P o e t r y

Friends

It isn't long after we are born that the scales
and octaves of our heartsong cease to be in tune
It may take our whole lives to
transform halting melodies and disonant chords into
the long forgotten strains of unique creation
We constantly fight to remember the lost tones
that swirled stars and transformed dust into being

Memory like melody is halting

So as we search to uncover the lost song, the identity
of the composer. . .
As we seek to lift voices in the long forgotten heartsong,
We seem to remember more when we sing
in chorus.
It is only when we ply our halting melodies together
that memory revives and our heartstrings tune one to another
The melody once lost is found in harmonies of voices inhabiting and
filling the chambers of the soul long neglected

In this way we are instruments of healing for one another

Thank you for lifting your voice with me.

Michael Lawson. March 3, 2004. This poem was written as a gift to me by my friend, Michael Lawson. This poetry blog is a fruit of our friendship and so it is fitting that this poem be the first locally authored piece to appear here. Michael is the Intern in our office giving leadership to our ArTS (Artistic Response to Theological Study) Council at Asbury Seminary.

The Inaugural Poem of the Kingdom

The Word was first,
the Word present to God,
God present to the Word.
The Word was God,
in readiness for God from day one.

Everything was created through him;
nothing--not one thing
came into being without him.
What came into existence was Life,
and the Life was Light to live by.
The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;
the darkness couldn't put it out.

The Life-Light was the real thing:
Every person entering Life
he brings into Light.
He was in the world,
the world was there through him,
and yet the world didn't even notice.

He came to his own people,
but they didn't want him.
But whoever did want him,
who believed he was who he claimed
and would do what he said,
He made to be their true selves,
their child-of-God selves.

These are the God-begotten,
not blood-begotten,
not flesh-begotten,
not sex-begotten.

The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory,
like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
true from start to finish.

We all live off his generous bounty,
gift after gift after gift.

We got the basics from Moses,
and then this exuberant giving and receiving,
This endless knowing and understanding--
all this came through Jesus, the Messiah.

No one has ever seen God,
not so much as a glimpse.
This one-of-a-kind God-Expression,
who exists at the very heart of the Father,
has made him plain as day.

The Gospel according to John. Chapter 1. Selected Verses. The Message Translation