This is more of a late March poem, but it fit the brisk morning today where I live. It speaks to an inner frigidity that needs constant warming. It’s a cold world, but I hope you can receive with me some warmth if and when you need it. Spring Freeze My birds have all abandonedContinue reading “Spring Freeze”
Category Archives: prayer
A Prayer to the Unflinching East
I’m letting Thomas Keating lead me through Lent this year with a collection of his meditations called Journey to the Center. Each day’s reading includes a prayer. “Deliriously Happy Light” began one of the prayers. “Deliriously” is an interestingly two iambed word, so, naturally, it began a sonnet. Keating’s work as a writer and communityContinue reading “A Prayer to the Unflinching East”
Imaginative Prayer: Am I a cosmic dolphin?
“I was kind of like a cosmic dolphin,” I said to my friend as I described the waking dream I had while meditating. Angela Lam of Jesus Collective had led us in a time of imaginative prayer. She had painted us a scene in which Jesus was present in some way that I forget, butContinue reading “Imaginative Prayer: Am I a cosmic dolphin?”
Writing Through This Holy Week
Catch up on Holy Week with me, or just see if any of the images that came to me so far each morning also are coming to you. Holy Week Sonnet Number 7 – Holy Saturday April 3, 2021 Today I read part of the Gospel of Nicodemus, also called the Acts of Pilate. ChaptersContinue reading “Writing Through This Holy Week”
WORD-ing
I have successfully kept one of my New Year’s resolutions to my birthday. It feels good. I describe the resolution in this video I shot for Circle of Hope’s midweek reflection #sundaysarenotenough. WORD-ing makes things more real. It makes my insides more real to me. It makes me more of who I am, and better,Continue reading “WORD-ing”
Poolside – a love poem to many moments and a prayer
Poolside Heat baking up Through terry cloth towel — Drying me up as the sun dried me down. And red-yellow dancers Amorphously moved Between the backs of my eyelids and eyes. Seal slick hair, Tufting up in the air As I turned back from fish into boy. Sometimes so hot If I lay there tooContinue reading “Poolside – a love poem to many moments and a prayer”
Bible Verse for When I’m Feeling Down?
Many people turn to the Bible when they don’t know where else to turn. Even my friends who haven’t been to a church meeting in years, or maybe ever, often revere the power of this holy book. That’s one benefit of living in a culturally Christian country. The Bible is everywhere, and that’s not suchContinue reading “Bible Verse for When I’m Feeling Down?”
Palm Sunday at Midnight in Washington DC
Washington DC is not solely responsible for the numbed-out, gotta-buy-my happiness-and-can’t, bickering-by-default, coercive domination we all suffer as 21st century human beings. Our despair about the way the world is going wasn’t born in the Capitol building, but it is a big bright target in the skyline of our thinking and feeling that is worthContinue reading “Palm Sunday at Midnight in Washington DC”
Swimming Under Niagara Falls with Jesus
At the Lent retreat this weekend we were led to practice prayer of imagination. Here’s a story I wrote about my experience: I’m on the Maid of the Mist, the boat that takes tourist into the clouds at the base of Niagara Falls. If the light is right, there are rainbows everywhere. The light wasn’tContinue reading “Swimming Under Niagara Falls with Jesus”
Eulogy for the Pinelands
Today I wept tears as I saw the writing on the wall of the Crowne Plaza Ballroom in Cherry Hill. So many of us were there to say “no” to a proposed pipeline conceived to send freshly fracked natural gas from Pennsylvania through the Pinelands to a coastal power plant in Egg Harbor Bay; andContinue reading “Eulogy for the Pinelands”
Resolving not to suck sucks
I love New Years resolutions. Any opportunity to change is my favorite, because my whole life is about transformation. Walking the narrow way that Jesus recommends to us requires some healthy self evaluation on a regular basis. I spent some time in my twenties “just trying to do better,” constantly plagued by a dissatisfaction IContinue reading “Resolving not to suck sucks”
Why I take pictures of the sky
I took this picture of the sky 2 years ago and I still remember how giddy I was as I raced up Washington Avenue under this shimmering shelf of clouds. I had a little echo of that joy as I crossed the Grays Ferry Bridge tonight under a slightly less spectacular (in relative terms) eveningContinue reading “Why I take pictures of the sky”
Reminder: Do not to snuff out the fire of God burning in your heart (because you can do that)
Dear friends and followers of Jesus (and those listening to me even though you aren’t Christians), you are beloved of God. Your heart burns within you all the time and you know this. Jesus is with you exposing the negatives of your experience. Wait for the picture to emerge. Don’t despair. There’s a fire inContinue reading “Reminder: Do not to snuff out the fire of God burning in your heart (because you can do that)”
What I whisper in your ear, shout from the rooftops
We need to pray more. Everyone is shouting something from the rooftop and volume will not remedy the situation. If we’re going to meet the next 50-75 people we need to multiply our congregation at Circle of Hope Broad and Washington, we’re going to need to make ourselves available for a lot more whispers inContinue reading “What I whisper in your ear, shout from the rooftops”
Today, if you hear his voice 