tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62662046444723827112024-03-08T10:38:31.367-08:00Rainforest SoulPoems by Charles Van GorkomCharles Van Gorkomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00886831302245832973noreply@blogger.comBlogger264125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6266204644472382711.post-6027806196807813802019-08-28T20:38:00.000-07:002019-08-28T20:53:41.880-07:00Wild GraceI was praying on my porch,<br />
Or writing a poem,<br />
Tiny jeweled frogs sang<br />
Around the garden pond,<br />
Sun had set, it was cooling.<br />
Suddenly a rustle,<br />
A stag and his<br />
Following doe<br />
Sailed silently by--<br />
<br />
A rustle, then wild grace,<br />
A poem-prayer,<br />
An answer.Charles Van Gorkomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00886831302245832973noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6266204644472382711.post-38340828737751743762019-08-07T15:14:00.001-07:002019-08-07T15:26:32.667-07:00GravesideSpirits of departed<br />
Wheel like gulls<br />
In morning sun<br />
High over Marge<br />
Of land and sea.<br />
<br />
Flower on spear of leaf<br />
Lay on gravestone<br />
Small claims to memorialize<br />
A life<br />
<br />
Awaken grief<br />
Surprising us alone<br />
Sends gulls wheeling seaward<br />
Important with small fames<br />
Called home<br />
To the Name of Names.<br />
<br />
<br />
By Charles Van GorkomCharles Van Gorkomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00886831302245832973noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6266204644472382711.post-18664959949155808792019-07-04T17:07:00.000-07:002019-07-04T17:07:01.535-07:00Directions Forward<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Display"; font-size: 16px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<br /></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Display"; font-size: 16px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 27.4px;">
<span style="font-family: '.SFUIDisplay-Semibold'; font-size: 23pt; font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Display"; font-size: 16px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: '.SFUIDisplay-Semibold'; font-size: 23pt; font-weight: bold;">In the world </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Display"; font-size: 16px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: '.SFUIDisplay-Semibold'; font-size: 23pt; font-weight: bold;">Not of the world</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Display"; font-size: 16px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: '.SFUIDisplay-Semibold'; font-size: 23pt; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Display"; font-size: 16px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: '.SFUIDisplay-Semibold'; font-size: 23pt; font-weight: bold;">Sanctuary</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Display"; font-size: 16px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: '.SFUIDisplay-Semibold'; font-size: 23pt; font-weight: bold;">Robes hung unfurled</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Display"; font-size: 16px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: '.SFUIDisplay-Semibold'; font-size: 23pt; font-weight: bold;">Crimson and golden</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Display"; font-size: 16px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: '.SFUIDisplay-Semibold'; font-size: 23pt; font-weight: bold;">In sun bleached bush</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Display"; font-size: 16px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: '.SFUIDisplay-Semibold'; font-size: 23pt; font-weight: bold;">Of white birch</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Display"; font-size: 16px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: '.SFUIDisplay-Semibold'; font-size: 23pt; font-weight: bold;">In the church</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Display"; font-size: 16px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: '.SFUIDisplay-Semibold'; font-size: 23pt; font-weight: bold;">Not of the church. </span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Display"; font-size: 16px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: '.SFUIDisplay-Semibold'; font-size: 23pt; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Display"; font-size: 16px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: '.SFUIDisplay-Semibold'; font-size: 23pt; font-weight: bold;">Eucharist</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Display"; font-size: 16px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: '.SFUIDisplay-Semibold'; font-size: 23pt; font-weight: bold;">Poured and broken</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Display"; font-size: 16px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: '.SFUIDisplay-Semibold'; font-size: 23pt; font-weight: bold;">Every day</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Display"; font-size: 16px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: '.SFUIDisplay-Semibold'; font-size: 23pt; font-weight: bold;">New spoken</span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Display"; font-size: 16px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: '.SFUIDisplay-Semibold'; font-size: 23pt; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Display"; font-size: 16px; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span style="font-family: '.SFUIDisplay-Semibold'; font-size: 23pt; font-weight: bold;">And olden. </span></div>
<div>
<span style="font-family: '.SFUIDisplay-Semibold'; font-size: 23pt; font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></div>
Charles Van Gorkomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00886831302245832973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6266204644472382711.post-41928779344199400572017-06-17T17:17:00.000-07:002017-06-17T17:17:07.473-07:00Rodin<span style="color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 19px; text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;"> </span><br />
<span style="color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 19px; text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;">You played your accordion</span><br />
<div style="color: #454545; font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 19px; text-decoration: -webkit-letterpress;">
<div>
Standing under a young tree</div>
<div>
At the farmers market</div>
<div>
Or not standing, you danced,</div>
<div>
Your whole lithe body</div>
<div>
Barefoot in scuffed leather shoes</div>
<div>
Your soaring improvisations</div>
<div>
Sailed above tents and crowds</div>
<div>
At times growling greeting to the dogs</div>
<div>
Or singing with birds</div>
<div>
Whose tree lofts</div>
<div>
Shaded busy coffee tables and chairs. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Tall and thin, an elvan man, </div>
<div>
Unself conscious,</div>
<div>
You danced to your own music</div>
<div>
Weaving like tendrils of mist,</div>
<div>
Songs rising within </div>
<div>
as you gave it birth. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Suddenly I knew</div>
<div>
It was just like this</div>
<div>
The universe was born. </div>
</div>
Charles Van Gorkomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00886831302245832973noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6266204644472382711.post-33745148224303668392015-12-06T19:05:00.000-08:002015-12-06T19:05:02.759-08:00To My FamilyI just found this on my computer. I wrote it more than four years ago, thought you might be interested:<br />
<br />
<br />
I was forty-three years in the northern wilderness.<br />
Before those years, I had prayed,<br />
Earnestly prostrated before the Lord,<br />
In another country, another city, I prayed,<br />
(He saved me, He rescued me, He sent me on a path of exile)<br />
I prayed "Lord, put me through what you need me to go through<br />
In order to make me the poet you made me to be."<br />
<br />
Was I really a poet and not much else?<br />
<br />
I don't know if He has started to answer that prayer,<br />
But my experiences in the wilderness have been different and elemental.<br />
Deep as a scar.<br />
<br />
Now,<br />
At the same time I fear I may forget,<br />
So other-worldly they were,<br />
Or maybe "third-worldly" a better word.<br />
<br />
Remind me, children, how we knew life:<br />
No time for poetry or art,<br />
The next meal,<br />
Firewood cutting and hauling and splitting and stacking,<br />
Clearing the land by hand,<br />
Building the house,<br />
Growing food we ate in a summer of ten weeks,<br />
Scything and raking and racking the hay field by hand<br />
For the goats that made us our milk,<br />
Plundered two times per day,<br />
Winters down as low as minus fifty,<br />
The stove glowing red,<br />
