Poetic
Words for the Soul
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Your
Emotion
Poetic
Words
A
taking and a giving
A hating
and a forgiving
Like black and white
Darkness and light
War and peace
Holes and cheese
Stark contrasts
Total opposites
Total extremes
Pulled apart at the seams
There is no middle ground
There is either lost or found
In the middle is a muddle
Bewitched and befuddled
A balancing act unstable
Like
a two-legged
table
The Zen of mysterious compromise
A recipe for disaster in disguise
The apathy of choosing neither good nor bad
Feeling nothing not glad nor sad
For we can choose to love with all our hearts
To stride boldly forward not in fits and starts
To take passion by the throat
To live - not regurgitate by rote
To sing with every once of breath
To praise God in every moment till death
This is what it means to be free
To cast of binds and to really see
Where the spirit within is leading
To know God's purpose for us: our meaning
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When
is enough enough?
When are the sick too sick?
When are the tough too tough?
When is the fire to hot but
When does it burn with heart?
I
am not afraid to try
or to ashamed to fight
I've heard that pain is good
When it changes you for the best
But when
is enough enough?
When are the hurt too hurt?
When are the strong too strong?
When is the fire to hot but
When does it burn with heart?
I am not afraid to grow
Or too ashamed to change
I hear that God is good
and His plans for us are for the best
And if I could really know this that I've heard
And really know my Father's love
That would be enough
That alone would be enough
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I
am so heart broken to have lost your words
How precious they are
And I have been a fool to lose them
Everywhere I searched
Retracing every step
Asking
each place for this little book
That in my memory is so large
For in it were Your words to little me
That I have lost
Anger, denial and depression
Over this foolish act of mine
Have dominated my emotions
I call out to You to restore what was lost
Will You forgive me for not taking care
of Your gift to me?
I am sore pressed and full of remorse
Can trust be restored?
"Oh my child it is I who have been foolish
For I have let you be fooled into thinking
it is words themselves that are precious
It is not the words but your desire
that is precious
Your desire to be filled from the bottom up
with My Spirit expressed in holy words
Your desire to see others know the truth
To hear through new words what is true."
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Shining
star
I cannot pry you from the sky
For you in space are much too far
Darkened sky
I cannot paint you full of light
For in my grief i am not ready to try
Shining
light
I cannot split your red from blue
For in my fear i have little sight
Darkened blue
I cannot swim in your blue ocean
For now my heart is not strong or true
Shining ocean
I cannot deny you were my mother
For in the womb you were my first notions
Shining mother
I cannot live apart from You
For You my creator are also my Father
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Go
into the good night
For what seems to be night from here
Is really a festival of lights
A festival where you can save me a dance
Go into that good place
A place where unfinished business will be seen
Not to be unfinished at all
A place where what passes for love here
Will be seen as merely
Passes and as preludes
For a love far greater
The all consuming
The all understanding
When all there is
Is you in God
and
God in you
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Arise,
Arise
Do not be all sighs
But blue skies
Loose your soft cries and
Arise, Arise
Stir your heart for worship
Stir your heart for praise
Surrender to His Lordship
In each of your days
Arise, Arise
No more sinful lies
No more compromise
Break the chains and ties and
Arise, Arise
Feel the Father's favor
In everything you do
Taste your Father's flavor
It's pure, it's sweet, it's true
Arise, Arise
No more sinful lies
No more compromise
Break the chains and ties and
Arise, Arise
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Hearing
God's voice
All of a sudden you know
An intuition that on reflection
Feels so right
As right as faith
And questions
Of why do you think that?
Seem out of place
Out of mind
Not based on a
half-forgotten suddenly-remembered
Fact
Not based on anything but
Rightness - the truth
I am all too familiar with
Cocky self-righteous judgments
coming from my self-serving mind
But these sudden intuitions are
as true love and have no pride
They stand on their own
without need for validation
or agreement.
In this way they are intimate.
Coming as gifts
As secrets
Between you and God
that can be told
without ever
touching
their secret
personal
nature
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I
just want to
be seen with you
Lord
Everything
else seems so complicated
With
influences and confluences
With
expanding and then popping
spheres
of influence
Of
each so-in-so
Not
knowing but deciding over me.
