A Few Kind Words

Know your song well before you start singing
That’s what the poet once said.
But he didn’t show - he ain’t here tonight
To sing his own damn songs,
So Patti, don’t worry your pretty head
Yes, don’t think twice, it’s all right.

Besides,
I heard ten thousand whisperin' and nobody listenin'
That’s what the poet once said.
And we all know he’s gotta be right
Oh yeah, he’s not gonna be wrong,
So Patti, don’t worry your pretty head
Yes, don’t think twice, it’s all right.

Besides,
I heard one person starve, heard many people laughin'
That’s what the poet done said.
And although that don’t exactly sound right
Money’s short, day is long, and
I’m not dying while they’re almost dead.
I don’t think twice - I’m all right.

Patti, don’t worry your pretty head
About a few kind words
That those with ears
Should have already heard
Don’t think twice, it’s all right.

___
God bless you Patti Smith
A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall (Bob Dylan)
Don’t Think Twice (Bob Dylan)

In the Dock

When I’m in the dock - the
One who made it through the flood,
Climbed into the big boat, and
Left his brother behind –
I’m going to need someone
To take the stand for me
And tell the Man the truth.
I won’t do it on my own -
This is the only thing
You can trust of me.

So, when the accuser calls
I hope you’ll testify, you three:
Spirit and the water and the blood;
Then I know you’ll all agree –
Jesus was, and is still, my all.

________

1 John 5
Revelation 12

Step Two

Step number one is finished
I fell in love, oh yes it's done.
Time to move on now-
Take the next step, son.
I’m scared, yes, I cannot lie
I don’t know what’s up ahead,
I cannot see
What’s right around the corner,
Lying in wait for me,
Ready to trip me up and
Make my daily living harder.
Still, I’m going to move on
Though I can’t hardly walk.
And I’m telling you now, girl,
We really got to have a talk,
I don’t think it is right how
You expect me to keep on
Drifting through your world,
Repeating step one
Until I die.

How much is left?
Love, that’s all I got.
How much is left for me?
Baby, that’s all there is.
How much you got left for me?
Oh, baby, I don’t know.
OK, well, can we just start over?
No, honey…oh I guess so.

Pair of Lips

I’m not going to say it -
You will never hear it from me -
You own some real kissers;
Oh, you have a sweet pair of lips.

I promise I won’t repeat
News being spread by so many;
How comes the prose of Cicero
Through such great paralipse?

Into Your Hand

Into your hand I commit my spirit
Into your hand I give my soul
Into your hand I fall
Into your hand
Your hand
All
My hands
I lift my hands
I lift my hands to rise
I lift my hands to praise your name
I lift my hands to serve with your spirit


_________

Into your hand I commit my spirit;
you have redeemed me, O LORD, faithful God.

(Psalm 31:5 ESV)

I Lay Down and Slept

I see them coming;
They are too many.
My enemies, they
Set their face to mine,
Angry fists upraised.

For this thirst it is
Not enough to die.
They drive my love, soul,
From your holy will.
As I flee tonight
Into the desert
I can hear them cry,
“God can’t save him. No.”

I lay down and slept
And I woke again
For you defended me.
I lay down and slept
And I woke again
For you sustained me
Selah.

I see them coming.
There are too many
Up against me, now
They surround me, but
I am not afraid.

A shield about me,
You, my glory, the
Lifter of my head,
Hope, above this plane.
From your holy hill
You can hear me cry.
You speak my name and
Call me from the dead,
Answered me in pain.

I lay down and slept
And I woke again
For you defended me.
I lay down and slept
And I woke again
For you sustained me
Selah.

__________
Psalm 3

Blasphemy

The crowd
gathered, so
They could not eat.
His family

Went out to seize him.
They were saying,
He is out
of his mind.
The scribes

were saying,
He is possessed by Beelzebul.
By the prince of demons
He casts out
 the demons.
He called

them to him
And spoke to them
In parables.

How can Satan cast out Satan?
A kingdom divided cannot stand;
A house against itself will come down.

He’s out of his mind,
Out of his mind, unclean,
Blasphemy.
He spoke to them,
Out of his mind, unclean.
Out of his mind,
Out of his mind,
Blasphemy!


 (Mark 3:20-25 ESV)

Disobedient

You told me not to say anything about you.
I am not worthy. My spirit is unclean;
The weight of it pulls me down
Until I fall - until I cry,
You are the Son of God.

(Mark 3:91-12)

Tense Ambiguity

I read the bible every day.
No one knows if I’ve been bad or
If I’m still okay.

I read stories; up too late.
I don’t know if my hero
Is here; on the way.

I read poetry, stuff like that.
Will this be my song of hope
Or my epitaph?

