Music of My Life

Entries categorized as ‘Poetry and Thoughts’

The Real Heroes of Story

September 1, 2008 · 2 Comments

We always sneer at the losers of stories,

The ones who show up with their hair frazzled,

Dragging half of the things

That are supposed to be on their persons:

Their belt, their socks,

Stepping into their shoes as they spring from the car,

Late for an appointment.

The one’s whose hair is never right.

The ones who we know aren’t bad, just pathetic,

So we write them off.

The ones we really respect,

They’re the ones that have it all together,

They’re the smart ones.

The ones catching criminals,

The ones staying cool in the midst of battle,

The ones who come out of an impossible situation,

Looking impeccable.

But really, who is the hero?

The loser, who mess up after mess up,

Bungle after Bungle,

Loss after loss,

Comes up living, loving,

Beaten but not broken,

Bedraggled but not destroyed.

Or the cool, calm, collected ones,

Who because of their inborn brain,

Which they did nothing more to receive than anyone else,

They come out with a clean tie and straight pleats in their pants.

Categories: Poetry and Thoughts

Gifts of an Untamed God

January 19, 2008 · 3 Comments

I asked for God,

He seemed so silent.

I looked for God,

He didn’t appear.

 

I bared my heart

And hoped to hear.

I felt just silence

And fought despair.

 

What should I do?

Where am I wrong?

I’ve surrendered my heart,

But where is God?

 

He is wild and He is free.

He does not come when I demand.

But He has promised,

And He does not lie.

“My peace I give to you,

Not as the world gives.”

Categories: Christianity · Poetry and Thoughts

The Job of an Engineer

January 12, 2008 · Leave a Comment

The job of an engineer is to find what works.  He can try to build for efficiency, economy, extra strength, any attribute you choose, but if he gets distracted from the main goal of making something that works, he has failed.  If object he designed does not performed the job it was made for, all his efficiency, strength, or good looks become a ridiculous effigy of misguided priorities.

Categories: Poetry and Thoughts

The Rosebush

December 3, 2007 · 1 Comment

“Da harder ya prune de rosebush,

den da more flowers you’s gonna have.”

I trimmed till I thought

I killed that bush.

It bloomed beyond my wildest imagination.

Now I stare at the flowers

And wonder why beauty must come

Through cutting away.

Categories: Poetry and Thoughts

Surrender

May 22, 2007 · 2 Comments

My kingdom is not very big,

But as I prepare to surrender it,

It feels like the most precious and desirable in the world.

Still, conquering King, mount the thrown.

Sit in the place of power.

Here is the crown, the deed, the key to the treasury.

The scepter with which I maintained justice for myself is by your elbow,

And the sword with which I protected myself is by the door.

You now fight my battles and choose how justice is served to my enemies.

I leave the palace with only a staff and a sackcloth shirt.

Yet with a King like you, I have more than all the Kingdoms of this world

Because you are exalting me.

Categories: Christianity · Poetry and Thoughts

A Slight Verse

May 2, 2007 · Leave a Comment

We little know what adventures or dangers tomorrow’s path holds, but it is this that gives us the curiosity to push on and the fear to keep our trust in God.

Categories: Poetry and Thoughts

A Knight-Errant

March 3, 2007 · Leave a Comment

My name is Sir Guffaw, treader of dark paths and dangerous tunnels of unknown. This is an account of my journey through the house of a sorcerer who lived 800 years from now:

It all started when I got off my horse to seek for my hoof-pick. I had carelessly stuffed it into my saddlebag and it fell out and was flung under a large rock as I galloped along. Hoof-picks being very necessary to the success of a knight, I stopped and dismounted with much difficulty. If you have ever worn armour you will understand why this was so difficult. I went over to the rock and spent the good part of a minute getting down on my hands and knees and crawling under the overhang. As I reached out my hand to grab the hoof-pick, I lost my balance because of the weight of my armour and plunged headlong into a hitherto unseen pit. When I awoke, I was lying on a smooth rock floor inside a building. On either side were walls of square grey stones about twelve steps apart. It seemed that I was in a house, but because of the way that the light came in the window, I realized that I must be in the basement. As I stared at the ceiling I saw a strange array of metal bars going to and fro and I thought that these must be to keep some very heavy and terrible man or beast from breaking down the floor. After this fear began to grow in my breast.