And snow as much as four feet deep<br />
Falling in one night.<br />
<br />
Lamp light and batteries,<br />
Digging a well by hand,<br />
And a hand pump at the kitchen sink.<br />
<br />
The greenhouse, the outhouse,<br />
Worship and home school,<br />
Prayer every morning at 5:30 am--<br />
<br />
I could and should go on and on<br />
And should,<br />
lest the images and memories fade away.<br />
<br />
We lived like Saint Francis with Lady Poverty<br />
By the work of our hands, (and still today)<br />
From hand made boot to handmade boot,<br />
Hopefully this was all God making me into the poet<br />
I hope to become.<br />
<br />
During those years I felt like I toured both Heaven and Hell,<br />
Known exile seared into the ventricals of being,<br />
Known miracle and deliverance and divine provision,<br />
Praise and glory, storms and waves instantly stilled by<br />
The Peace Be Still of desperate faith<br />
When caught out in a canoe on an icy lake<br />
Flooding the deepest knotted fibres of my being.<br />
<br />
Heard and seen the angels, awstruck by the nordic<br />
Falling colored curtains of heaven on the coldest nights.<br />
<br />
I've put bears and wolves to flight<br />
With prayer and faith and desperate bravado.<br />
<br />
I've slept beside a salmon choked river<br />
Where bears were fishing, me--<br />
Wrapped in a sleeping bag and simple nervous prayer.<br />
<br />
I've known friends to appear as I sat<br />
Miles from nowhere in Canadian mountain bush<br />
Finding me in the night at a lonely fire.<br />
<br />
I've seen death stalk my enemies.<br />
<br />
I saw a child run over by a loaded haywagon,<br />
His chest crushed flat<br />
Instantly healed<br />
And laughing with the other children<br />
At supper that night.<br />
<br />
Strangers have handed me envelopes filled with hundreds<br />
Even thousands of dollars<br />
Unasked, unexpected, but so needed,<br />
<br />
So much more, so much more glory,<br />
<br />
But who am I?<br />
God made me a poet, gave me leather and boots to make<br />
For my groceries, and what is that<br />
In the reckoning of things?<br />
<br />
I spent hours cumulated into years huddled around a fire<br />
Worshipping and praying in thanksgiving for simple<br />
Food shelter and warmth, family and mercy and grace.<br />
<br />
My three children know how to survive,<br />
How to take care of themselves and their families<br />
Without guns,<br />
Know God and serve Him whole-heartedly,<br />
My wife a treasure that has enriched all my days.<br />
<br />
God told me in a dream: "Go back to the city,<br />
I have work for you to do."<br />
<br />
After forty-three years,<br />
He led me from the wilderness just a few weeks ago.<br />
<br />
Here I am Lord, sent by you.<br />
<br />
charles van gorkom<br />
January 2012<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<br />
<br />
<br />Charles Van Gorkomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00886831302245832973noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6266204644472382711.post-83776417655853769892015-10-11T13:51:00.000-07:002015-10-11T14:09:46.865-07:00Forgive Them<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<span style="font-size: 12.8px;"> </span>Forgive them, </div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
Rabbleous cacophony rattling my door,</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
They know not what they do</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
Or what they are for.</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
I only see through a darkling glass</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
Vistas of love</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
And how by its silent power,</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
The redeemed will pass,</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
<br /></div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
How a stone is warmed in silence,</div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
Softened </div>
<div style="background-color: white; color: #454545; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">
To bear a flower. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
Charles Van Gorkomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00886831302245832973noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6266204644472382711.post-77207666994902248082015-02-28T07:45:00.002-08:002015-02-28T07:45:06.033-08:00S. W.One day,<br />
