poetry

Words in Red (that Jesus said) – a poem

red letterDid you really say what they say you said?
All those words I read in red?

How much of them are propaganda,
Meant to fit some neat agenda?
Should I believe everything I read?
Every jot and tittle–
Every deed?
How do I know what you said,
When though you’re alive–
It can feel like you’re dead?
There’s so much left out, so little left it seems,
To fill up my heart and inspire my dreams.
I want to know what you thought at night,
When the stars were out and the moon burned bright.
Were you afraid? Did you question your parents?
Did you think, “How the hell did I make the planets?
I’m just a boy, from a small dusty town.
How am I to be a king with a crown?”
Have you read what they wrote?
Their descriptions of you?
Please tell me Jesus
Do they ring true?
Did they say what you meant?
Did they bring their own slant?
Did they twist or omit or embellish away–
The true meaning of love or the way that you prayed?
When I read I often wonder what you were about–
Did you like to tell jokes? Where did you hang out?
I want to believe that your love is so true,
That you came to be with us–
That you make all things new.
But I have to be honest.
Sometimes I do doubt.
But I think you did too, so I can’t worry about
If they think that I’m crazy, they thought you were too.
I often sit and I puzzle until my puzzler is blue
And I wonder if you were too good to be true
Someday let’s hang out–
Just me
And
Just you.

Repent or else! [a poem]

Repent or else!

Repent or else?

Or else what?

Is that a threat?

Love me or else.

Obey me or else.

I love you so much I laid down my life.

But I will hold my breath and throw a fit.

Lightning bolts and into the pit…

If you don’t love me back

If you don’t repent.

Fuck that.

My love veils no threat.

It is not dependent

On what you do

My love, it carries no or else and

No condition

To be a part from you

Tears my being

And splits my heart

But I do not throw stones

I don’t push away

In the dark

On your bed

In the shards of your heart

Through the doubts in your head

I am there

In the air

In your dreams

In the wounds you bear

In your desires and

In your fears

In your questions

Laughter hiding tears

I don’t ever go away

I came near

Your wounds to share

Found Object Poetry

Credit to the brilliant found object artist Michelle Stitzlein

I collect pieces of thoughts
On cocktail napkins
Like old hubcaps
Snippets of words
clipped out in my virtual brain
Make note of the humanity of pain
Scraps of my heart
Found on the sidewalk
And dirty thoughts
Dropped by passers by
Tiny words
That come in the twilight
Between sleep and wake
Loud words that you can’t even say
Picked up along the way
Cobbled together
In dreams and poetry

 

Here and There

here and there header 9

When in the end we end up

Apart

There will never have been enough nights that I lied in your arms

When the moments of furious and sweet passion

With longing

I must wait to have with you again

Will I even be able to breathe?

No matter how many we share now they will never seem enough then

When in the end you are there and I am here

or

I am here

and

you are there

So in the while, whilst yet I breathe

Whilst your heart beats within your chest

I must savor the moments as they come and treat them with the

All consuming importance they deserve though I may be tempted to rest alone instead

Instead

I must treasure up every drop of passion our souls allow

And soar

On the wings of our quantum entanglement

So that when

Here

And

There

Have arrived

We will have enough of the brilliance of our love to survive the night

And touch the dawn

Of the other side

 

i can’t live with that

 

hold me closer

i can’t feel you yet

tighter

i need to forget

or maybe to remember

that i’m not dead yet

please don’t let go

it is too much like dying

and i cant be without you right now

i can still see the box closing

on a friend too young to die

if you let me go

it feels like i may lose you

forever

i cant live

with that

 

Strange

Plumbing the depths
And
Exploring the edges
Makes
For questions
About
My salvation

Now
I know how Jesus must have felt
When
Confronted with the company he kept
Strange
It seems like the makings of family

Breathless
And trembling I gaze in the face of
Love
Imagining that this is what heaven is
Where
Everyone and everything is as it
Always
Should have been

Unequal Time

make slow the clock

that measures out the time

of life I make with the partner of my heart
of love made, and songs sung, of laughter and the relief of being totally understood

of fleeting moments when magic exists and my breath stops
of heart swells that bring waves of love and the desperation to wring every glistening drop of life i can muster from my tininess
of enjoyment and experience of all made right and love that wins no matter the darkness it faces

make swift the clock

that measures out the time

of separation from the ones who comprise my heart
of hard talks, and hurt feelings, and the pain that comes from hearing hard things

of moments that make me feel like hope has lost
of hearts breaking because of injustices suffered, innocence lost and the discontent of brokenness
of hatred and the gulf of separation between us and them, you and me, heaven and human

Weavers