Category Archives: Poetry
An Outpouring of the Spirit
Only the most skilled
Clamp on their ice-spikes and
Venture to the inaccessible heights of
The Himalayans, but even they are
Unaware that far beneath the ice and
Snow on which they climb lie
Granite fissures that slowly sip the
Pure snow being gently warmed by
Molten fires miles below.
Just a trickle of pristine water,
Clearer than the clearest crystal,
Finds it’s kind deep inside the
Towering peaks and forms a
Rivulet that bubbles to the
Surface thousands of feet
Below the crest to form a
Perfect untainted mountain spring.
Millions of years, glaciers, snows, rains, and winds
Carved the crevice that separates the
Singular spring into two.
One falls violently. The other with grace.
Religion
One becomes angry as it absorbs
Man’s pollutants from soil and air.
It fights and rages against the
Injustice, ripping trees and boulders,
Stirring sands, campsites, and trash
Until the dam.
But it is not placid, nor will it surrender
To the dullness of the choking reservoir.
The bitterness stirs deep within until,
Aided by torrential rains sent by
Furious gods, it rips and explodes the
Concrete wall and ferociously takes
Revenge on downstream towns
Inhabited by the species that
Polluted its ancestors.
It is at war.
The Way
High above, its sister took a different path.
Unobtrusive, it winds its unsullied water
Along gentle paths dotted with
Kindly sprays of quiet falls
Through alpine flowers where
Fawns and lambs quench their
Thirst, bulbul and monal dance,
Home to mahseer, baby rabbits,
Red panda, tahr, snow leopard and
Snow partridge. Warmed by thermal
Features below and summer sun above,
It softly cascades into a transparent
Pool where naked lovers play.
Jesus Wept
Tears
Under skies brushed with
Shades of white and grey the
Yellow-rumped warbler sings a
Song of rebirth as cherry-blossom
Petals float past bluebirds and
Goldfinch taking nourishment from
Offerings displayed on red-buds
Concentric circles formed by
Raindrops push white and pink
Segments of corolla to the edges of a
Verdant ostracod universe where the
Untrained eye imagines a
Mechanistic world where blood-oil
Consequentialism triumphs
Religion honors the wealthy and
Powerful by justifying, even
Deifying, the dominant while
Babies being crushed by war machines
Elicits joyous patriotic pride and
Even an occasional tear on an
Old man’s cheek
But those tears are an acid rain of
Carcinogenic mercury belched from the
Stacks of empires of injustice –
Tears that amplify the inhumanity that
Causes opossum and grouse to
Unite their voices with oaks and birch in
Groans of lament
Like the teenage mother in labor
Agonizing in anticipation of the
Manifestation of the children of
God who cry night and day,
“As in heaven so on earth,” echoed by
Every cayote howl and reflected in
Every refugee’s eyes
Herald bids, “Look closer,” the
Drops of rain are playing in an
Inner world brimming with the
Freedom of the birdsong, a tulip’s
Delicate beauty, the fragrance of
Sage and myrrh, and a vast eclectic
Seascape of dancing color
From whence comes this
Kingdom of love where
Grace and mercy flow like
Rivers into cascades of joyous
Abundance and sacrificial love,
Where beauty begets exquisite
Beauty and kindness is the only sword?
It is born of the tears of every
War, every death, each loss, of
Rachel weeping for her children
Under overseers’ whips and
Burning child in ruined hut and
Sobbing heart at every grave
Which mingle with the
Groans of each bludgeoned seal,
Harpooned whale, gunshot stork,
And felled tree forced to release
Life to feed the greed of conquerors
Whose gods insatiably demand sacrifices
From those who can only hear the
Banshee’s brutal laugh.
Tears of woods and gardens, of
Parents and lovers, of the
Broken homeless, are kept by
God in a bottle of remembrance and
Mingled with the tears of the One who
Wept over Jerusalem and sobbed with
Martha at graveside
Tears that Mary mingled with her own
Precious nard in anticipation of the
Ultimate death that would end
Death.
Forever.
And so, the warbler sings and the
Cherry tree makes its glad offering
(LRT April 10, 2021)