By clever diversion,<br />
life made treaty with death in you,<br />
a minority ground-swell in opposition<br />
and War began.<br />
<br />
I fled to the borders,<br />
what could I do?<br />
For seven years<br />
I hid and trained my binoculars<br />
on your embattled soul<br />
made sorties for your replenishment,<br />
You always smiled in tranquility<br />
as if precious children rioted<br />
in your skirts.<br />
<br />
When the smoke cleared,<br />
the flame flickered out,<br />
I carried away some of the rubble<br />
for a keepsake,<br />
ashes that remained,<br />
with your smile.<br />
<br />
What more could you have done?<br />
The treaty you could not break,<br />
nor could I,<br />
Your life triumphs still by joy,<br />
It is the Treaty Breaker's tranquil smile.Charles Van Gorkomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00886831302245832973noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6266204644472382711.post-7393196459833274802015-02-06T13:26:00.000-08:002015-02-06T13:26:07.831-08:00Softly Light<br />
There is a candle in the darkness,<br />
You can see its glow,<br />
But not the flame.<br />
<br />
When your eyes are closed,<br />
You know it is<br />
Shielded gently in two hands.<br />
<br />
Hands that shelter the singing<br />
Tiny light,<br />
Reflecting on a quiet face,<br />
Eyes on your eyes,<br />
Love answering love.<br />
<br />
Lips call your name<br />
Softly saying<br />
"Come to my gentle light,<br />
Little one,<br />
Come, eyes of love,<br />
Enter your whispered name,<br />
Come home"Charles Van Gorkomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00886831302245832973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6266204644472382711.post-13220252083272958452014-11-27T06:31:00.001-08:002014-11-27T06:31:39.444-08:00What Is Your Question?<br />
<br />
Sometimes to find a new truth,<br />
We must ask a new question.Charles Van Gorkomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00886831302245832973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6266204644472382711.post-14708447066105693092014-11-04T06:39:00.000-08:002014-11-04T06:39:11.474-08:00Blessed Is The HumanBlessed is the human<br />
Who does not edit<br />
The one true story<br />
To fit the narrative of his time.<br />
<br />
This human is rare<br />
And blessed<br />
Who edits the narrative of his time<br />
To fit the one true story.<br />
<br />
<br />Charles Van Gorkomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00886831302245832973noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6266204644472382711.post-77144530243242383482014-10-12T07:36:00.005-07:002014-10-12T08:08:10.742-07:00Your KingdomYour kingdom is within me<br />
A walled city.<br />
<br />
I am the watchman pacing his beat<br />
Upon the walls under your stars<br />
Looking out over the silver shadow countryside<br />
All night long.<br />
<br />
I am the priest offering incense<br />
Among the lighted candle prayers,<br />
I sing in the choir and write the songs;<br />
<br />
I am the old man on the street,<br />
The reader sitting in the park,<br />
The child listening to stories<br />
By the fire.<br />
<br />
I am the worshiper tattered and soaked<br />
Who comes in for prayer from the rain;<br />
<br />
I am the shoemaker and the barber,<br />
The baker and the carpenter<br />
The plumber, welder,<br />
Banker and farmer.<br />
<br />
I am the keeper,<br />
I build on foundations you have laid.<br />
<br />
I am the listener as I walk the streets<br />
Or sweep them, or rake the fallen leaves,<br />
<br />
Sometimes I see you, or hear your voice<br />
among the people.<br />
<br />
I am the father and the mother,<br />
I make safe families and homes<br />
Radiant with peace and joy for happy children;<br />
<br />
I expect you, my king to return after a long journey.<br />
<br />
I want my city to shine with the light<br />
You left for us burning in it,<br />
streetlights and windows<br />
like the moon and stars.Charles Van Gorkomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00886831302245832973noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6266204644472382711.post-21431301955068674082014-09-27T21:41:00.002-07:002014-09-27T21:41:57.975-07:00Ending The Bloody Jihading<br />
It begins like a dawn<br />
With a terrible growing light<br />