Of
emerging facts and attractions
Shouting
"I am most important"
However,
how I am with You
As You see me
Is
surrounded by a sphere indeed
A
sphere like a halo of light
A
golden globe of Your glory in me
A
perfect sphere
Not
like a boiling bubble
abutting
against all and every obstacle
But
as royal gemstone
Each
face and facet
Perfectly
cleaved
By
Your hands.
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Oh
my dearest Father
My dearest one
One
I
write as though in a letter
Sent
from a war torn land
By a soldier in the battle
Writing of my longing to be home again
And not on this front line
Where there is a ghastly smell
of enemy bombs
All to familiar are the black cinders
of fragmented shards
of our good battle plans
Blown up by enemy actions.
My Dear Father
Send reinforcements
Send the mighty men
that wait for your command
Send those who are already spoken for
They are the ones who have sworn
"Send me?"
They shall come
and every eye shall turn
Every tide shall turn
All thoughts like missiles
Heat-seeking missiles
Will seek out the enemy and
destroy it's position.
We will see the hopelessly sick
return to hope.
We will meet the homelessly lost
in the street
And they will return to their
Safe places.
We will find the aimlessly defiant
And they will be given air
And not swear off
what You have for them
But swear to follow
Their new commission:
Send, Call, Urge, Inspire and Restore
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Words
for the poor
They
are not my words
They
are rich words for the poor
That
they may know
the
riches You have for them
Words
of pardon
Words
of promise
Words
are not just words
When
spoken out loud
With
Your power
With
all of Your intention
Without
any lost meaning
Like
a song that is sung
on
a million lips
Taken
up like a tale
told
as testimony in
Every
small circle of friends
We wave our
glorious flags
to
fan this torrent of Your words
Spoken
with immediate truth
Of
things that are and
Things
to come.
Of
the waiting times
And
the receiving times
Of
the best of times
and
the worst of times
Call me with Your very words
Let me hear in them
where the times are going
When You send me
Where I am going
When You call me
What I am knowing
"Stand up and walk"
Said Jesus to the lame
"Stand up and walk"
He says even now to me
Perched with one leg unwilling
to go forward
And the other trying to retreat
Stand up and follow as
sheep follow the young lamb
that is the Lamb of God
The young lamb reborn
new and spotless
I follow without doubting the young
For in Your youth their is
An ageless knowing
Of everything that is good
Before and
Forevermore
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Dog is God reversed
But
not upside down or backwards
But
inside-out
For
do not dogs let all their love show?
Never
a moment of holding back
Or
ruminating on thoughtful compromise.
Only
on the leash and muzzle
By
command
Is
there any restraint on action.
How
fierce a dog's faith
and
how still and simple the inner life
But
how lavish and loving the outer!
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You
have been a long time absent
Where you thinking that absence makes
the heart grow fonder?
That your presence in absentia was
like a well-wishes greeting card
sent by long-distance mail.
But we say come
And make yourself known
And make yourself at home
Let your fears fall away
and step across the threshold
Too long you have had the prideful mark
As last of the hold-outs
As pride comes before a fall
Fall in line and
Come across the line
Drawn so many years ago
And drawn
For you to choose to step across
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As
I sat by the fire watching
the
burning embers die out
Feeling
the fire's warmth depart
And
the chill of the evening come in
Somehow
I knew
There
were to be no other logs
For
this fire. This night.
To
rekindle the blaze would be to stir up
An
unholy fire
That
this evening had come to
a
peaceful and restful close.
Good
Lord, I do not feel the fire's warmth
any
longer
But
I still feel Your warmth.
And
You say,
In
your heart of hearts
That
is where the warmth of this fire
lies
now.
The
passionate burning you feel there
Is
not to be put out
Even
by a flood of tears.
As
I sat by the fireplace
Now
seemingly cold
Suddenly,
I heard the sound of
Many
fires burning with intense light!
A
roar of joyous heavenly worship, I heard
The
roar of the all-consuming fire
That
never dies.
My
child,
You feel that
all around are seeds of destruction
That may grow
into strangling vines
To pull you
down by the ankles
Or from behind.
But I, your
Lord, will prune the vines
To put
everything in good order.
But Lord, You
say You prune the branches.
But what of
Your children that are cut down
in their youth?