With difficulty I managed to get to my feet and begin to bumble my way around in the semi-darkness. I thought that there had to be a stair or a door somewhere. As I walked I bumped into something and then with a large crash a heavy object fell onto my foot. It smashed my foot armour and pinched my toe. Looking down I saw it was a heavy steel bar with large metal discs on either end. I began to tremble because I thought this must be the weapon of the terrible warrior who inhabited the house.

To prepare my self to save my life, I drew my sword. As I walked around a large square lump, trying to keep my armour as quiet as possible, I was startled by a roaring noise that suddenly spewed from it. I attacked the gleaming eye of the previous sleeping monster. As my sword slashed through the gleam I was suddenly drenched by a continuous delouge of cold water which went through the slats of my armour and drenched the heavy woolen clothes beneath. Now I was not only clad in heavy armour, but also heavy, soggy clothes.

I found the stairs and may my way up as quickly as I could in my armour and heavy clothes. At the top was a door. I had no way of knowing how to open it, but it was not very strong. I pushed on it firmly and it broke open. Peering quickly out, it seemed to me that the room was empty. As I walked into the room a window low in the wall caught my eye. This window seemed to go into another room and in the window was a man shouting and waving his arms. I walked carefully toward the window so that I could get a better look.

As I went I carefully looked around for any dangers that might come from other parts of the house. Because I was looking around I did not see an object on the floor. The side of my foot stepped on it and slipped off. I almost fell and as I regained my balance, I almost fell again because of shock and fear. The man in the window had looked like he was just mouthing words without making sound, like Hannah in the Bible. Now he began shouting loudly and there was sound like a whole village full of blacksmiths beating on their anvils in rhythme.

I decided it was time to leave the house because I did not know when he would be able to get through the window and come after me. I went quickly to the door, but again had no idea how to open it and this one was too strong to break. Beside the door there was a small plate with strange etchings. I thought that this might be a button which, if pressed, would open the door, just like in the tunnel at the castle of Doomeria. I pressed the button, but it would not move. I pressed harder and harder. Finally there was a crack and from the tip of my iron clad finger all the way into the farthest parts of my body I felt a terrible and fierce, pulsing pain. I finally managed to jerk my hand away.

At this point I was so terrified and shaken because of the man in the window and the door which I could not exit that I decided I had to run. I ran into a hall and turned into another room. My wet wool clothes were chaifing terribly and I really wanted to get outside. It was then that a box on the table in the room in which I stood began to blast loud words of some strange tongue and I realized that this box had an eerie and devilish glow on its side. This was more than I could take.

I lost all courage and bravery. Who was I, a simple knight with a sword, to compete with sorcery. I simply threw myself out of the window. As I passed through the opening I crashed through the invisible wall of that terrible world and the next thing I knew is that I lay panting under a rock beside my hoof-pick.

This is my story, this is the end of my tale. If I have been a coward, I give up my knighthood and will serve God as a lowly servant of monks, kissing the ground wherever I go. But I beg you consider, have you ever heard of a house so full of such terrible and evil spells and magic. I warn you to be cautious in your accusations of cowardess. Would you be willing to pass through it?

