Used to
Take it for granted–
Rain come down
But now I don’t.
When the sky darkens
I hold still
Lightning snakes
Across the sky
I rejoice
Thunder calls out
The name of God
Alive still in the world
Rain falls
And I take nothing for granted
Splendor falls in a million pieces
Of refracted light
Makes gray avenues live
Each drop happy patter
From impossible clouds
Trees solemn in waiting
Doze above this parched earth
Gathering in it’s hands
Luminous pools
Of water
Isaiah 28:20 (NIV)
The bed is too short to stretch out on, the blanket too narrow to wrap around you.
I maintain
That poetry
Is what prophets write
When ordinary warnings
Fail
Prophesy
How you will be
Good
Preach to me
About tomorrow
Whether it will rain
And we will all
Be swept away
By all the things we never said
Before the invention
Of the rain
-bow.
Isaiah 25:8,11 (NIV)
he will swallow up death forever. The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The Lord has spoken. [11] They will spread out their hands in it, as a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim. God will bring down their pride despite the cleverness of their hands.
Kept having the same dream
The water be gone
I look for it
Missing
Watch it pour down
Look to the clouds for rain
Plead to the Lord
Rain.
Rain come down
Wash my sin away
Give me the hands
To spread through
The water
The pool
Source of the
Girl I once was
John 19:1-3 (NIV)
Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. [2] The soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on his head. They clothed him in a purple robe [3] and went up to him again and again, saying, “Hail, king of the Jews!” And they struck him in the face.
Fireflies in the dark
Defined our early years together
Not the constant noise
Or social ostracism.
No.
Fireflies
More beautiful than
The man-made fireworks
We craned our necks to see
When you were that pesky
Little girl
He was already ahead of you
Closer to prison
Farther from the boy
I must find to love him.
Sometimes, I promise you
The only poetry here
Is in
every careless word
Missing
From our story.
I once lived in a country with high
Beautiful walls
Stone/mud/concrete
But most of all
Jagged glass
Broken/beautiful
Like a crown of pain
Stained glass warnings
Don’t come any closer
Danger.
Beware of dogs?
How do you say “Doberman”
In this other language
I knew a dead man who taught me this
And a boy I always loved
And feared
Who knew the future…
There Is more than one way
To die/to maim/to rape
A country/a people/a family/a man-woman-child
But one way for sure
Is to look the other way
When it is happening to them
And hope their blood appeases
Men trained like dogs for war.
Once
There was the statue
Of a girl
Standing arms outstretched
Poised/face lifted
To reach the rain
Receiving Grace
I looked for her again
Years ago
They had taken her away
I am crying/she is missing
And all I can do is call to her
Come back
My heartbreaking daughter
Come back to the Garden
Of stones alive and flowers
Blooming now
The rain has come
You will say to me
Why are you grieving?
And I will show you the limp form
In my hands
You will ask
What is it?
And I will say
A dead salamander
You will say
They cannot live for long
And I will say
But it had a name–
I cannot say it
And you will ask
What is the big deal?
And I will tell you
Hope.
But what I will not say is that the prone and lifeless
Body of a man
Too easily resembles
This ephemeral creature
The day I spent for him
The last day I spent for him
Looking for a hat
Big enough to cover his fatal
Head injury
Fatal head injury
Never far from mind
The bodies of our dead.
If I could give you
The safe place
Perfect butterfly,
Wings the color of sunlight
wave through the glass
If I could give you
The shape of the boy’s face
The cities he sees across the dammed
River
If I could give you the boats
Alone on the water
And the sheer drop
Carved from stone
If I could give you these things
In a bottle called forever
You would understand
How I failed him
today
How I failed her
yesterday
How I fear tomorrow
Arms not strong enough
Forever
http://thatdudeeddie.wordpress.com/
Check this dude out. He is in the growing pantheon of blogging poets and writers who give me hope in the darkness.
Thank you<3
Suddenly I see us
Traipsing in,
Blankets, flotsam of ourselves
Trailing behind us
We are like children
Dazed and shellshocked
By the dust of a falling world
Still crashing down
Behind us
But we are Here Now
And as we wipe the tears and soot
From our brand-new-eyes–
We recognize
This strong family
Resemblance in a sea/a star
Filled sky full of Light.
Carrying Light 