each
as unique
as the name of God,
Now.
MY LOVED ONES LIVE IN ME
My loved ones have
packed and gone,
left no forwarding address--
but their spirits live on,
pulsate in me,
in my paintings and poems,
expressions of their lives
without whom my creations
would never be.
Art’s greatness
is in partaking
of God’s unfailing fire
that always lives,
cherishes, invites
to ever-fresh awakenings.
Yes, my precious parents,
my art is a stage for your
perduring goodness.
I must not grasp for
the fleeting hem
of childhood, family past,
but celebrate
it’s issue today--
for its every facet
lives on, never
can cease to be
an integral part of me.
Family is forever.
How glorious to celebrate it
in this world!
How glorious to expect
its full revelation
in the house of God!
O God, you never duplicate
a work. Each is new!
What gifts do I bring
that shall one day be antiques?
Through each of them, my God,
I am talking to you,
telling you my love
for you and your creation.
What else am I here for,
anyway?
“Send [wisdom] to be with me and work with me, that I may know what pleases you.”
Wisdom 9:10
Jesus said to them,”Come, follow me[...]
Mark 1: 17
V
We Two Brothers
(To A Lifetime Friend, John Smith)
“A true friend is closer
than a brother.”
Proverbs 18: 2
We Two Brothers
We two brothers, you and I--
bearers of a single flame
lit from the flashing heart
of a God passionate to be wed.
Intertwined on a single path,
he called us to wake the world
from its dark stupor, break
it’s blindness,
return
it’s purpose,
relight
the embers
of it’s ultimate passion.
From boyhood to old age,
we, two feeble frames,
walk this dazzling,
often obscure road.
Once wry, now wrinkled,
do you remember
how each of us was wakened
from a sound sleep
to the singing of distant stars
calling us to joy unspeakable?
And, did we not see a flame--
streaming, it seemed,
from the heart of a dying criminal
burst open with love?
And did this
not send us into
ecstasy at it’s brilliance,
clothing us
with the unspeakable dignity of our Maker?
And so, today again, my brother,
we wake afresh to take up our steady trek,
united in his passionate heart
who fashioned our childhood dreams
to birth in us an eternal quest
for the dazzling horizon of his love.
Yes, and to light the way
for all his disconsolate children.
And how often,
as we have walked these many years,
have we not turned to each other,
smiling at our great secret,
knowing our quest was our Maker’s call
to bless his bride, his heart’s desire;
our God, a lover mad to be known,
restless to unveil his grace, to wed,
to prepare his people
for a brighter land,
our true home,
where all colors spring
into brilliant harmony
and we, wide-eyed and exultant,
see clearly, the meaning of it all?
Wanderers Now Reborn 1
Salmon stick together and
swim in a secret world
that no fisherman can see,
savoring the wonders
of their murky home.
Often they swim upstream,
fighting against the tide--
but always together.
So have we, my brother,
these many years sailed
in secret friendship
into life’s fair twilight
from the third grade.
Remember the woodland treks,
teenagers singing in circles
on living room floors,
singing,”King Jesus is All;”
and good humor, camaraderie,
and more; and in reflections
over steaming coffee at home
or Starbucks?
We raised our cups as chalices
making a coffee house a cathedral
as we pondered God’s extravagant love;
and now, our smiles,
amid deepening wrinkles,
shine with our lifetime dream
of glorious sunrise
in the fellowship of forever.
we who walked the woods as boys
so often, barefoot and adventurous,
even now seven hundred miles apart,
(except for meetings of spirit and phone)
still play on. Like foolishly casting knives
at the rattle snake in Westfield woods,
we have shed our skins of yesterday,
to eagerly explore as adventurers
new woods that glisten brighter,
with dew-diamonds of forever;
Wanderers now reborn
in His image who makes all real,
soon we shall be home at last--
and today, brother, still we smile,
for the risen carpenter has always
led us on our serpentine ways.
Oh, but I don’t think
we have ever been this way
for every day is new
in this rebirthing world,
and our hearts, captive
of His awesome presence,
even now hear cheering throngs
awaiting our eminent arrival.
There he who led us safely--he, the
ultimate scout of our fading wilderness--
shines ( We never thought so bright!)
and longs--for this is heaven’s blessedness--
to embrace us and say,”Welcome home!”
“How I have pined for this day,”
he will excitedly say, smiling at us
affectionately, “my barefoot adventurers!”
His voice seems far away,
yet is here with us. “Look!”
he says. making his arms arc
like a proud conductor,
‘All colors break bright and sing
with such brilliance I know
you never dreamed.
Now
look around. See your new woods,
the oaks and pines weeping for joy.
and this bright spring day is forever.”
“Oh, the peace! the peace!” I say.
“The joy! The joy!” you answer.
2
Suddenly a screen door creaks,
then loudly slams.
How often we heard that sound
in our budding childhood.
“Johnny, is that you?”
“Eddie, come in--now!”
“Yes, those long past days
folded up their bags. “But,”
our smiling Savior says,
“they were,one and all,
tinged with my hallowed light
and are with you yet.”
Fixing us in his loving gaze,
again we seem to be coming in
and the screen door shall soon
creak and slam forever shut!
Jesus, we see you now standing,
looking out the door, into our
dimming eve, sounding strangely
like our mothers and fathers,
saying “Hurry, now! All your loved ones
are waiting your longed-for coming.
