Morning Devotions

They follow you in quietness and peace.
We see their foot prints  wetly drawing on
To climb the grassy hill among the trees,
The dew, grey frosty mist and breaking dawn.
Each breath a prayer a praise, a wonder song,
The night of sleep now over, morning come.
All birds and flowing waters sing along,
Defeated shadows to the light succumb
With hooded hearts and folded hands they pray,
While rising sun plays lightly in the trees,
And still they bow and bless the coming day,
Friend and foe alike their intercessories.
Unsung your living saints, your prophets, kings,
The cosmos with their morning anthem rings.

Of Five Smooth Stones

There are Words that lie in wait,
Prophetic Hunters covert in copses,
Camouflaged silence
Waiting to be whispered,
Ready to bring down the sky,
Salvation in a blinding blink,
New birth after the rushing water,
A cry of hope and fear,
The bloody indignity.

Not all the words have been spent,
The purse is still full,
In this world
There are  giants left to kill.
A flash mob slinging praise
Shall bring down the glory
In the great Dumbfounding. .

What Is Christmas 2012

Christmas is the celebration
of an assault of love
upon a universe that did not know,
not enough to care.

An attack on Christmas
is an attack on the very foundations
of eternally amazing love.

The deep isolating unfamiliarity
of outer space,
its cold unfeeling fact
is all that is left
without the assault
of Christmas love.

Meditate on the love
that brings our only
salvation.

Christmas is the time.

Seeking You

There is a longing,
Originating on planet earth,
Tendrils that drift
Throughout the universe,
Seeking something,
Seeking you,
Jesus.

When you return,
Will you remember me,
We cry in other words,
confused as we are--
We love you, we need you,
Remember this beautiful planet
You made.

You visited once,
And left us Christmas.

You even live in your people
Who remind us of your personality,
Nature.

Remember us,
We killed you
And don't know why,
We need salvation still,
This beautiful planet you made,
Remember us,
We need your rescue,

Our hearts were made for you,
Everything else
Is a memory shadow,
a broken template.
Surely soon shall be your return
and the new age begin!

Magi's Journey

looked for beauty,
found her and lost her again and again.
looked in places she had never been,
Found life in a stable,
A way,
A truth,
A child's hope,
Found you.

Last Night

In The Christmas Lullaby,
John Rutter's masterpiece,
During the cradling Ave Maria,
while the women's singing soared,
caressing the polished wood
and stain glass windows,
I heard Jesus joining in,
his gentle voice filling the universe,
felt his love for his dear mother,
for all the mothers,
and motherhood,
one of his
perfect Christmas gifts
to us all.

The Spring

I can take you to a spring
On the borders of an old lawn
In the Island hills,
Lost in bushes above a small pool,
A woodland pool
That revels overgrown
In repose of lilies,
Reflections of clouds
and never goes dry,
Fed by a seeping spring.

Above, this spring rises
In a small stone cistern
I stumbled across,
Now clogged with moss and dead leaves,
Branches, mud and forest mold,
beside a rusty lamp post
Deep in the trees.

Whose were the hands
That laid the stones,
The dream of it,
Who remembers the purpose
For which it was built?

Yet a debris fettered spring
Begs to run fresh again,
Boiling up from its caverns
abundantly
Fresh and clear.

I remember asking ,
Those dry and thirsty years ago,
Of one in a desert, fasting,
He gave me a long drink
from his flowing crystal spring.

I have never been thirsty again.

Now contemplating this choked place,
Something of flowing
In me needs,
More than understands.

Something human longs,
Needs the world
A garden paradise,
Where every spring wells
Abundantly,
Feeding streams,
Fresh and cool and clear,
Where no one ever thirsts again.

Stable Studies

My little free ebook of Christmas poems, always growing a little every year called Stable Studies for December.  Please download and enjoy!

You

You squeeze cement like a sponge
Grace like oil wick rises
Storms of electrons
At your fingertips ignite
A quiet flame
The light of the world

Consent

Seeds of beauty

Wait to germinate  in the fruit

Of consent.

Earth consents to the sun,

Dawn gladdens heavy hearts,

Water consents to the sky

Clouds silver shadow

The sea.

Shore consents,

Waves sculpt

Junipers and stone.

She consents,

A son is born

Who consents,

Saves all the world

Who will believe.

Such love, 

Falling of leaves

To Autumn's attending,

Eternal love,

Consenting.