Cost of Discipleship

Bonhoeffer, foremost a pastor,
Pledged allegiance to only one Master.
His actions proved every abstract word
and his sacrificed life insured they were heard.

*************************************************************************************

Day Fourteen:  Write a clerihew. This is a four line poem biographical poem that satirizes a famous person.

I am currently reading  Bonhoeffer   Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy  and so have been thinking about Diedrich Bonhoeffer quite a bit of late.
While this poem is in technical sense a clerihew, it does not satirise the man, and therefore falls short of the “assignment.”

*************************************************************************************

word on a tree

words words words words words
repeated
again
and
again
and again,
till they have no meaning.
empty, empty words.

yet people spit them,
hurl them,
raise them up
and exalt them,
nail them to a tree
and parade them around.

shouting shouting shouting
words.
hollowed out,
infused with dung
and flung
at the opponent,
who was a sister yesterday,
a brother last week.

and now
we all have
mud on our faces
and numb,
angry,
confused hearts
which have forgotten
how to love each other.

lost souls
are we,
all searching
for
that one
unrivalled
word
come down
from the tree.

yea though i

yea
though i walk
though i walk
though i stumble
though i fall

yea
though i despair
in the tyranny of the urgent
in the whining of bloodsuckers

yea
though i drown in coffee and clichés
in an airless crate
battered by window-dressing words

yet
will i close my eyes,
inhale your mercy
and plunge feet-first
into the ocean of your grace

 

****************************************************************

Today I paint with words for the first time in what seems like forever.
Buried over the last few months by the weight of submitting a report (over 800 pages) for accreditation, I have been pummelled by bureaucratic words and been forced to write “blah-blah.”
This morning I allowed myself the indulgence of reading submissions for the poetic challenge at D’verse and was inspired by Sylvia Chan’s painting “New Beginnings.”
(THANK YOU to Mish for hosting and to Sylvia for inspiration!)
I then played hookey for an hour and wrote the above.
Before I return to the last gasps of my odious endeavour, I will post this — with the hope that this new year brings freedom from the heaviness of red-taped weary words.
Here’s to a 2017 filled with frolicsome scribbling.

Words & Memories

Words
try to paint a picture of your being
but no matter how they’re arranged
they cannot capture your heart.

Memories
are like incense —
they linger,
tickling the senses,
but slowly fade.

You are not alive in memories
but that is the place I find you,
so I fan the small fire,
inhaling deeply,
remembering
today.

for dear Rob

This parting
— so final,
so incomplete,
so lopsided,
so confusing.

We spoke,
yesterday —
global politics
and all the things you knew so much more about than I.
You,
inquisitive you,
always poking and prodding and pushing to hold the world in your arms.

No one understood
when you tried to describe the pain.
We guessed and second-guessed,
completing both sides of the conversation.
Only one party satisfied.
But not really.

We saw
but averted our eyes
and didn’t see.
You knew.
That interloper,
once part of you,
broke away and declared independence.

You began to slip away.
Terrified
and then tired,
you let go
and
fell through a transitive window,
vanishing
in deed
though not in word.

Today
I light a candle
and pray
that you were caught
on the other side.

Tiny Us

Tiny us

really

when we stand beneath

the velvety blue after sunset

and watch the twinkling hosts

open their eyes, one by starry one.

 

See the reflection off Jupiter,

the dazzling cast of Mars,

the thrown light of Venus,

and know that we too circle the sun

 

inhabiting one moment —

one heartbeat

in the pulse of time.

spinning savage

circles in circles in circles
ever circling
permanent vertigo
off kilter
the planet strays
one degree
and we lawyer
waiting for the next.
Shoes
and socks
scattered over the face
every place
unbalanced
discord
this cord
will hold a fine,
strong knot

quick
kick the can away

**************************************************************

This piece is very different for me.
I was inspired by björn over at dVerse,
but I am not sure I got the futurism thing down.