Threads

We were given
Threads of wonder.

We were given
Lines of joy.

We were given
Hope and wonder.

We were given
Life with toys.

Dashing, wondering, finding life
O, so very like a knife.

In the light we wondered truly
If the dark ere unruly,

Should upon us crash and
Shatter, leave us with a bang or clatter.

Then benighted, friendly we
Found that life collected fee.

Now beneath the crimson waves
My soul, my heart, with stones is paved.

Absence

"If we cannot "practice the presence of God," it is something to practice the absence of God, to become increasingly aware of our unawareness till we feel like men who should stand beside a great cataract and hear no noise, or like a man in a story who looks in a mirror and finds no face there, or a man in a dream who stretches out his hand to visible objects and gets no sensation of touch. To know that one is dreaming is to be no longer perfectly asleep..."
C. S. Lewis ~ The Four Loves

he saw

"It was a moment that would live with Wheeler for the rest of his life, for he saw his father then as he had at last grown old enough to see him, not only as he declared himself, but as he was.
Wendel Berry ~ "Thicker Than Liquor" (1930)

Gifts

had i envisioned
the wonder;

had i dreamed
all the dreams,

i might have thought,
and rightly,
that time's sweet
shadow had
wrongly taken
what it cannot
give.

But, i have not.

and so, I see
what I do have
and rejoice.

life has done
queer things.

No Matter.

God's Grace is Sufficient.

To forget is a gift not given

There is, I think,
A cavity within
the soul of me.

Its size, its shape
Are undefined, and yet,
would I were free.

I'd take my
Little wee small hole
And banish it to sea

If only, ah, if only
this soul of mine
were free.

Sorrow's sodden gifts

Very well, Moscow may not believe in tears, I do.