At the wrong time of night,<br />
In the wrong place,<br />
Fingers stretching<br />
to enclose eternal space,<br />
A breaking wave of fear<br />
Of falling,<br />
Surfs the world upon,<br />
Moorings shift,<br />
Chains and anchors,<br />
Feel them stretch;<br />
World is sinking,<br />
The light is wrong,<br />
This can't be the sun,<br />
Hopes dying<br />
Hopes rising,<br />
An ancient manuscript,<br />
yellowed parchment<br />
cracked and broken,<br />
Shadows casting of a cross<br />
Beside an empty tomb,<br />
In the spotlight of a terrible dawn,<br />
Like the new age ending<br />
Another age begun.Charles Van Gorkomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00886831302245832973noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6266204644472382711.post-40229979966380833232014-09-27T20:57:00.000-07:002014-09-27T20:57:35.239-07:00The Blinded BrideHe was away on business:<br />
Building her a house<br />
For them both.<br />
<br />
He wrote whole books to her,<br />
Man to wife,<br />
She didn't like the endings,<br />
She rewrote them.<br />
<br />
He wrote love letters to her:<br />
Male to female,<br />
At first she was enthralled,<br />
Then<br />
She refused to understand.<br />
<br />
He sent messengers:<br />
She was offended,<br />
She ignored or jailed them.<br />
<br />
He is coming soon in person,<br />
What will He do?<br />
<br />
She talks of coming out of a closet,<br />
Surprising him<br />
With her same sex lover.<br />
<br />
<br />
By Charles Van Gorkom<br />
www.rainforestsoul.blogspot.com<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Charles Van Gorkomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00886831302245832973noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6266204644472382711.post-45020644808352984252014-08-29T06:52:00.002-07:002014-08-29T06:52:39.319-07:00By Singing<br />
Piano on tiptoe<br />
Combs the unruly forest<br />
Measure by measure<br />
Releasing the grasses,<br />
Shuffling leaves.<br />
<br />
Reaching<br />
A noisy stream<br />
It cups and cradles<br />
Murmurs and chimes<br />
Soothing<br />
Among mossy rocks<br />
<br />
Now still the water flows,<br />
But clean and clear,<br />
A rainforest sonata<br />
Drop by Drop<br />
Pure water joy<br />
By singing<br />
By piano song.Charles Van Gorkomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00886831302245832973noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6266204644472382711.post-44476889707430306962014-08-16T08:06:00.000-07:002014-08-16T08:06:23.705-07:00Healing Meditation<br />
Is it the mountain that sanctifies the saint<br />
Or the saint that sanctifies the mountain?<br />
<br />
I stopped writing,<br />
Sickness came.<br />
<br />
Let the river flow again.<br />
Let my body be sanctified<br />
By the Spirit of saintliness,<br />
My Lord return<br />
To His temple again.Charles Van Gorkomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00886831302245832973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6266204644472382711.post-55295254371250427212014-06-25T06:48:00.002-07:002014-06-25T06:48:19.151-07:00Mr. Detestable Prays<br />
Give municipal flesh<br />
All the Christian blood it craves<br />
Fill its government goblets and gutters,<br />
Make them drunk at the uncontested slaughter,<br />
Christian lambs taken with ceremonial knives,<br />
By simpering tolerance, self-righteous love.<br />
<br />
They hunger,<br />
These counselors,<br />
give them raw secular fantasies<br />
To suck red marrow from,<br />
These blind<br />
to their own bigotry,<br />
Let them dream their own glory,<br />
Drooling blood<br />
Upon the Golgotha of their silent slain.<br />
<br />
Then open their eyes<br />
When you come again<br />
For an account of their lives;<br />
If they repent,<br />
And their anguish<br />
Is as the anguish of your Son,<br />
Forgive them.<br />
Forgive them.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Charles Van Gorkomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00886831302245832973noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6266204644472382711.post-42922339639181099682014-06-08T07:09:00.000-07:002014-06-08T07:09:20.701-07:00Jerusalem Is MineJerusalem, I would gather you<br />
As chicks under my wings,<br />
But they would scatter you<br />
To divide and destroy,<br />
They would divide Jerusalem<br />
Like they divided my vestments<br />
Among them<br />