And I say, as I
prune the branches
I clip for my
garden the finest flowers.
Do not be
always sad when
a bouquet of flowers is taken
From this
earthly garden
For I have
transplanted their fragrance
to a Heavenly
garden.
And every day,
as I walk in My garden,
The flowers bow
before Me
And it is
beautiful.
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Up
and Down
One moment high. The next is low.
One day without fear. The next, look out below.
Today I climb to the mountain top
The next I trudge and I must stop
Where is staying power to run the course?
Where
is my faith that Your plans are good, of course?
No
struggles with every twist that turns
my thoughts and mind to how it hurts and burns
No lonely moments feeling suddenly alone
No jealous thoughts claiming every gift my own
I love Your winds of favor blowing me ahead
On every pleasurable thing I am more than fed
But now I see dark clouds are here again
A storm to pass thru like a lion's den
I fix my eyes on You as I go forth
A beacon in the storm of unsurpassing worth
I am off the roller-coaster of up and down emotion
An on to the playground merry-go-round in a blur of motion
Like kids in the schoolyard that fear to join the fun
But leap on to the spinning wheel and it is done
Once I am on the world around is blurry
With my friends in a separate world without worry
I see them clearly and hear their shouts of joy
A Hallelujah chorus of "Oh Boy! Oh Boy!"
And in the center of this spinning wheel of friends
A place of stillness and of love without end
In the center is my God, my Rock, my Lord
No up and down at all, but solid as an anchor in the storm.
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New
rains
When will the new rains
come?
I am parched by this dry season
Too long has my walk in the fields
stirred only dust clouds
Stinging the eyes and causing
spasms of coughs
Isolated by this dusty cloud
I cannot even see the ones I love
When will the season of refreshing begin?
My thirst yearns like a cistern that is empty
My dry tongue cleaves to the roof
of my
mouth
and no words come forth
even in prayer.
Sweet prayer your taste will be honey
to my cracked lips
When the rains come first
They come as tears
My crying
though salty not sweet
Releases the dry spaces
Releases emotions into motion
Breaks thru isolation into
Relations
Between the dusty swollen feet
of a lost traveler
And the loving caress
of the man Jesus
who would wash them
Wet only by tears
And dry them with His hair.
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Dancing
Dancing in Your sanctuary
I whose limbs are usually by my side
Was suddenly able to leap and bound up
Up and lifted to another place
Where joy abounds and
Joy leaps
And
when I praised You on my left side
With new dance steps of Your devising
I praised You on my right side
with the same
Each step has its turn
Spontaneous yet
In perfect order
Each step dancing closer to You
Where angels fear to tread
You have led me
To dance with the bold warriors
To dance with now emboldened angels
To dance with calm assurance
That if I do not hold back
I will not be held back
Form knowing
Your Kingdom of Glory.
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Fluidity
Returning to the liquid fluidity
from which we came
Returning to the womb of our birth
Bathed in the warm nourishing waters
Of this ocean of creation
Created in love and from love
Created to be so fluid
To wrap Your goodness around us
Even as we strike out and stray
We cannot punch a gash
Or any rip
In the Holy ocean or Your Love
For always You created us
To be enfolded by Your
Liquid Love -
The many waters of the spirit
of flowing passion
The many waters of the
So many more than seven seas
The seas were stirred by Your
presence on the waters
And all the creatures great and small
Were formed
From the flowing liquid of
emptiness
From the many waters of
Near and immensely far
From the boiling dust
of new suns
And rolling tides of time
and energy
Wrapped together in Your good plan
To make all things -
All things
Perfect in Your love
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The
Story of the Glory
Can we plumb the depths of the glory of God?
On the high seas in a glory storm
Can we even cast an anchor?
Or can we ever even sink beneath the weight of glory
There You are even in the depths
Why do You laugh with a deep laugh?
Nothing is caught in my throat
For from my belly I laughed with You
We gather here to share stories – good stories
Shared around a campfire
The fire rises
The light rises
The warmth rises
Up arching over all
Stretching the heavens
A morning stretch at the very beginning
An evening stretch around the safe circumference
Of the light of the campfire
Stretched until the heavens were opened
And wrent and You descended to us
Your substance is so thick
No matter how stretched
It is not stretched thin
For each Universe of You contains
Enumerable worlds
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