P o e t r y

blood

It’s a tin-whistle stop where shadows bleed dark elixir blood.  Draining from the veins and capillaries of time and all that hides. 

Hidden, stolen away in loss and degradation.  Sin cuts deep into me and every eye is blinded.

           Can’t see the water for what’s drowning.  Can’t hold on with these broken arms and dreams.

Awake from slumber; wiping sleep from my eyes as You’ve wiped this slate clean.  Brush the darkened stone so to carry this lighter yoke past horizons, beyond a million sunsets, past every wave of water, sky and heaven. 

         

           Heaving deep; lungs burn as I try and sputter. . . as I try and sputter. . . as I try and sputter and shudder at what tomorrow may bring.

Brought through fire, bought with sunrise, water, birth and blood.  Bleed the death from me, yield ten million gallons. 

Pale and weak I’ll crumble into arms fit to carry me home.

Perpetual Underclass

To Graduate
is a curious thing
to what and from where
Do inquire

Degrees of Glory
always require shedding
robes, regalia
and skins of honor

Come down
See People
Wash Feet
Get Wet

Love to be forgotten
Live to be unknown
Long to be Hidden
in Christ
Never Graduate

composed during the occasion of Asbury Theological Seminary Graduation
-- May 20, 2005
John David Walt

Estes

"In the tender compassion of our God, the dawn from on high shall break upon us." --- Luke 1:78

I hear tonalities of royal blue
Feel passion in swishing robes
Inhabit dwelling breath of praise

Here in these royal courts,
These priestly chambers

"This is my holy ground, my home of humble exaltation
Here & everywhere, I will praise you."

Lowland

Brought back down to the lowland places, off the highways where I don't belong.  Carry me from cliffs and falling places to the secure landfalls I've always known. Left to this lack I wonder and can't hide the curiosity that the sky should be my home.  Time is wandering and I can't breath in this place of in between. There might be hope, but it's beyond me now.  I'd like to see a sunrise, I'd die to view a sunset and let the fire burn me down.  Still, nothing can hide my calamity, there's nowhere to bury the darkness within.  But, burial never was what You do best.

Reflections on a Pond

Water…

So black and still,

Like an onyx mirror

Reflecting back sky and bank unbroken…

Except when wind above

Or fish below

Stirs water

Into tiny ripples…

Except when one lone bird,

With sharper eyes than mine,

Spies a prize

And breaks the surface hopefully…

Except when two dark eyes,

And the tip of a snout

Tell you a gator is moving below,

But so slowly it leaves no wake…

And when these pass,

Water folds back upon itself

As if exceptions did not matter.    

                                                                                       

Incognito

Dr. Ben Witherington III-- a prolific poet on our faculty here at the seminary offers this one on the occasion of May Day. It is literally filled with the mystery of the Incarnation. Thanks Ben.

INCOGNITO

He came in incognito,
A thinly veiled disguise
The not so subtle son of man,
A human with God’s eyes.

The messianic secret,
Left many unawares
A God had walked upon the earth
And shared our human cares.

We did not see his glory,
At least not at first glimpse,
It took an Easter wake up call,
Before it all made sense.

The truth of Incarnation,
Of dwelling within flesh,
Shows goodness in creation,
And Word of God made fresh.

Standing on the boundary
Twixt earth and heaven above
A Jew who hailed from Nazareth
But came from God’s great love.

Born of humble parents,
Installed inside a stall
This king required no entourage
No pomp or falderal

No person was beneath him
No angel o’er his head,
He came to serve the human race
To raise it from the dead.

His death a great conundrum,
How can the Deathless die?
But if he had not bowed his head,
Life would have passed us by.

Though we are dying to be loved,
And long for endless life,
He was dying in his love,
And thereby ending strife.

Perhaps the incognito
Belongs instead to us,
Who play at being human,
And fail to be gold dust.

But there was once a God-man
Who played the human’s part
And lived and died and rose again
Made sin and death depart.

Yes now through a glass dimly,
We see the visage royal
And feebly honor his great worth
And his atoning toil.

We cannot see his Spirit,
But moved by its effects
We are inspired to praise his worth
And pay our last respects.

Yet that too brings him glory
That too makes a start,
The journey of a million miles
Begins within one’s heart.

And someday we shall see him
And fully praise his grace,
Someday when heaven and earth collide
And we see face to face.

He comes in blinding brilliance,
A not so veiled disguise
The not so subtle Son of God,
A God with human eyes.
------------
May Day 2005

Courage in the Dark

Reenter life.   

Look forward not back. 

This takes guts!

When hiding is all.  Any decision beyond me.     

When sleep and oblivion call,

Or sleep hides and never comes.                   

When baby steps overwhelm,

Just strive to stand… Stand up and look.

The world needs one more person                                                             

With Courage to stand,                                                                              

And look beyond himself or herself.

And sometimes that one person Isn’t you…                                                       

It is your friend.