Been So Long

Man it has been too long since I wrote any poetry. In my backyard of computer files I found a few gems I will share with you. I do this in the hope that I will refresh my memory and intice yours.

Know Fear

I know no greater fear

A flashlight is all it took
To break the will of my flesh
It spilled the raw truth
In the luminous red glow
Between my fingers

I am a story of blood,
Opaque flesh, obscuring bone
Yet I have met a man
With no hands
And so much to tell

I know no greater fear

My eyes peer from caves,
Tethered lest they fall
Lest they fail
To tell my ears
What they are hearing

I am a story told
Through sights and sounds
Yet I have seen a woman
Deaf and blind
And so much to tell

I know no greater fear

I have seen injustices
And shed no tears
I have felt a hand
Touch my brow
I have felt the cold

Am I a story
Of spirit written on flesh
Yet I see a man
Reflected back to me
With nothing to say

I know no greater fear



My Faith

Faith awoke this morning
Lying languidly in my bed
Stretching up, around and out
Rising fluidly to her day
I followed her with a glance
This my pure bride
Faith, the one flesh so joined
Beyond mere poetic approximations
Pain upon pain in her grief is mine
Joys equally so, rushing
Across both as stones
In the bed of one summer stream
Faith from birth, faith my guide
Faith my mute muse
Faith my coin in these streets
Faith I have sold
Faith my whore
She begs with her eyes
Searching the blindness of mine
While I palm the drug
While I dance in a trance
While I embrace wanton flesh
While I place my mind
Upon throne and dais
While I heap high fortunes
Faith begs no more
Faith yearns upon my eyes
To search the skies
To note their endless prose
Faith yearns upon my skin
To know the earth’s touch
To feel her pains of labour
Faith yearns upon my ears
To hear the applause of leaves
In the passing breeze
Faith yearns upon my heart
In the streets where I sell her
Faith yearns upon my heart
In the halls where her beauty
Buys me praise
Faith yearns upon my heart
In the passing of my life
Faith yearns
To know the touch
Of a little spittle
And some moist clay.


Satiation


How deep and endless, from my eyes,
Does the gulf of my indigence appear.
And here I find Your great wonder,
The unsearchable fullness of Your giving
Beyond all that my eye can see
Or yet that my want may want;
And when perchance You step within the clouds
Then endless still is the well
Where Your memory dwells
Here I drink of the faith birthed in times of sight
Only to find this faith
Is a harbour in the sea of Your faithfulness
For You gave in time to give against the time
Of all my want.

(March 21,2003)