after Deuteronomy 4:9Take care to watch yourself closely so as Not to forget the things your eyes have seen, Your ears have heard, the things your heart’s heart has Received and interwoven in your being. You must remember daily, or you run The risk of losing more than what you’ve known. Unknowing runs to eyes and ears undone; And hearts will shineContinueContinue reading “Deuteronomic: A Christian Poet’s Manifesto”
Author Archives: Benjamin White
Acoustic Body
Delicate hairsof my ear lobesQuiver gladlywith bulb whispersBreaking blindlyfrom beneath the ground. EyelidsClosing ‘roundMourning dove’s minor thirdbring blood’s brightness to the harmonious humof all eyes see. KneecapsShivering with water’sRipple trill, thoseDazzled bonesEmbraced and embracingWhat peaks must tell. SternumSyncing with eachBore hole beat;the flickers are makingTheir signatureand singing this feast. Rough skinof my elbowsShushing sotto voceBelowContinueContinue reading “Acoustic Body”
False Spring Birds
in Lancaster County, PA These birds woke up as rain lay down to sleepTo scatter dreams upon this false-spring field;February alive from somewhere deep, Reviving early with a hope to yieldThe harvest sooner than it has before.A warm wind seeping from beyond my prayersTo fill the feathers for these birds to soarFrom stubble into windbreakContinueContinue reading “False Spring Birds”
Kainos Ktisis: Second Draft
I went to a conference last week where I met a bunch of poets. I got to read a previous version of this poem for a group and got some feedback. Usually not the result of an editing session, but this poem has been expanded. Kainos Ktisis for Francis Quarles A fourth dimension that’s muchContinueContinue reading “Kainos Ktisis: Second Draft”
How Long Love Holds
Only to grow so old in love as these Beloveds in the rest stop parking here! For love that lasts much longer than my knees, For tenderness exceeding vision clear, The chance to prove that I could go so far! A husband who so carefully prepared The chair his wife would wheel in from the car. I watched him get it from the trunkContinueContinue reading “How Long Love Holds “
Of Water and of Wind
After John 3 A long-legged spider Just descended from the trees Suspended by her thread, She dipped her head in water And rose up As quickly as she came Gathering hungrily With forelegs, the thread And her body, Deftly ascending back into the branches, Cradling between her head and thorax A single drop of water ContinueContinue reading “Of Water and of Wind”
Hospital Notes #3: What a wonder to be wrong!
I was called to pray for a baby who was dying. When I am on call, I take the Pastoral Care Department cell phone home with me, so I had forty-five minutes to get to the hospital. I told that to the nurse, quickly dressed, and started flying toward I-95. When I arrived in theContinueContinue reading “Hospital Notes #3: What a wonder to be wrong!”
Hospital Notes #2: Children are much harder to hate
People often ask me if my job is hard. I am a chaplain in a children’s hospital and they presume difficulty. “How can you stomach all that suffering?” — the subtext of their honest question: “Do you like your job?” My answer: “I couldn’t say I like it; but I think it pleases God, andContinueContinue reading “Hospital Notes #2: Children are much harder to hate”
Hospital Notes #1: You’re a bigger deal than you think.
I state my esteem for you because I believe that we too, even as strangers, can participate in the love-life of all things, the center of the universe, God, whenever we love.
Merry Epiphany, You Beautiful, Beloved Human!
The magi were the first to name Jesus as Messiah. This changed them. We, who receive the name beloved from Jesus are namers like them.
Being Mindful of God Being Mindful of Me
You know that famous story by O’Henry called the Gift of the Magi? On Christmas Eve, Della Young discovers that she has only $1.87 to buy a present for her husband Jim. She visits the nearby shop of a hairdresser who buys Della’s long hair for $20. Della then uses the money to buy aContinueContinue reading “Being Mindful of God Being Mindful of Me”
Making Room for the Promise
Expanding Promises Advent is the season of promises — those that have been fulfilled in Jesus and those He gave us himself. Advent means “arrival.” The word comes to us from the Latin, “Adventus”, which is a translation of the Greek, “Parousia.” The fancy words don’t matter to me as much as their difference. HowContinueContinue reading “Making Room for the Promise”
Between Some Birds and Me
Between Some Birds and Me Upon driving past a heron at sixty miles per hour on November 29, 2022 There was a time when herons would arrest Me on my path. For more than moment’s I Would stop to swallow all this beauty’s best Before it loped away. My widened eyes, Too greedy for a goodly view, approached In heart andContinueContinue reading “Between Some Birds and Me”
No Need to Be Jacob Marley
No Need to Be Jacob Marley for Joel There is no need for me to be Jacob Marley, no shaking of chains in the night, No cold wandering moon to partake of, No threats to spit nor fatal portent cite. Because the ghost they have made is much worse Than I could be in my outpour of wrath. No, IContinueContinue reading “No Need to Be Jacob Marley”
Remembered Forgetting
Remembered Forgetting for Briggs How many ghosts live mostly lost in livesLike ours? Some long and lasting, others brief,These friendships, journeys that do not arrive. Ways can divide by pride and bitter grief;Ambition, chance, desire; joy and neglect;And someone who was-is someone is not,Well, not to me………………………………..So I did not expectTo see him dead, forContinueContinue reading “Remembered Forgetting”
How do you know the difference between your intuition and God speaking to you?
When you think of an exploding volcano, what do you think of? Is there a plume of smoke and ash rising into the sky or is there flowing lava in your mind? These are what I think of as the most iconic images of a volcano. And every volcano can do either one. These twoContinueContinue reading “How do you know the difference between your intuition and God speaking to you?”
Becoming a Pilgrim in the Slow Lane
What did the Delaware driver who paid extra for their license plate to say “REMEMBR” want me to recall when they chose those letters for the back of their car? Did they want me to remember Jesus? Because I did. I remembered him like a flood. His face was engraved on the back of thatContinueContinue reading “Becoming a Pilgrim in the Slow Lane”
Glassy Beams: A Corona of Sonnets
Remembering a childhood punishment and dreaming of the pure in heart who shall see God, I wrote this corona of sonnets which hopes to offer a continuous path through the passion of my brokenness, the hope of my human capacity for singleness of will, and the vision of my very self through the loving eyesContinueContinue reading “Glassy Beams: A Corona of Sonnets”
Getting off the Track to Murder
Where did the church get this idea that we needed to be hard — like we’re some teacher with a ruler ready to rap your knuckles if you get out of line? People are scared of the church because it is too often like all the other institutions that are constantly watching us. We’re alwaysContinueContinue reading “Getting off the Track to Murder”
Earth and Sky Making Love Between My Head and Heart
Aggrilacious odor (Greek and Latin concur) Of earth-goddess veins; “Petrichor” numbered and named by Joy (Isabel, “pledged to Yah”), With Homer riding high (Homer, also “pledge”), Receiving tribute From Richard’s study wall (rīk-hardu, “king strong”). The lengths we have gone To know and name all we know; To reign like so many Richards Over everyContinueContinue reading “Earth and Sky Making Love Between My Head and Heart”
Today, if you hear his voice 