As I hung dying over them<br />
Where they nailed me bleeding<br />
In agony<br />
And I hung there by tatters<br />
Of torn flesh praying for them<br />
In excruciating pain<br />
<br />
But I only do this once<br />
<br />
You presume upon divine grace,<br />
Or despise my salvation,<br />
my accepting patient love,<br />
Scoff at my promise that those<br />
Who divide Jerusalem shall be cursed<br />
And feel the hammer of my<br />
Protecting love.<br />
There is no peace and safety<br />
For those who trouble Israel.<br />
Though she be wayward,<br />
She is mine.Charles Van Gorkomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00886831302245832973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6266204644472382711.post-77872439172016398602014-05-21T20:55:00.000-07:002014-05-21T20:55:49.449-07:00The Myth And The MythlessO Jesus, they think<br />
You were invented like a myth,<br />
Then they enumerated all time<br />
from your birth.<br />
<br />
Still today people die<br />
for believing in you.<br />
<br />
The wise man,<br />
They say in their wisdom,<br />
Came from nowhere,<br />
From nothing in an explosion,<br />
Then back to nowhere again.<br />
He has a meaningless life<br />
Worth nothing, they say.<br />
<br />
But I say<br />
If the fool be wise,<br />
And the wise a fool,<br />
who is to know enough<br />
to notice?<br />
Yet they notice.<br />
<br />
Jesus said the fool<br />
builds his house<br />
on shifting sand.<br />
<br />
He said the wise man<br />
Loves God with all his heart<br />
And his neighbour<br />
as himself.<br />
<br />
He builds his house upon a rock.<br />
<br />
He hides in catacombs<br />
from those who would<br />
erase him from the earth.<br />
<br />
He hides his secrets in books,<br />
but worldly wise has forgotten<br />
How to read,<br />
Nor how to make or light<br />
a tallow candle<br />
to search out secrets by.<br />
<br />
They have no light-bearing fire,<br />
Only a phosphorus mold<br />
They nurture on a diet of death.<br />
<br />
Cold wind disperses misty myths,<br />
Blind leaders fall into ditches,<br />
But Jesus mythless remains,<br />
Standing at home in a lighted doorway<br />
Inviting all who would enter<br />
Before he closes it forever.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Charles Van Gorkomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00886831302245832973noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6266204644472382711.post-38446641067710769512014-04-06T21:40:00.002-07:002014-04-06T21:50:40.757-07:00And SoAnd so the anti-Christ arises,<br />
Uber deceiver with faithless promises,<br />
Offers easy salvation,<br />
Plots our merciless ruin, <br />
But the remnant holds<br />
As they have long learned,<br />
Drowned or burned,<br />
With a death grip to the timeless Word<br />
In every crises.Charles Van Gorkomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00886831302245832973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6266204644472382711.post-24031602720977943632014-04-06T07:18:00.000-07:002014-04-06T16:07:10.555-07:00On Reading From EcclesiastesA man with little,<br />
who is content with his lot,<br />
is very rich.<br />
<br />
Let him enjoy the fruit<br />
of his labour in peace.<br />
<br />
A man with much land and gold,<br />
who is yet discontent,<br />
is very poor.<br />
<br />
His life is a struggle<br />
He has no peace,<br />
He feels like a slave.<br />
<br />
The riches of contentment<br />
are there within everyone's grasp,<br />
savour the fruit of your labour<br />
with quiet joy.Charles Van Gorkomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00886831302245832973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6266204644472382711.post-45156572496716619402014-01-25T20:13:00.000-08:002014-01-25T20:13:47.798-08:00From Mystery To Mystery<br />
<br />
May the Father look deep into our eyes<br />
And see His Son.<br />
<br />
May the Father look deep into our lives<br />
And find the footsteps<br />
Of His Son.<br />
<br />
May the Father look deep into our loves<br />
and feel the crucifixion<br />
In our bleeding hearts<br />
Of His Son.<br />
<br />
May the Father listen deep<br />
Within our praises,<br />
Taking pleasure in the echo,<br />
The cannon, the oratorio,<br />
Of the one and only<br />
