I think every bold statement we’ve ever made Should be qualified by the words, “I think” or “That’s how I see it right now,” or “But I could be wrong,” or “Maybe.” After all, how many times now Has it been brought to light That we were at least partly wrong When we knew for…
Category
Poetry
All The Crazy Stuff I Blog About
Synthetic Appropriation and Protraction of the Body in Pain
I didn’t realize I had a hole in my shirt until I put it on and walked out the door. Quietly close to ignorance that only lasts until it’s chased away. Don’t we all have holes in our shirts… Further more, holes in our hearts? Our tattered dignity is draped around our form, smelling like…
Oscar Romero And The Violence Of Love
We have never preached violence, except the violence of love, which left Christ nailed to a cross, the violence that we must each do to ourselves to overcome our selfishness and such cruel inequalities among us. The violence we preach is not the violence of the sword, the violence of hatred. It is the violence…
May God Bless You With Discomfort
May God bless you with discomfort At easy answers, half-truths, and superficial relationships So that you may live deep within your heart May God bless you with anger At injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, So that you may work for justice, freedom and peace. May God bless you with tears To shed for those…
The Prodigal Shepherd by Mike Fiala
This poem comes via Jesus Radicals. Mike Fiala dedicates this poem to the late Joe Lehner, who birthed the Cleveland Catholic Worker into existence in 1984-85.
Gerard Manley Hopkins: As Kingfishers Catch Fire
As king fishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame; As tumbled over rim in roundy wells Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name; Each mortal thing does one thing and the same: Deals out that being indoors each one dwells; Selves — goes…
The Principalities and Powers are Legion: William Stringfellow and The Idolatrous Life Taking Things
According to the Bible, the principalities are legion in species, number, variety and name. They are designated by such multifarious titles as powers, virtues, thrones, authorities, dominions, demons, princes, strongholds, lords, angels, gods, elements, spirits… And if some of these seem quaint, transposed into contemporary language they lose quaintness and the principalities become recognizable and…
Good Friday Poem: Terrible Beyond
Terrible beyond despairing walk, Menacing cold clutches its stalk. Fevering swells its crippling tense, Sickness untold unfathomed suspense. Destruction impending unjust disguise, Terrifying deceit in tearful reprise. Engulfed horror at trauma pursuit, Disease stricken by powers’ salute. Fleshly shudders panicking fright, Nightmares entranced by visible light. Ghastly quakes punish the soul, Spirit painstakingly swallowed in…
Who is invited to your table this Easter?
At God’s table It would not have been God’s table if they hadn’t all been gathered around it: the betrayer and the friend the power-hungry and the justice seeker the faithful and the fickle. When Jesus poured the wine, and the bread was broken; when everyone could eat – the outcast and the beloved the…