The Search Continues

Drawing its timelessness encapsulated
As from an apothecary’s jar,
The Word stretched me beyond horizons
To give me a sense of God.

For what of Godliness
Unless it be unfettered, unchained,
Free of horizons constraining mortal men?

Its good news changed this mortal’s course,
(Having swallowed, but being swallowed in return)
And hearing Him, who was more than philosopher, say,
“Know the truth,” I have searched.

But the search continues,
For somewhere, unbound and never resting,
The father to my soul urges onward,
To walk the path free of mortal constraints,
To be like Him,
Unfettered and unchained.

A Couple (More) Poems

My Compromise

For five years, or so,

These lips have touched no meat.

But on Thanksgiving Day

I load up on gravy

Made with the drippings

Of a sacrificial turkey.

By this, I tell myself,

I didn’t kill the bird,

But only performed

A kind of liposuction,

Which, in the final analysis,

Might have been exactly

What the creature had needed.

Time and Space

We are then weightless souls

Whisked away at light’s speed,

Finally seeing what had been there all along,

Hidden behind a façade:

Time is but another location.

That’s when the pieces fit,

And we’re privy to past and future—

Including the narrow corridors of mortality—

Suddenly earning us full knowledge,

Rendering us unable to suppress the notion:

“Aha!”

To that future self, I speak:

Don’t judge me as I do now,

With a disapproving eye that belabors each point,

Recollecting the infinite number

And irreconcilable costs of my shortcomings.

Let’s agree, instead:

Yes, I wield unrighteous dominion

And my faults are limitless,

But somewhere beyond time,

Against all odds and expectations,

I am you.

A Couple of Poems

Here are a couple of poems I recently wrote that depict what I believe to be completely justifiable ways to relate to whatever we call God.  Acknowledging that faith is not a perfect knowledge and admitting that we are riddled with doubt is a good first step.  Rejecting the view that God is jealous and vengeful is a good second.  To do so would help render us more honest and forgiving.

Only Human

By my electric

Involuntary word,

Unseen legions rally

To battle the clandestine intruders

And renegade factions

That would destroy this vessel.

Making possible a storybook universe,

Embedded in dreams

And impenetrable longing,

Peopled by the captured and constructed,

Who cry for attention,

Then whisper in equal measure:

Truth and lies.

They have sentience

And also free will,

Capable of posing

That most disconcerting of questions:

Why should you be any different?

Maybe God, too, is an impulse

In the synapse of a greater consciousness.

Brushing Up to Godliness

I commanded, “No,”

But still he leaped,

Then whirled in midair,

Blinded and sneezing,

Frothing from the mouth.

The skunk wandered off,

Unbothered,

Just another day

For a being possessed with power

Worthy of a comic book character.

It was a bad morning to be without a leash.

Hand to collar,

We staggered to the nearest pond,

Barely able to breathe,

Rubbing the stink and the sting

From our tear-filled eyes.

Oh, I dunked him—

Be assured that I dunked him good—

Muttering all along,

“You damn dog.”

On the way home—

He in back,

Muzzle on paws,

Sad eyes only now opening

To the possibility of new

And disquieting hazards—

I lowered the window

And laughed into the passing breeze.

So what if the Jeep will never be the same?

Will I condemn the penitent

For his most endearing

Instincts and preoccupations:

Childlike enthusiasm

And boundless curiosity?

Perfection is unwarranted.

Give me quirkiness instead,

And other sweet foibles,

In all their glorious variety.

If so blessed,

Laughter will accompany me

Everywhere I go.