Religion

Man, you could build a whole brand around this thing Handle the snakes And orchestrate all kinds of glittery manifestations Jittery hands and holy demonstrations Slippery tongues and wordless intonations Oh you don’t speak em? Just take some words and tweak em That’s right, that’s the ticket Show it to the man at the door And he’ll tell you where to stick it But just between you and me? Forget it It’s not a brand...

I see you out walking Holding a mirror beneath your eyes So you can look downward into the skies One step at a time all the way home Careful not to go near the sun’s heat For fear of burning your tender feet Using cooler clouds for stepping stones   I see you out walking I see you flying your kite in the park I see you scribbling your notes in the dark I see...

I don’t know about you But it takes an act of my will To actually hear To truly listen to anyone I often can’t even hear my own voice in the mirror Nor the voice of those that I say that I love I get lost in my own thoughts And next thing I know Their lips are moving But I don’t know what they’re saying And often I’m only thinking Of what I want...

Baptism 1: 1975 Born of Machine At the gates of the Magic Kingdom In a room with a view Disneyland across the street But after nine months in line The ride malfunctioned Lungs not working No time to linger in my mother’s arms To be held close I would have died then and there Without the second womb Made of metal And oxygen   Baptism 2: 1980 Born of Freshwater When I was held At...

Why do you look for the living One Among the dead?   Do you lift your eyes to the stone cold stars Counting them like atomic sheep Fast asleep Till they fall like rain Do you? When that first atom broke in two And light poured out of molecular cracks Splitting hydrogen from helium From only one there came each of em When the atom broke did it break just for you? Or was it...

An Irishman once told me In all seriousness That God is a morning person And you have to get up early To connect with God Before God gets cranky Or busy Or whatever Now I don’t think God dislikes mornings God made them beautiful But God also made the moon And the stars And the color black And all of its different shades And afternoons Yes, afternoons are a good time too But today it...

Thérèse of Lisieux Born in an age of books without end Teachers teaching the taught The perfected lesson The corrected doctrine But no one to love the world entire   Unable to bear the burden And fully aware of the limits Of her own imperfect love Small, weak, and broken She found her greatest strength In her failure   No longer striving for greatness Of knowledge or deed She forged The Little Way By scattering...

Or again, what is the kingdom of heaven like? And to what can it be compared?   It is like a wealthy father who loved his only son. They shared everything in life and withheld nothing from one another.   One day the son was murdered in the streets by a gang of orphaned teens. In his grief the father was also moved to compassion and said to himself, “what good is all my wealth...

What is the kingdom of heaven like? Or what can we compare it to?   It is like gifts given to orphans who’ve never received a single gift in their entire lives.   The first orphan refuses to open the gift, for it is wrapped beautifully and with great care. If that isn’t love, what is? So they set the gift carefully on a shelf in their room, ignoring the lightness of the box and...

What is the kingdom of God like? And to what can it be compared?   The kingdom of God is like a father who built his family home on the upper banks of the Platte River in Nebraska, where the sandhill crane migration took place in the wetlands and riverbanks just outside their family room windows.   The father loved to watch these birds every year and kept a pair of the finest binoculars beside...