Wilderness God*

It was your idea to take me out of the city,
hedging me in with thorns
so I would not - desperate -
cling to lovers who did not love.

You led me to the unknown

Out of ignorance into wilderness
where my cry no longer was suffocated
under striving, smoke, or steel.

To stand alone before you
to bow, to learn only
that it is You alone I should fear.

To a barren place,
starving me out of compulsion, craving
inner prisons that made me slave to
what the city needs and that upon which it feeds.

I heard an unexpected voice: a Bridegroom!
His presence, faithful, protecting, providing -
Love. speaking tenderly as if to a Bride,
a language fully alien
to my harlotry and the thirsty gods
of a land and people given over
to devouring.

Words came like the wind
A storm all around me
then they came like the rain
cleansing, restoring, remaking
and lastly like the dew
gentle covering of mercy.

You led me to the wilderness
but your love caused it to become a spring.
From former waste of pain,
Rises hope
and I lie down in arms everlasting.


*see Hosea

humility

Humility, forgotton virtue
forgotton
for we are far gone now, so
high with our own estimation
we cannot even touch
the hem of your garment. Reality.
To come down, to draw near...
First we would have to love our neighbor.
Well, lets be honest, see our neighbor,
and then esteem them for their worth
which is: better than ourselves.
Who is my neighbor?
My brother? No - even my sister?
Really? Come on,
you cannot be serious.
They don't know how to think
and well, they're not all that pretty
and if thats not enough, its clear
they aren't even close to as virtuous
as you or me.
So you, humility, handmaiden
of inner beauty,
remain untouchable and unacceptable,
cinderella sweeping.

gift

you are small. full of light.
having a seriousness bigger

than a 3-year-old
but an openness that is ever responding
wonder-fully to life.
you are strong, built like your father,
with a gentle spirit,
and a jig in your step, like your mother.
you still have that reservation
i remember from the season i took care of you:
turning from strange voices and too many faces.
and i, ha, also was only too eager
to exchange formalities for that greater wisdom
of love, simplicity, fun, and courageous vulnerability
that you, and every child, keep teaching me.
you speak much more clearly and intelligently
than you did back then.
but...i can't help but be playful,
leaving "education" for a moment, to the wind.
today we laughed, shaking randrops from branches
that splashed on our clothes and faces.
somehow this brief time
profoundly renewed my heart:
a spring watering dry places.

Please, wade in these waters. 

gently 

dip toes, 

foot, ankle, 

knees -

learn to bear the initial icy jolt 

that shocks 

your independence but touches 

deep joy - that is, 

warm hope of the soul's refreshment.

allow the plaguing illusion of control 

to slip utterly beneath the swift stream's current 

and get lost in its enigmatic dimensions of blue. 

Go deeper! waist, 

stomach, 

chest, 

neck - deep 

enough for your body to give up the heat 

of all its striving, 

relieved from false demand.

and (finally!) put down thy head. Feel

waters rush over, through, 

your face, 

eyes, lips, 

hair -

and let yourself be carried 

below and above the waters 

in this one and only stream called, 

"the clear merciful love of God."