This is what it’s all about.”
Then we hear their beloved voices chiming,
and, ever young, prepare to enjoy
our greatest adventure of all.
Yes, brother, our friendship brought us here
where, safe inside, forever we shall share
our old wry, knowing smile
and see it’s light in Jesus’ smile.
“Oh! But have we been here before?”
We look at each other and ask.
“What a weird feeling!
Or have we have been here all along?”
“Yes!” our Savior says, his face
sharing our our secret smile.
We stare intently in his eyes and see
he clearly has a lot to say
as he looks around at the flood
of smiles of our loved ones.
“Welcome to the bright world
I have been painting all these years
here in my eternal studio!
I have been leading you here,
and look: not only your loved ones,
but all your memories gather,
gleam, marks of my master brush,
my ultimate masterpiece!
See!” he points to his vast painting,
his ultimate revelation,
shining bright in sunlight
streaming through the window.
“Here are all your past days
seen through our Father’s eyes.”
Jesus, we think, is like a child,
eager to point out each detail,
large or small, and runs
pointing high and low:
here is your childhood home! Here
your school. “I call it my “Homage
to Derrick Perrick!” He laughs. ‘And this,
my homage to your childhood dreams of
greatness and adventure--
now you see?--flourishing
in this bright gold meadow”
(he points to a brilliance at the painting’s center)
where I first called your name
and you knew you were mine.
“Is this not enough, my wide-eyed brothers?
Do your wrinkles not break wide?
Do you not see yourselves
blest parts of my world reborn,
gazing into the very Face of God?
“Happy are you who find wisdom...
All her paths are peace.”
Proverbs 3: 13, 17b
“Love is in this: not that we have loved God but that God has loved us.”
1 John 4:10
VI
The Birth of Love
“And the Word became flesh
and lived among us
and we saw his glory,
glory of the Father’s own Son,
full of grace and truth.”
John 1: 14
“[...]the mystery hidden from ages past in God...”
Ephesians 3: 9
THE HIDDEN MYSTERY
From now on we can never be apart
and you can never be alone,
for Christmas is the mystery of my birth,
but, even more, the mystery of your own:
for I, your God, truly came to live
in you, my new Bethlehem--
and what today you see as merely bread
is I, and you the cradle for my head.
MELCHIOR
“This star that has led us so deftly
through tedious, whispering nights
is but a first flash,” old Melchior sighed,
his eyes fiery lakes of it’s light,
“of a love that shall glow, a mystical
sun, across centuries. Never to dim,
it’s rays shall break into every heart
that has searched amid tears God’s plan.
For, as all lay still and stars gaily played,
silvering the sky with their song,
their Lord played on earth a much brighter tune:
he hid in a poor lady’s arms.
THE FATHER’S GIFT
“Take my love, little one,” says God,
“in the heart of a little Child,
that in earth’s darkest night,
forlorn hearts may see
in reborn, childlike innocence--
for my love’s brightness shines for each,
so great is each one’s dignity.
“I will exalt my throne above the stars.”
Isaiah 14: 13
I FAR OUTSHONE THE STARS
I far outshone the stars that night--
I, the poor child Mary bore,
for it was not just I, but you were born,
and God’s children everywhere:
for I came to live not one brief life
but to walk, reborn, through the years;
and if, with me you suffer and die,
my light will shine even more
to light up the way for all to come
to Bethlehem to be born.
“Oh,[...]that you may nurse with delight
at her abundant breasts
Isaiah 66:11
I AM EMMANUEL
I am Emmanuel,
God-with-you.
I raise my hands to bless
as a cross looms high behind
shining with gilded glory--
for it is the door to love’s fullness.
So, let me live in you as in Mary.
I will turn your nights into dawn,
and the love of a Child shall conquer
every grief, every pain, every wrong.
As nurslings, you shall be carried in her arms,
and fondled in her lap.”
Isaiah 66: 12
AS WE PRAY AT YOUR CRIB
Jesus , as we kneel in awe
before your rustic crib,
our hearts blaze with love
at you, God’s greatest gift!
And, like the Magi, we bring you
the gold of all our love,
the incense of our heartfelt praise,
the myrrh of cheer,
the awestruck thanks
of your children everywhere.
/> “[...]you have ravished my heart
with one glance of your eyes.”
Song of Songs 4: 9
VII
RAPTURE
“My lover has come down
to his garden and to gather lilies.
My lover belongs to me and I to him.
He browses among the lilies.”
Song of Songs 6: 2-3
“Who is this who breaks forth like the dawn,
fair as the moon, bright as the sun, awesome
as an army arrayed for battle?
Song of Songs 6:10
RAPTURE
1.
A conventional sun casts
her last silver shafts surfing
the darkening green meadow,
as feet, soft and fair as first dawn,
dripping with mystic diamonds,
stir the gleaming grass.
O sunlit apparition! Lady, you appear
from nowhere--graceful, stately.
You draw me near and whisper,
“Take my hand. Let me lead you
far from this land of dying dreams
into my secret grove, sacred
and silent as yesteryear, scented
with richly sprinkled roses
that shyly gleam and angels
weep dewdrops of wonder.”
Oh, the silence is so deep,
this experience is so unreal,
I gasp, my body trembles,
I am so overcome with awe.
As shades in the grove enfold you,
Lady, dappled with sunlight
A God Desperate To Be Loved Page 6