I read your letters through the night.
There’s something to be said for
Ambiguity.

Drive On

You are not invisible.
I saw you put your hand out for my love.
It’s not as though I can’t see the sign
That tells me you are miserable.
But now the light is changing;
As much as we might need each other
I’m going to take my foot off the brake
And drive on.

There's a necklace on my mirror.
It's been there since you left.
A pretty thing someone should wear,
Because every time I see it-
Every time I look up there -
I'm leaving a child behind.

I’m sorry for holding back
All that is due one who has gone to hell
For me and back, but it’s about time
For me to get moving, time to get back
To what I’m always doing;
Although I know you called me Brother
I’m going to turn my head the other way
And drive on.

There's a necklace on my mirror.
It's been there since you left.
Adornment some soul should wear,
Because every time I see it-
Every time I look up there -
I'm leaving my life behind.

_______________

My son, do not lose sight of these—
keep sound wisdom and discretion,
and they will be life for your soul
and adornment for your neck.

(Proverbs 3:21-22 ESV)

Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due,
when it is in your power to do it.

Do not say to your neighbor, “Go, and come again,
tomorrow I will give it”—when you have it with you.

(Proverbs 3:27-28 ESV)

- For our Jordan in Beirut

Olive Mounds

With age and imagination, brown-olive mounds could be wild rabbits
 frozen by the hawk
 that hunts this shallow creek.
With wisdom and meditation, long ears evolve into short branches
 driven from the oak
 in last night’s thunderstorm.
But with coffee, patience, and motion, they resolve into fox squirrels
 startled by the sight
 of man at his window.

______________________
For our little Olives and Olivers

As the Lord Had Commanded

Coats, woven
 of fine linen,
For the priest and his sons;
Caps, turban
  of fine linen,
Beneath, fine
 twined linen,
Sash of fine
  twined linen,
Blue, purple, and
 scarlet yarns;
Needlework embroidery - all
As the Lord had commanded

And love, love
 One another;
All love, love,
 As I love you;
As the Lord has
 Commanded,
Love, love, love
 One another

___________
Exodus 39:27-29 ESV
John 15:12
With spanish guitar

The Trail to Salt Creek

In my grief

            The trail to Salt Creek

            Is guarded by prickly-pear

            And jumping cactus.

I can’t go back.

            I have forgotten

            How to slide down the shale ridge

            To our fishing spot.

How can I find joy?

            I cannot sneak past

            The purple sage on the ledge

            Where rattlesnakes thaw.

I am afraid.

I am afraid.

I can’t go back.

In my grief,

How can I find joy?

I can’t go back.

How can I find joy?

In my grief, I am afraid.

I am afraid; how can I find joy?

I am afraid - in my grief.

I can’t go back - in my grief.

How can I find joy in my grief?

In my grief -

In my grief -

I am afraid.

Afraid - can’t go back, go back.

Find joy - in my grief – find joy?

Go back.

Hokes Post

Your post reminds me, I once hired a grizzled old feller in the Alaskan bush named "Hokes Post"  to ferry me across the bay in his seal-skin umiak.

I had just stepped in when he handed me a rawhide-bandaged old paddle and said, "Here, you take 'Orion' and I'll take 'Explorer' and we'll chew the fat a bit while we work our way across."

He looked Inuit, but he spoke the local dialect with a bit of a drawl and a hint of Texas-like twang. Hokes really liked to talk (also unlike most of the folks around there), but when questioned about that Hoax swore he had lived in the Alaskan wild since the day he was born. Over the course of our two-hour struggle with the surface chop and shifting tidal currents, Post told me a fantastic story that his mother had told him many times about how Hokes' dad had fallen in live with her. The story was that he fell for her after she bravely rescued him out of the belly of a giant bird that had been caught in the teeth of the Great White Lake.  This mythical bird was so big that the White Lake could not digest it all at once, but would take a bite, chew on it when the nights were still long, swallow what it could, then run to the sea and back again with the summer salmon - and just as ravenous. I didn't believe him, of course, but Hokes did spin a nice yarn.

I remember that as we approached the far shore - me, totally exhausted from constant paddling, and Hokes not at all, even with the constant legend telling -  I could see two huge mastiff-like dogs watching intently but quietly from a small berm just above the graveled bank clearing that I assumed would be our eventual landing point. Hokes warned me, "Don't worry about Will and Wiley. They know better than to come down here and bother my customers...unless you got some bacon in your pack. In which case you are own your own and may God have mercy on your soul."

Standard Time

Standard Time, Standard Time
Ev’rybody’s loves the Standard Time
The ground’s still lit and the moon don’t shine
We’s a-goin’ on with Standard Time.

