April 14, 2020: My Invitation

My Invitation

Your open heart can still look at me

And think I’ve got it all wrong.

Did I paint myself into this wrong place to be,

Not knowing how to get along?

You see my strength and ability.

You’re not sure I’m very much fun.

You doubt I retain that agility

To walk on the paths where you run.

Too far out of step; too close out of place:  

Should I hang my head in shame?

A fool in every matter of taste,

Who’s bewildered by the game.

You might think that I’m just not enlightened,

And advise me like a younger brother.

Could it be we’re both just a little in doubt

Of peculiar friends we discover?

Chorus:

Do I look like you?  Do I look real strange?

I think that’s the way of creation.

I hear what you’re saying and I want to exchange

What we see in our situation!

The world is changing.  We all have to change

To reach out for our own salvation.

So many pieces remain to arrange.

Still, I offer my invitation.

You might find that I nurture a life you can lead

Beyond patterns that were just a disguise.

I might become someone you actually need.  

You might see me through different eyes.

I might open up the world to you.  

You might show me a whole new vision.

We might find a new balance in what is true.  

We might rise to a new decision.

So I sing you this song in self-confidence

Even if you think I’m crazy

To think in my lonely innocence

That you could be my lady,

Exploring dreams and exotic places,

Engaged in this world’s liberation,

Immersed in the magic of many embraces;

Building with imagination!

Chorus

April 13, 2020: Interpreting Nature

Interpreting Nature

What are its dangers? How can we be protected?

What are its problems?  How can they be corrected?

What are its uses?  The practical potential?

What are its gifts?  Are they in any way essential?

What are its meanings?  Is there something metaphorical?

What are its beginnings?  Its development historical?

What are its patterns from a viewpoint academic;

How it functions in itself, or in ways that are systemic?

What is its value, from the view of conservation?

What would it be saying, could it join the conversation?

It all seems like a jumble, but I’m trying to make clear

On why this thing I’m looking at happens to be here!

April 12, 2020: Go to Hell!

Go To Hell

Jesus went to hell,

But you! . . . dear sister,

And you! . . . loving brother –

You’ve never made that journey.

You haven’t got the scars to prove it,

And no, you haven’t got a lot to say!

You might have felt its fringes,

And the terror of its magnetism.

You may have stood by the edge of the ledge

That crumbled to the boiling sea.

You may have heard

The laughing bones in the dry desert.

You may have seen

Insult adding to oppression;

The collector of miseries filling his load

And indifference shitting on its own floor

(Things even newsmen would rather ignore!)

You may have felt the unspeakable truth engulfing you,

But you’ve never passed all the way

Into the place of uttered absurdity

‘til you have nothing, nothing to say!

Don’t let your well-tied and untried wisdom fool you,

Because its knot is around your own neck!

Go down your own dark hallway

And enter the forbidden door

With the key which Christ has given you.

Break down your final barrier into madness, my friend,

And then come back and tell me what you know!

April 11, 2020: Spindle for a Globe

Spindle for A Globe

I found a spindle that held a globe.

It looked eerily like a scythe.

The angel of death has us in his hold

As we take this earthly ride,

And while this world continues to spin;

As it curves around the bend . . .

Just when we think it’s time to begin,

It’s coming to an end!

But all I have now is the spindle,

And I don’t know where the globe has gone,

And with that, my hope is re-kindled,

Because the earth keeps rolling on.

Our mortality has all of us caught.

We can’t keep what we hold in our minds,

But it hasn’t taken away the thought

There is something yet to find!

April 10, 2020: Reflections on the Meaning of God

Reflections on the Meaning of God

I see God as a super-consciousness;

That’s  living beyond the brain;

Transcending this sense of separateness,

Born of weariness, need, and pain.

I see God though my own reflectiveness

About nature, science, and history;

Parables serving to build connections,

Though God Itself is a mystery.

I see God as a powerful metaphor

For the things that we would emulate.

Is it just an idea, or something more;

Something beyond what we think or create?

I see God in the occurrences

Of things that we cannot explain.

I see God in various social currents

For releasing old sorrows and shame.

I see God in hymns and scriptures,

And accounts of saints and mystics.

In group reflections, their meanings grow richer;

Their teachings more realistic.

I see God in the forms of music and art,

And the impulse to seek what is just.

I see God in the love of a merciful heart

Who serves as he feels that he must.

I see God though my own reflectiveness

About nature, science, and history;

Parables serving to build connections,

Though God Itself is a mystery.

I see God in hymns and scriptures,

And accounts of saints and mystics.

In group reflections, their meanings grow richer,

Their teachings more realistic.

I see God as a powerful metaphor

For the things that we would emulate.

Is it just an idea, or something more;

Something beyond what we think or create?

I see God as a super-consciousness;

A power of  living beyond the brain;

Transforming this sense of separateness

Born of weariness, need, and pain.

I see God in the occurrences

Of things that we cannot explain.

I see God in various social currents

Releasing us all from our chains!

I see God in the form and I see God in the spark,

And the impulse to do what is just.

I see God as the Love in a merciful heart

Who serves as she feels that she must.

April 9, 2020: Counseling

Counseling

I pray to the one true God and Savior

To be my light and to make me whole.

The worship of idols is an empty behavior

That puts a mask over heart and soul.

And within that realm is “therapy” –

The current peak of imitation,

And the modern priests of society

Are masters at dehumanization.

Go to their waiting room, and start to share.

Do the other clients meet your eye?

After months of discussions, are you more self-aware,

Or any more able to tell truth from a lie?

This isn’t a matter of people with people.

This isn’t a matter of being a friend.

It’s a place where the lonely, the lost, and the feeble

Are given a mistress on whom to depend,

Who keeps her slaves in isolation,

And asks them to follow just a few simple rules,

And by smug ideational fragmentation,

She makes clients turn into fools.

Witch doctor controls; patients submit,

And we’re not yet sure how the problem’s defined.

If she makes me struggle, I don’t want to quit,

But she’s re-arranging my mind!

I’ve come to the conclusion that if I think I’m not right,

I’ve got to learn how to deal with it naturally,

‘Cause a counselor’s only a parasite,

And so is a client in therapy!

April 8, 2020: Exceptional Child

Exceptional  Child

Child

At the edge

Of awareness –

Life is hard.

Even simple things

Are difficult.

But

What is comparison

In your being?

What is utility

In a being?

What is indignity

In being?

And compassion?

What have you to account for?

What to give?

What to accomplish,

When your being

In itself

Teaches me so much:

Challenges my ability

To perceive you,

To communicate,

And to discover

Who you really are.

You require meticulous care.

I know

Through the experience

We have shared

That

Though we are all on different levels,

We are the same.