Poetic Words for the Soul
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          Your Emotion           Poetic Words
Loss of a loved one Eternal Life bereavement poem
Painfully shy At a Party youth poetry
Complacent Send Me the Seekers Christian poetry
Doubting over-zealous worship Struck Down devotional
Needing Rest Lay It Down prophetic poetry
Emotional roller-coaster Poured Out prophetic poetry
Uncontrollable Uncontrollable Love prophetic poetry
Physical pain that resists prayer Come Union healing poetry
Fear/Guilt in disappointing others Expectations men's poetry
Drink/Drugs/Sex to avoid pain Loosing the Stalker desperate poetry
Prayerful Prepare My Heart devotional
Peaceful and loving Music to Your Ears inspirational poetry
Asking to be filled Pluck Out My I devotional
Reflecting on the past My Calling inspirational poetry
Angry at authority For a Friend in Jail prophetic poetry
Not wanting to say goodbye Shalom Hebrew poetry
Needing God's assurance As Sure As Creation prophetic poetry
Ready for glory Ever Increasing Light inspirational poetry
                              



We do not fade away into the good night
Like the  last ember of a dying fire
We do not whimper out or melt
Like the wicked witch of Oz
We do not go out at all
We are instead as a cocooned one
Ready to emerge
On new butterfly wings
As a new song arises from a sad haunting melody
So too will be the shape of our new eternal life
As champions lifted high
To celebrate victory over death
Won for us and in us on the Cross
and in His glorious Resurrection
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Taking baby steps I fearfully stumbled
Where the party animals were taking bounding strides
"Lord help me", I cried
"Not to be eaten alive by ferocious attacks"

Like in a nightmare I wore, in my mind, only a diaper
and I could not stop crying
Hoping only not to soil myself.
Hiding in the corner of the dark room
 A perfect stranger sat besides me
With trembling in my heart I listened as he spoke
"I know no one here. I don't even know myself"
"But you I trust - I trust to listen"
My mind yelled out " Get away from this crazy person"
"Protect yourself"
But I could not move.  He spoke again
"Do you know the pain of life?
The pain of loosing everything"
Suddenly I saw myself take his hands and say
"You have not lost everything.
You have everything that is precious
everything that you need
And here in our meeting you have what you desire
A friend.
We sat there, both in shock for having spoken
But also with a warm, cozy, this-was-meant-to-be feeling
And we talked of how small baby steps are meant to be
How a toddler will fall and cry
 But will always learn to walk
Send me the seekers
Those who seek more of You
With all of their heart of hearts
They may still be comfortable
Still they must have more
They may be soulful
Still their soul asks to be filled
Many roads lead to this place of need
But only one road leads out to a better place
Many are in need indeed
But only a few are truly seeking that one road
Even now many sit in their place of need
They sit drawing everything to themselves
Drawing close to their possessions
Drawing close to their thoughts
The sayings they have lived by for years
Seeking comfort in these things
But no longer seeking
Your way that lies beyond our ways
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What is worship that
I might lie prostrate on the ground
Will I not feel like a rug
To be trod upon?
Will I not feel like a foreigner
Who has been mesmerized
by an ancient culture?
Who can these people be
that throw themselves
before their holy one?
Where is their dignity
their decorum or decency?