He went off of Standard Time
Didn’t wake up ‘till half-past nine
Lost his job though the clock ran fine
Better get on back to Standard Time

Savings Time around the bend
It comes to the door, don’t let it in
Cost your job and your never gonna win
What do you think of that, my frien’?

Me and my gal, my gal’s son
We got caught in a traffic jam
I don’t even know why we come
Goin’ back when we came from

Standard Time in the afternoon
Ev’rybody singin’ a sorrowful tune
An hour delay -  a socialist boon
Somebody better get rid of it soon.

Standard Time, Standard Time
Ev’rybody’s loves the Standard Time
The ground’s still lit and the moon don’t shine
We’s a-goin’ on with Standard Time.

____________________
Sung to “Oxford Town”
Apologies to Bob Dylan and serious-minded people

Daylight Savings

Was writing a poem about daylight savings.
I know it's already been done.
I read an hour ago someone
Was writing a poem about daylight savings.

Across the Scree

The approach is a long ridge that is narrow and rounded. It is like walking up a half-buried backbone. The water crossing is also treacherous – along a sheer ledge through the falls, its edges green with deceitful lichen.  It is easy to lose the trail there, for there are no tracks. The snow-melt continually washes the granite floor. It shines now with morning light on a fine polish.  Beyond the creek, a hundred feet or so above the last twisted scrub, the talus field climbs to the base of the cliffs where the remnants of the previous winter have managed to survive in their chilly shadow sanctuary.

There are many trails across the ragged scree – there is no best way. Even the wild things choose – perhaps by instinct – the path that best suits them.  The black bear, elk, mountain goat; the chipmunk – each takes a different path from shelter to sustenance, from bed to bread and wine.

The mountain pass lies ahead. I was told that where it goes, the walls are close and steep and the sandy floor is covered with the sign of many different creatures. That is the place where all the trails come together.

___________

Ps 143:10

Undead

You did me in.
Your lips made a deep impression.
And your caress, on life's depression –
Gives the sweet kiss of death. I guess I won’t
Wake up in this world the same again.
You did me in.
I’m doomed to walk with all the rest
Down this two-lane highway, headed west,
Into the unsettling sun. At least I won’t
Wake up in the morning all alone.

You did me in.
I’m all done.
You did me in.
I’m done now.
I’m all gone.

___________
Ha! Happy Birthday, Vicki

Texas Bittersweet

I'm sitting at the Sonic drive-in,
Watching the skaters wait
On the welders and real oil men,
And the soccer moms running late.
None of us feel like going in,
Especially those two (they must be on their first date) .

Can’t help it,
I’m starting to think of you once again -
While just grabbing a bite to eat.
I don’t want no one to see me crying
In my DP like a loser that’s just been beat, and
The thought of it gets me laughing.
You’d love it – our Texas bittersweet.

____
For Johanna, who loves her friends and her DP

Don't Cut Me Down, Lord

Don’t cut me down, Lord,
Though I have caused some sorrow.
Please don’t cut me down; let
My last day be tomorrow.
Don’t cut me down, Lord,
Please just give me one more year.

I know they can’t see it,
But it isn’t lost on me,
All the work you’ve been doing
While I’ve been growing weak.
And I appreciate all your toiling –
All this tilling around my feet,
Even the dung you’ve been dumping –
Day after day and week after week –
On these shiny boots I am wearing.

Don’t cut me down, Lord,
Please just give me one more year.
Don’t cut me down, Lord;
But wait for my shadow to clear.
Please don’t cut me down, Lord,
My hope is still living here.

I have my own reasons –
Excuses at their root –
For not bearing your good fruit,
But I could use another season
In your sunlight and truth to recover.
Please help me find some way
To survive this dark cloud cover;
Stand up under my own weight;
To reach out - gently touch her.

Please, don’t cut me down, Lord,
Just give me one more year.
Please, don’t cut me down, Lord,
But give me one more year.
Please don’t take me home yet,
My love is still waiting here.

__________

And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

(Luke 13:6-9 ESV)

Grain and Wine Abound

Their harvest has come
The barley is done.
The grapes are ripe.
Their vintage goes right.

But though their fields are green
And the yields are high,
Their silos still go empty.
And within their vast granary rooms
The voice of hunger sighs, its fear echoes faintly
While cellar door hinges grow green and rusty
Waiting for the missing groom to show.

They have so little; I have so much.
Their storehouse is filled with sorrow,
But the wind reaps my shouts of joy.
They have nothing; I have you.

___________________________
There are many who say, “Who will show us some good?
Lift up the light of your face upon us, O LORD!”
You have put more joy in my heart
than they have when their grain and wine abound.

(Psalm 4:6-7 ESV)