Hints:

-He falls into the future, into the basement of a modern house

-The bars on the ceiling are pipes

-He bumps the weight set and knocks it on his foot

-The roaring lump and gleaming eye are the furnace and a copper pipe

-The man in the window is a TV and the object on the floor is the remote, he steps on the remote and unmutes it

-He puts his finger in a receptacle

-The glowing box is a clock radio that comes on automatically

-In medieval times they did not have clear glass in the windows

Categories: Poetry and Thoughts

The Christ in the Dark

January 16, 2007 · Leave a Comment

A few weeks ago while on a meditative walk, I ended up in a poorly maintained graveyard a few blocks from my house. As I wound between the stones, I was struck by all the memorials that were either leaning over or completely fallen to the ground. I thought of all the people whom these stones memorialized and I wondered if their lives had been forgotten, just as their graves had been. And just as I was getting to the end of these thoughts, I was confronted by the tallest monument in the graveyard. It was a monument, but not to a dead person. It was a monument of the crucified Christ who is now alive. It was in front of that crucifix that I had one of those incredible moments of deep connection with Jesus. After a while I said farewell to the likeness of my Lord. As turned to leave, I noticed something protruding from the ground several feet away. Then I saw another a little farther on. They were two separate floodlight systems, niether of which was working. I had a sudden impulse to stop by the church the next day and give some money to the priest so that the lights could be repaired and relit. I felt it a shame that this tool of worship which had drawn my thoughts to Christ had also experienced the same deteriation as the rest of the graveyard. But then I had another thought. If the statue was lit, I and others who happened here could not stand silent and unobserved in worship. We would instead be standing in the beams of a spotlight. As I thought more I came to realize that our Lord is much like this statue. He is standing above ready and waiting to draw us into worship and communion with the Father, but He is not dancing in the spotlight to attract attention. He is waiting in the shadows for those who are willing to seek Him there. He is not trying to attract us to worship with treats and flashy entertainment, with lights and sound, with celebrative emotions. He is waiting for us to creep into the silent shadows, broken and humble. It is there in the darkness that we can find Him and that He will nourish us with His Love.

The Crucifix in the Graveyard w/ nonfunctioning floodlight illuminated by my penlight

The Crucifix in the Graveyard w/ nonfunctioning floodlight illuminated by my penlight


Categories: Christianity · Poetry and Thoughts

The Unity of the Body and the Couple

December 24, 2006 · Leave a Comment

Reach out and grasp something. Consider all the body parts that participate in this very simple action. Your eyes read the command. Your brain processed it and sent a signal to a variety of muscles. They began to move your bones with the eyes and brain providing guidance and commands. The nerves carried messages and the circulatory system provided nourishment. Now consider the involvement of body parts in carrying something up the stairs or playing basketball. Your body must function in a very unified and cooperative way.

The Church was described by Christ and the apostles as a body. We as the church are to be as unified and cooperative as a human body.

As I have now been married for a few weeks, I am learning more and more to appreciate the incredible oneness and unity that comes out of the marriage relationship. The marriage relationship becomes an underlying factor in every other aspect of life. The love and support and service and joy that flows from the reality of such a relationship is delightful and unlike anything else. Everything else except maybe the Churches relationship with Christ.

We as the Church are to be united and cooperating like a body. This body is to have relationship with Christ, to experience the joy and unity of purpose and love and emotional connection and continuous awareness the relationship. I cannot describe well the connection I feel now that I am married, but I can tell you that it has caused me to consider more carefully what Christ means when He calls the Church, of which I am a member, the bride of Christ. What does it mean for my relationship with Christ if I am a marriage partner with Him.

Categories: Christianity · Love · Poetry and Thoughts

anoTher seT of eyes TowarD a DeaD hearT

November 21, 2006 · 2 Comments

heard person coming

bumped release in haste to leave

trap snagged back leg

——————

i carry trap

try not to hear squeaks

cannot look at eyes

——————

must have been skilled

trap licked clean

probably would have gotten away

——————

crime: finding a warm place

with food

for the winter

——————

punishement:

death by

impact of shovel

——————

hated doing it

heart now has two holes

size of mouse eyes

Categories: Poetry and Thoughts