And then I was stuck down
and laid flat
Not with any judgment for doubt
was I struck
Not by fear or paralysis
or anything that is not of You
I was struck by your sovereign
Act of power
A power that is more real
than my doubts
A power that is so holy
that I could not stand up
to receive it
And yet I have received it
As a gift - as a treasure
As the spirit of the living God
The spirit of Adonai
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Your dedication to serve God is amazing
Your determination to be fierce in a new way
Not fierce with violence
But fiercely strong in the face of trouble
To do and be your best
To live each day obedient
And still God would say to
Lay this burden down
Lay it down so you can listen to His voice
His voice is for you - for you uniquely
For each one who loves Him
He will give a task
And a place in the Kingdom
A task to create
with your mind and with your hands
And with the love placed in you
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You have been lifted so high that from this distance
There are no cracks in the broken world
All there is - is a beautiful blue world
Painted with a rainbow of clouds
And you are filled with the joy of God's creation
And then - a desire to return to the broken world
and make it home.
Return to a place where fault-lines and fractures
criss-cross the ground
Where earthquakes cause giant upheavals
displacing people from their first love
But it is a home where even angels live
Where the Spirit of the most high has come to dwell
Where in desolation there is consolation
Richly made, deeply dug
Not tasting thin or week
But brewed for an eternity of lifetimes
Steeped in his very presence
Poured out for you every day.
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Will you not let me love you?
How you insist on taking on everything for yourself
As though the self is the ultimate and the only
I know you rebuke all your personal power thoughts
Only to find these thoughts reeking back again
You do not control these thoughts
Anymore than you control the world
Consent to be uncontrollable and then
You can let me love you
Not for your control
or for the humility of your thoughts
Not for any proud banner you fly
in the name of Jesus
But for your uncontrollable storms
The raging and the subsiding
of who you are.
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Pain that takes my breath away
That punches and stabs
I force myself through clenched teeth to cry
I will take this no more
In the name of Jesus, Son of God
Pain - be gone and never come again
My shout punched out between teeth
and my mouth opened wide
Letting this battle whoop stab the air
Resounding everywhere

"I am gentle" says the Lord, "I am gentle"
But where is your fierceness?
If I were to look on your face would I see a fierceness
Would I see you wield a battle ax
ready to cut off any part of me that is not part of you?

"I am gentle", says the Lord.
"Fair thee well. My gentle one.
My one who was born to look pain in the eye
Not with a steel determination but
with a thoughtful grace.
Fair thee well"

 Waves of sandpaper and tar paper
rasped across my skin.
Until I felt shorn
As a gaping hole.
Gasping with the pain of being reborn.
Arrogance was torn away
And anger at undeserved pain
Cynical fatalism, detached apathy,
My mind-first attitude
Passive-aggressive "heal-me-now" proclamations
All the negative minuses
of these wasted emotions
All the darkened blackness
of these binding thoughts
Poured out like a pot boiling over
A cauldron of seething poisons.

"I am good", says the Lord
"And all I have for you is good"
"Drink this."
"It is cool and nourishing"
"It soothes.  It heals"
"It is from Me"
"It is Me"

Taking the cup of communion
My prayer:
Come Union
Come Union with all that is good
Come Union in the holy rite of betrothal
to my love and gentle Savior
Who knows great pain and
Knows, above all, great joy.
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I didn't see it.
I wasn't there.
I'm innocent.
So I yelled to my accusers
To those pointing a finger at my guilt.
But no one understood or believed
And I was singled out for blame.

This blame game is hurting me deeply
It is as though I have been nailed on a public billboard
For all to see

At last in my pain I confessed
I wasn't there because I was hiding
Hiding from everything and everyone
Hiding because I feared being made fun of
and accused of incompetence

But the very thing I feared is happening
I hung my head and braced for another blow
But no blow came.
Tears ran down my face
And I did not have the energy to wipe them away
And then
The one who would accuse me
My father
Wiped my tears away
with his own handkerchief
My son, he said, you have never disappointed me
I expect, that of the many seeds planted in you
That a few will grow and flourish
Which seeds they are I will let you choose

And then
My father cried
And tears ran down his face
Taking his handkerchief
I wiped them away
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Waiting and whining
Wasting and whimpering
Wishing for the pain to leave
Why me?
Is there even a when
It will leave?
This pain has become a person
A person of twisted character
This pain that follows me like a stalker
If I could shoot the stalker dead I would
The stalker and I we travel together
We went to bars
Where I could drink poison
Hoping the stalker would drink too and die
We went to the fanciest of clubs
At its uptown upstairs venue
Where everything and everyone
Was dressed in pretense
Surely here, in this crowd of pleasers,
I can loose my pain
and leave the party with anyone
even a stranger.
But here too my pain kept me from
smiling and lying
I left thinking at this place
Only liars are invited

Descending down the staircase
that led from the club
I fell
and for a long time there was no pain
and no feeling at all
A black out.

