In Plain Sight

In Plain Sight
For Velma and Chuck in memory of Chris

We can’t always see it,
The light that lights the world.
It just is, and no longer dark,
But sometimes when the angle
Is just right, and the certain slant
Peaks through the shadows,
And there’s just enough mist
Or dust, or something, the ray
Reveals itself, visible in a line
Straight to heaven. And we don’t
Think angle then, but angel,
And not mere dust, but breath,
Holy and illumined, and our heart
Finds rest. Such times are not just
Nature, but miracle, given at just
The right time, like a rainbow,
Or a friend, or the answer to a prayer.
Again we find peace, passing all
Our understanding, but unmistakable
In our hearts as knowing feeling,
And thus more true and more beautiful
Even than the sunflowers standing
There in plain sight, just right.

Lord, Send Your Breath. . . for Hannah

Morning Juice

Morning Juice

Coach Atk

The grass is wet from the dew

Your helmet still wet from last night

Your hair wet from the wake-up rinse

You head out, helmets and shorts,

Stiff still, to stretch, and lose the stiff

While it’s still mostly cool, almost

As the sun sends out its glistening gleam

From the hard angle of morning, you can

Already feel the heat despite the breeze

And that wet grass is just cold heaviness

For a second, then it turns into hot heaviness

As it mixes with the sweat of conditioning

Not quite sure if the vapor you see is

Steam or fog, where the only difference

Is the source, your heat or the sun’s

Both become inseparable, bear crawling,

Up downing, left slide, right slide, hit it

The wetness is forgotten, a fact, just accepted

Replaced by another focus, competing,

Finishing faster than the fool in front of you

Who is becoming a brother somehow

Through this work we do in parallel

Only in math do such lines not intersect,

Side by side together losing You to find We

Team is formed here, victory begins here

Champions are forged here, friends made,

And life is learned here, for here we are

Another long day has begun, where it’s

Field, food, field, food, pool, field, food, bed

Repeat, just to put the ball down and play

Is it worth it, many would say no, even most,

But then, if it were easy they’d be doing it too,

What say you? Have you had your juice today?

Pieces of a Puzzle for Jean

Pieces of a Puzzle

In Memory of Jean Johnson

She loved us like the pieces of a puzzle,

Where each piece’s unique image and shape

Leave only one place it could possibly fit,

And care is required to find and vision needed

To see, just how the full picture is formed,

When each piece is found and joined. As if

Examining each piece to find its qualities,

She sought to know us, seeking with quiet

Devotion, seeing with ever care-filled eyes

How friendships and relationships, if held

Tightly, could flourish into beauty beyond

Any one of us, into the picture she saw

In each of us beyond ourselves, joined

To become all of us, children of the living God,

The Body of Christ. It was as if God showed her

The picture on the box, and she had insight

Into a plan we couldn’t see. I’m not sure

If she did, though, but I know that is how

She made us feel: like we each were the last

Piece, the special one that brings perfection

Into view in the wonder of God’s creation.

We each should feel blessed just to’ve been held

If only for a moment in eyes that see us like that

Because it helps, more than anything else could,

Us to see ourselves that way, too, freeing us

To follow in her example and see the world anew

In the picture she formed with us as her life’s puzzle. 

A Teacher's Love

A Teacher’s Love

For Anne Creveling

Romans 12: 9 Ἡ ἀγάπη ἀνυπόκριτος. “Let love be genuine. . .”

Teachers have that certain way of not being

Able to hide their love. It erupts from them

In subtle, yet unmistakable nameless qualities,

Outpouring from a cup made full, overflowing,

Apparent only through time, care, and a million

Memories. For in those many moments, business

Was being done, instruction and corrections

Given, lessons delivered, duties performed,

So a no-nonsense manner sets the standard.

Questions cut through pretense, conversation

Breaks quickly through the surface as if time

Is always too short to waste on the trivial,

Since the real is always at stake, and there is

No wasted moment in teaching. The student

Is always watching, observing, and learning.

There is no off duty, so though I was never

Her student, never officially on her yearly roster,

Never did I ever see her at work at the board,

Posting objectives for the day, and never did

I even see her at her school, I could not mistake

Her teacherly love, and I could not help but learn

From her teacherly way. As a teacher myself I know,

And as a witness I can say, I saw the love she gave

Her church, the teaching she did by example,

The manner she had in life, and know how good

She was in the classroom. She was genuine,

And I can find no better aspect, no more

Necessary quality, no higher praise, and no

Greater gift to a world in need than a teacher,

Whose life fulfilled that prescribed first mark

Of the Christian Life: “Let love be genuine. . .”

Are They These?

Living the Words on the Page

Living the Words on the Page
for Gabrielle
May 25, 2019

“I can do all things, through Christ who gives me strength,”
I must say you’ve chosen great words of power.
Do you want to know the key to unlocking those words?

Because you know those words are meaningless,
At least they are on their own. They are simply
The markers, the reminders, the mere mention
Of the power lurking within them, and they feel good,
Sound good, look good, written, engraved, printed,
Stuck on a bumper, or hash-tagged and shared,
But they are only words.

They are like the words on your diploma:
Gabrielle Frances Jackson, High School Graduate.
Just some words on a page, marking truth,
Job done, box checked, rite of passage passed.

But depth lies underneath and inside words.
You know this better than most because
You took a different journey from most of us,
And your paper reads the same as ours does,
But it represents for you a story, of struggle,
Triumph, fear, failure, fighting, friendship,
Worry, panic, patience, peace, prayer, love.
Life. Don’t flee from it. Embrace it. All.

The key to the meaning of words is the life behind them.
I can do All things through Christ, who gives me strength.
Live these words. Embrace All the things you are doing
Because Christ has given you strength to do them.

These words are not for some future thing left undone,
Leaving All undone and untried because you fear failing,
Knowing such failing could cost you Your faith, and you
Hold your faith tightly in your hand, protecting it at All
Cost, but inside you know that doing such is not to use
Faith at All, leaving it only as words, remembered, but
Left there on the page, like they’re placed inside a tomb.

No, roll the stone away, let them live through your moments,
Each moment, All moments, and then, and only then
Will you find the strength to do All things. . . Right now,
This moment, and always. Living the words makes them
Living words...