Sunday, August 29, 2021

Paraklysis

 

I know you’re spying over me.

A little here; a little there, like a fly

that keeps showing up

in the car three hours away,

at mass while little bells ring,

and at poolside while typing.

I see your wings in each pass.

So I thought nothing of how I lost 

two hundred plus paper cutlets

after pulling out one thin slice 

to place in the fishing basket. 

I just figured you knew better than I

about distributing to those here in need













Saturday, August 28, 2021

Past Tents

 



                                                I love you


                                    I wish the world loved you

                                        when love had liberty 


    to care for the sick, the suffering, and those held captive by it


                                            I wish your husband loved you

    when love vowed before its creator 

    

to endure in sickness and health, and even through death


I wish I loved you, too

when love had arms

           

             to wrap around and squeeze


                            even with empty arms















Walking children into heaven




Walk with me, you say


Every mile is worth revisiting


Twenty years of life now gone


But I am with you


That note under the front cover was for you


All the poems and dreams


Splashed across pages, were for you too


Even to the completion of the age











Sunday, August 8, 2021

Tonsured for Christ

 


In the midst of the congregation the praise of Christ is hymned because of you, O Reader Joseph. Through your life at the kliros, the humble path to exaltation is made manifest, illumined with the transcendent beauty of angelic melodies. By your constancy and loyalty, standing in praise and prayer, the way of salvation is guided and guarded for us. In keeping vigils, you brightened the path leading to our unending joy. Therefore we celebrate your light-giving and holy memory, and we cry aloud in one accord: Intercede with Christ our God that our feet would be made to stand dutifully in all divine allotments of service, with our hearts stationed on Him within the Great Congregation of ineffable praises, so that we, too, would be kept from straying onto evil paths and all attain the unity of faith and the knowledge of God’s unapproachable glory. 
















Friday, July 23, 2021

Proselyte

 





I collect data which simpletons call facts 

I make observations blinded by traditions

I pose questions about questions that deflect

I develop arguments uncomfortable to mine

I offer suggestions others call speculations 

I have no evangelistic spirit


No mission below

No great commission from above

To advise others

To believe or not

Or even what to believe

As long as one believes 

That belief is faith in trust that’s loyal

To the faith entrusted to those who believe

My humor is dry 


I’m also not an enthusiastic tribalist

Geeked-out in defense of absolute truth

Nor am I a belligerent book burner

Or full-fledged misanthrope

I’m just heterodoxically dull

I neither assail Temple Mounts

Nor man apologetical barricades

I’m content 

As an embedded intelligencer

Offering provisional judgments 

Of guilded dogmas

Hoping to raise issues 

Others might find worthwhile pursuing 

You have been forewarned

You, with materialistic epistocracy 

You, with dogmatic goggles of ideology

You, with your reductionistic bag 

Of tricks, anomalies and absurdities

Explanations for every thing and why

All you who begin to listen to alternatives 

Will conclude with the same 

Commitments held before 

Multiple limitations will become excuses


Emotions will rule in moments of disagreement

Your adversary must be aloof 

To religious sensitivities

Historical complexities

Philosophical densities

Or theological tectonicities

Because you don’t actually long for the truth 

In the way a drowning man struggles 

For a breath of continued being


You’ll remain like those on powdered sugar

Beaches of sunny panhandles 

What you really want is a way to escape 

Yet remain comfortable and safe

Synonyms for justification

Of what you already trust














Saturday, July 17, 2021

Oh, Rapunzel




have you ever wondered

about how predictable you are

you, over there with hoary mane


yes, you

The one all about grace, love, and mercy

grace like the carrot of a loving noose

dangling mercifully 

before the countenance of Rapunzel

showing willingness 

to forgive in order to love someone

gracious and merciful who loves someone

you hate


hate is such a strong word

         I suppose

despise is much more humble

and honest


instead of humble honesty

you prefer tender and winsome confabulation

like a box of disposable word masks

willing and ready to protect the mealy mouthed 

from what you think God frowns upon

but wills anyway, mysteriously 

like this glorious buffet of word soup

garnishing dislikes and disappointments

instead of humble honesty


that reminds me

I forgot to apologize

for your misunderstandings

slanders, idiotic assumptions, emotional abuse

and crisis of faith caused allegedly by yours truly


please accept this apology 

in its classical sense

pretty please with fluffy niceties 

and a gumdrop on top

your acceptance of my defense would be sweet









Monday, July 12, 2021

American Psychosis

 














You missed again. This time

It wasn’t just the sting

Of shrapnel or the chips of stone

Ricocheting off the ground

Of intentional, merciful 

Misfire. Or even the striking burst

That shocks others into fright

And flight. This time it was an organ

Pierced because he stands behind her 

Still while you apologize and gush

Of your beloved’s love for you

And your unconditional love 

For your beloved who loves another