love songs for Mary (Renaissance Voices at Young United Dec. 2016)

dark hot mulled redness

in wave after wave washes

this holy space

like Hans Leo's cadences

voices intertwining in glassy outpouring

like Sue’s phrases

wonderment at mystery and mercy

like Arvo’s constant C magnifying

tremendous crescendo bells clanging

like Don’s languid lilt

blooming rose sounding and resounding

like Jesse’s total tonal landscape

of love and breath

like Mary’s starlit tears of yes

welling up again and again

this holy space

in wave after wave washes

dark hot mulled redness

winter poem

and then winter comes

snow and wind strong and steady

and we stop and look out of windows

to see world changed

upended

black and white

auburn autumn finished

tilt of earth finally taking over

el nino relenting

I reach out through window

catch falling flakes of memory

to hold and feel before they melt

stand with me on the top of this hill

formed of drifting snow

through wind tunnel around tall white house

in this little childhood town

where all is possible

and we are kings and queens high above our winter realm

advent dance

we anticipate

in three-four time

a dance by Bach or Handel

we prepare

dance lighting dim world

like strings of bulbs

outlining house on winter evening

we watch

a floating chorale

above the lilting windwork

such peace

we dare

for good is coming

we already see it in the miracle of birth

and wide-eyed we run

bathrobes tangling in our legs

the song of wings ringing our ears

we experience

enter floodlit stable

with care yes     yes

we recognize

this gentle love

glimpse of full-hearted 

waltz revealing

Lisa; pastor

a trip to the desert

barren

dry

heat reaching into

marrow

to live vertically

looking up in virtual vision

of the Other

ready to leave behind

aching trappings

of layered life

and then journey back

to begin again

new horizontal life

arms outstretched

to the world

this

this was pastoring not with words

or gestures

but with a very public human life

showing

the way and the Way

for us

and always

always

with eyes that engage

smile that warms

and hands that bless with a touch

thoughts after the first days of Trump

days and nights of fog

white mist obscuring

all

closing in

we are socked in

encircled like fear

inertia of the world

inching forward

headlights glaring back at us

and then wake up to sun

blue sky

clarity returns and

we see down the road again

open and bright

as the ringing tone of piano hammers hitting

well-tempered and tuned strings

here it is

we must be kind we must

stand up

we must speak up we must

love

we must not normalize we must

join together

we must not hate we must

galvanize

we must be strong we must be

brave

we must live truthfully

we must not settle we must

read

we must listen we must

create beauty

we must love beauty we must

seek justice

we must welcome the stranger we must

work for shalom

bed of leaves 7:30 am

orange glow rises

like lay’red hope as sun glances

this autumn morning 

Elegy for LC

voice that flows

from beneath conscious knowing

into the bones of feeling

and attaches like moss

on the bark of trees

during a rainy spell

and grows like grass

in a concrete crack

pushing apart

bringing grasping life

where there is death

where there is drought  

bringing embracing humanity

where there is only angel or demon

sinner or saint

bringing caressing reconciliation

between body and soul

between earth and heaven

and so we say goodbye and thank-you

Leonard

great mystic halleluiah of our age