Category Archives: poetry

Saint Lucy’s Day

An Advent meditation for the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio Friday, December 13, 2013 I remember learning, from John Donne’s Nocturnall, that S Lucie’s day was the shortest, the darkest, “the yeares midnight,” as he would have it. It took me … Continue reading

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Christ the King

The honest thief Don’t tell me you are saving me while we hang here side by side in searing pain under a searing sun; don’t talk to me of gardens of ease where mercy falls down like a river when … Continue reading

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Hoping and praying

Illuminated by hope, prayer chatters across the garden fence between earth and heaven, clouding the air with gossipy details… When hope has set beyond the horizon, prayer retreats into the house, slams the door, draws down the shades,  unwilling to submit to … Continue reading

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Responding to a Sadducee

Resurrection is not “a conjuring trick with bones,”* nor is the resurrection a reality-tv show about the life of seven brothers and their unnamed widow-sister-wife Resurrection is not undone by the cynicism of the resurrected one blinking, bewildered in the … Continue reading

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Be Still

I am Lazarus, lying still. In the whitewashed tomb even time stops running, runs down, stops. The air is still, unstirred by breath of life; deep dark unbroken by flashing eye, or a rogue smile. I am Lazarus, numb, unfeeling, … Continue reading

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Praying alone

The writing was on the wall outside: the service ended hours ago; the people gone to their Sunday dinners, families, fire sides. The church empty, gaping open, sat stone cold and silent as the grave, its pews petrified, unforgiving, its … Continue reading

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All Hallows Eve

Reaching through the darkness in the long, dark night, a soul might lose it way, fall away, if not for the light, beckoning. All in white they stand before the throne of light, shining through the hollow pumpkins, porchlights, tealights, singing softened … Continue reading

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Prayers, overheard

Each stood away from the other, his face turned anyway but there, no meeting of eyes for these two, let alone hearts, minds. One looked up to heaven, his prayer belying his blindness to the other, “Thank God I am … Continue reading

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Back and forth

How long, Lord, how long? The days are surely coming; God will not delay. How long, Lord, before justice rolls like a river? God will not delay. How long, Lord, how long? Pray without ceasing, knowing the days are coming….

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Brought to you by:

I wish I could give you the details. I’m a little hazy on them myself. I can tell you that today was brought on entirely by prayer. It wasn’t the words, God knows, nor the miniscule, mustard-seed faith that wrote … Continue reading

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