Soul Lent

dark nights
and overcast days
     of the soul
come and go like the tides--
barely apologetic,
     drought and dry,
or suddenly flooded--
   trembling and afraid
in the back of the cave
seeking safety
striving for some small sight
crouching in the damp and musty corner
not knowing
there is life
outside.

Surprisingly, the shoes fit,
comfortable as they are expensive.
But, at what price?
After betraying myself
for a bit of bling
I flee to the
comfort of a
well-worn, broken in pair
who accepts me
as I am.

Juxtaposition

Tragedy happens

while the blinding sun shines 

and oblivious tourists walk

on the steaming hot boardwalk

in cheap flip flops

and seasonal tans.

What can we do to reach across time

and change things 

that we had nothing to do with

but were only 

random occurrences 

in the long timeline

of lives 

that intersected ours? 

As the senses begin 

to thicken like an abandoned stream 

full of yesterday's sediment,

the inner eye 

is sharpened. 

The past and present 

knit together 

with acidic 

nightmarish clarity

and the full garment 

comes at last

into focus. 

Eucharist

Wrapped in the gold
of Divinity,
You offer us
the sweetness
of Your Love,
given to us
by human kindness.
Taste and see
the goodness
of the Lord.

Searching for Words

As the waters of the everyday
lap, and sometimes crash,
onto the shores of my life,
they erase the words
written with careful fingers
over the decades.

I gesticulate wildly
more often now,
trying to fish out the right word
or any word, really
to effectively communicate
what just might disappear
like an aging dandelion
before I can capture it.