Waking and wondering
Waking and whispering
Where am I?
What have I become?
And then I heard her voice
My nurse - a hospital nurse
"Don't worry.
Everything is going to be just fine"
And then another voice
Mary - my friend from school
"I'm so glad to see that you're OK"
Another voice - Jennifer my sister
"You know I love you"
Another voice - one I did not know
"I have seen your pain"
"I have seen your stalker"
"And when that thing saw me - it left"

Opening my eyes
I saw me nurse, my friend and my sister.
I did not see the other one
Who knew me so well
But when I did not see the stalker
I knew my mysterious guest
was Jesus
And He had come as well
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Prepare my heart, Lord, for you alone
In my loneliness you come for me alone
There is nothing else
But empty space
And you are there.
Filling the vacuum with
Your lovely presence

I am for you alone.
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You are showing me what peace looks like
A peace of the non-anxious spirit
From out of the cacophony of sounds
In each person I meet
I hear a sweet single melody

This single strand sings a tune of its own love
And I listen with a tender caress
Responding to its highs and lows

And I know that all around this single strand
Are immense sounds of bugles and bagpipes
Of bellows and the banging of beats
But for this peaceful moment it does not matter
There is all the time in the world
To hear each minor and major

With great love I let in other sounds
Sounds that grow together
To swell with a passionate resonance

How I love the harmonies both sad and joyful
The wonderful chords full of wonder

The slow and low
Firm and foundational root
Of each step in progression

The thrilling trill of running water notes
Of fast streams of notation
Bursting forth in many words with excitement
All in time together
All at the right time
With downbeats and upbeats

This is your peace that now is given
A new understanding
To hear and to take in
Knowing that every person sings
And each song is music
Music to Your ears.
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Fill me. Fill me.
Until there is no more me.
There is only You.
 Love me. Love me.
Until there is no more me.
There is only You.

 I will pluck out my I
And there will be no more "my"

Now always We
A royal We of the trinity
A We including me
A We including we
We the wee ones of the We
We desire and we feel and we are
We sing and we pray
and we become more
We live and we die
But We never die
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Always I loved the sweetness of conversation
Of stories shared
Of drama with the good telling
And the shared experience

Of thinking outside the box in a new way
Of unexpected kindness from strangers
I loved when my father would talk to strangers
The safe feeling of meeting a new friend
Who does not know what masks I wear

Of making new music in harmony with others
Of singing an old song that is new to me
By simply following with the flow
Of feeling anointed by inspiration
Not afraid of dark feelings knowing
The power of that inspiration was good

Dreams of being a peacemaker
Being to others a gentle, safe person
Of being a choir boy - like an angel
Of being a poet - emotional and tragic
As my father said of me "Still waters run deep"
Of deep math abstractions and
Undiscovered science truths revealed

Of belonging to a free spirit generation with love
Of truly hearing people and seeing them
For who they are - appreciated beyond words
Feeling a connection

Of striking a chord with mere words
That resonate with others
Resonate and grow larger then ever imagined
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You are waiting in the dark
Waiting for release
To be free of all the many rules

Rules for restriction
Rules for constriction

You need a friend
That will not judge you.
A friend that will understand
And not put on any more conditions
for his friendship.
Who respects you for your anger
at the system.

There is a God
He is the friend
who you are waiting for.
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Shalom my friend. Peace be with you.
Shalom.
Has both a hello and a goodbye
For every hello there is a goodbye
With a promise of another hello.

Peace gives and receives as love does
Peace comes from a love without words
Except the ones
Hello and Goodbye and then Hello again
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How sure is My hope for you?
My hope that you will be with Me.
As sure as creation
That is how sure My hope is for you.

How sure is my love for you?
My love for you
The you who is
My You in you
As sure as creation
That is how sure My love
It is for you.

I shouted My love
But you did not hear
Thinking My voice was but thunder.

I yelled My words to you.
And you did not hear
Thinking my voice was noise.

So I spoke quietly in barely a whisper
And when you thought My voice was nothing
And heard nothing.
I spoke
And out of nothing came
The wonderful world of creation
And you heard.

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We sing "This little light of mine"
But this light does not stay small: it ever increases

There is a velvet cloak mantle
that we share
A gold and amber light-filled cloud
Like a glory storm
Filling the earth
When His bride is ready
She will encompass all this glory
He will be pleased to dwell with us
He will be fully revealed
We will be the setting for His jewel
He is wanting the perfect marriage
So we will be a perfect match
As living stones.

Search your heart
Search your soul
When you find Jesus there
You will search no more.

An ever increasing light
An ever expanding fire
Ever more glorious
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