Hope around the Hedges (Lenten Reflection)

  My life is not a neatly planted hedge of planned events; it is, rather, a messy string of occurrences which the Lord is using to graciously teach me what He wants me to know. Anything that has happened out of my control is still in the Lord’s hands and in His...

Striped (poem)

  Striped   I choke on dust, wreckage of world, and my crushed bones of existence. Painful agonies— what breathing soul is exempt from knowing? While the world continues doubling and halving its joys and sorrows, what of souls doubled over? Lines mark days—...

The Making (A Lenten Poem)

  The Making   Scattered, broken particles must be remade after life on earth snaps, crushes each bone, sinew, and organ into first-born molecules   Dust catches in throat— chokes irrelevancy   Smeared ashes reconstruct into wooden cross beams unmade – made –...

Holy Week (Good Friday Poems)

Brier (Good Friday) By E. Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake) Because, dear Christ, your tender, wounded arm Bends back the brier that edges life’s long way, That no hurt comes to heart, to soul no harm, I do not feel the thorns so much to-day. Because I never knew your...

Holy Week (Poems)

This Bread I Break By Dylan Thomas This bread I break was once the oat, This wine upon a foreign tree ‘Plunged in its fruit; Man in the day or wind at night Laid the crops low, broke the grape’s joy. Once in this wine the summer blood Knocked in the flesh that decked...

Drive to Nowhere

Sometimes, I’m just not ready to walk in the door of my house after my weekly Bible study. Sometimes, I need some time to think before walking in and facing whatever it is waiting for me, which usually includes a pile of dirty dishes. I don’t want to see...

A Poem for Lent

    Lachrimae Amantis By Geoffrey Hill What is there in my heart that you should sue so fiercely for its love? What kind of care brings you as though a stranger to my door through the long night and in the icy dew seeking the heart that will not harbor you,...

For When You Can’t Pray

Have you ever been through times in life when it felt like the world might come crashing down? When it’s so hard, you aren’t sure which way is left, which way is right, and what’s headed your way tomorrow? When it feels overwhelming and it feels...