning greets me soloShe's gone to work

While my writer's midnight hoursLeave me filled with sleep

But now that she's goneI want her pure skin against me

Her breath against my neck

Roundness beneath my fingers

I smile at myself, my bodyMy desires out of sequence

With the way things are;Carol's gone, and I must go

I rise, laughingAlready thinking of this night

And soft light upon her shouldersOur shared words and kisses


A Toast

Carol, you light the interior pathsOf my mind and my spirit

The places where thoughts wanderAnd emotions lie, like wine

In the cellar of my keeping

I am not one to pour the wine,Afraid of its intoxicating ways

And yet with you my innerness isUncorked, poured

And I am eager to drink with you.

Where does this inner life go,And to what purpose, if love

is only our creation?The lights of mind and

Sparks of heart would mean nothing

Without God.

Drink, then, dear friendMy sister, whom I kiss in heat of dayA taste of grapes upon your breath

And the fiery fermentNow burning through my veins!


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You are the key to my cellar of sorrowsAnd the doorway to my flesh

Your hair brushes against my lipsAnd your words

caress my deepest wounds

Dear lover, sweet sister,Cling to me in this darkening place

Where deeds and words cannot triumphYour existence trumpets the truth

Of His.


Without A Compass

I have no starting place.

To me, I have always been,Though will not always be.

Death and sorrowCling like shrouds to my earthly hopes.

I have no ending place.To me, a wanderer in a strange land,

A vagabond filled with restless yearnings,Each leading nowhere

Except the Final Destination.

I'm a badly written story,A fragment from ancient papyri,Written in a language

Which I cannot decipherThough my very life depends upon it.

I am lost, I admit it,Without bearings in the desert of love.

I would deny my soul, if I could,But feel the celestial

And demonic tugs upon me.

I await the morning light,Always hopeful that light will indeed come

Instead of this fog of unknowingAnd the blanketed still form

Of my innocence.

Who can rescue me?Who has a compass?

You, my darlingThe gift God gave me


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To help me find myself

And not be afraid

To drown in Oceanic Love.


Sweet Things and Needful

We love as lovers do, hot and sweatyOr slow and thoughtfully,

Searching one another's facesFor clues as to Love's meaning

We read to one anotherOr sit, silent, perhaps immersed

in a book or magazine articlebut peering over it once and againTo watch the beloved reading

And pretending not to watch us.

We are growing older, and loveIs not easy at all times

As the children become independentAnd the work load growsAnd our walk with Christ

At times wearies us

We pray with one anotherOr talk, thoughtful, of what

this startling love-lifein Christ is about, your

Eyes of brown going softAs you look into my soul's secrets

You are the holder of the sweetest things,And needful to me,

They are more precious than my life.


Self-Identification

I and I, you and II have a difficult time

RememberingWho is who


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How am I identified to "I"?

Blaise and Soren saythe knower is unknown

to himselfand so, unknowing of

all else,

lost in despair or grace.

If "I" doesn't knowI's "who,"How can

"I" know "You"?

I find my I in I AM,yet even there,am not touched

as the Beloved disciple

was touchedhead pressed tothe Great Heart,

the warmth of Jesusagainst his cheek

And when you touch me,the simple,

non-sexual touchof a hard-working wife

for her absent-minded husband

I find myself

Loved by you,and Another,

And so am at peace,Self-identified at last.


On Experimentation with Static Electricity

The day was dry,the rug thick,

and my fingers upon the brass knobEmitted a spark that stung

A grimace, a smile,As hurt led to laughter

And to memoryWhich brings its own agenda


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To any meeting

As a child, I'd experimentScuffing rugs with bare feet,

Or cheap pennyloafers,(Which offered a bigger bang?)

Reaching out to spark

My shocked brotherOr frazzled Mom,

Plastic toy (nope) orSteel-topped stove (WoW!)

Later, alone, tucked in,Huddled under blankets

Tented over my head,I rubbed the wool foldsAnd saw the electricity

Dance for me, crackling.

Emerging later,I'd feel my hair

Standing upright with stored voltage.

Wonder is a sparkAnd love the scuffling feet,

as entangled we lie, scientistsBeneath these quilts,Gathering evidence

Dancing the static alive,

An unending experiment,

Creating currentIn the face of the dark.


["Trees and Roots and Growing Things" -- back to Contents ]


trees and roots and growing things

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