Empty tomb.Charles Van Gorkomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00886831302245832973noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6266204644472382711.post-63140828858261525382014-01-01T07:06:00.000-08:002014-01-01T07:06:13.231-08:00To A Friend And Brother<br />
Load your brush and lay down an underlay of tears,<br />
Load that brush again and sweep down the years<br />
A transparent layer of green life mingled<br />
With golden faith,<br />
Crimson love,<br />
With broad stokes highlight details<br />
In plys of words and vibrant colours,<br />
Let them suggest the way<br />
Your life should go,<br />
Work from general to specific,<br />
from darkness to light,<br />
From ignorance to know,<br />
Verse to verse,<br />
Let itself your poem write,<br />
Bolder as you grow older,<br />
From faith to faith by word and colour.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />Charles Van Gorkomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00886831302245832973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6266204644472382711.post-58503320999893941932013-12-28T13:51:00.000-08:002013-12-28T14:00:51.356-08:00From Daniel And Others<br />
Our rulers weaponize alien thoughts,<br />
Launching demonic mental thought-form bombs,<br />
Nations slide seduced in cascading lots<br />
Down tubes into seductive spiritual tombs,<br />
Truth raises a shield of golden symbol,<br />
stone fortresses of parable again,<br />
As "hate speech" judges condemn the Bible,<br />
Followers are called "blasphemers" and slain<br />
Who yet overcome by blood of the Lamb,<br />
Who yet love not their lives unto death,<br />
They dwell in the vortex centre "I Am"<br />
Forgiving all unto their final breath,<br />
Or thread the rubble, nurturing and kind,<br />
Abiding in Jesus, mission and mind.<br />
<br />
<br />Charles Van Gorkomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00886831302245832973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6266204644472382711.post-8550405343962144352013-12-18T09:21:00.000-08:002013-12-18T09:21:45.279-08:00To The Vortex Of ChristmasJesus Lamb of God,<br />
Jesus on whom the Spirit-like Dove descends,<br />
Jesus in whose vortex<br />
Every star and planet,<br />
In whose vortex every galaxy spins,<br />
<br />
Lamb,<br />
Dove,<br />
Holy mystery,<br />
Terrifying beauty,<br />
From the centre of all that is<br />
You come with<br />
Words of love<br />
For every individual of humankind.<br />
<br />
Made flesh,<br />
A mist, a vapour,<br />
A sacrifice,<br />
Wings twinkling like bells<br />
In the sunlight,<br />
<br />
A lamb,<br />
Bleeding on the altars<br />
Of our rebellion,<br />
You visit earth<br />
By human child,<br />
Evading just long enough<br />
Our forceps and knives<br />
To leave us words of salvation,<br />
<br />
Sweet resonance of angel choirs,<br />
Reconcile by innovation<br />
By love and forgiveness<br />
Guilty man and Holy God.<br />
<br />
Forgive us O Lord,<br />
So bringing peace,<br />
By your Mercy redeem us.<br />
<br />
Light that sings<br />
From the centre of the universe,<br />
Our hearts shall be filled<br />
With your song.<br />
<br />Charles Van Gorkomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00886831302245832973noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6266204644472382711.post-61795136294876427192013-12-16T21:51:00.000-08:002013-12-16T21:51:23.589-08:00Like ChristmasStone Of Stumbling,<br />
Rock Of Offense,<br />
You are the light<br />
Every Christmas tree<br />
celebrates.<br />
<br />
Lightening Rod Of Wrath,<br />
You are the Candle<br />
that lit the candle<br />
in my window.<br />
<br />
Rose Of Sharon,<br />
Jessie's Root,<br />
O Promised One,<br />
As before, soldiers<br />
Look to abort your coming<br />
This time in your people,<br />
<br />
Word Made Flesh,<br />
Greater your grace to us all<br />
Than the guillotine.<br />
<br />
Catacombs are ready<br />
To be populated again<br />
<br />
Pens are sharpened,<br />
Ink mixed, parchment unrolled,<br />
Thankful records of your mercies<br />
In flourish and flowers are recorded.<br />
<br />
This is Christmas,<br />
For those who have not forgotten,<br />
String the lute,<br />
Celebrate Jesus born Saviour<br />
Of all who will to be saved.<br />
<br />
Creator of the world,<br />
You came to us,<br />
You came in us,<br />
Will come with a million candles<br />
for us again!Charles Van Gorkomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00886831302245832973noreply@blogger.com3