When you left us
I saw how the clouds parted,
rent curtains,
as you cleared earth’s
drossy smear,
and passed into a heaven
bright beyond
my wildest imagining.
Bereft, fearful, we
shut tight the door
against wolves’ howling
and waited for you
to keep your promise.
At first it was a whisper,
the sea-ward wind
prying loose our
weak walls,
but soon the song rose, until
its power overwhelmed us
with chords of faith,
and, afire at last,
we spoke!
Running all the way,
bent double in breathless pain
we peer and see
the gaping grave
open to the rising sun.
Slowly we enter, our eyes sun-blind,
when we see the empty bench,
the bloody cloth cast within.
I try to imagine
how light must have pierced the cloth,
the sudden shudder
of His broken body,
His sharp breath exploding
like a swimmer breaking the surface,
and I notice John’s eyes
outshining the sun,
and my own face
lighting even death’s
darkest place!
(24 April 2011)
clean and fresh
and puddle-full,
my soul shines,
full of hope
for resurrection
filled to full!
“Sooner or later . . . we have to risk everything in order to gain everything. We have to gamble on the invisible and risk all that we can see and taste and feel.” Thomas Merton
Soft autumn breezes,
hills: brown, blue, violet – black
moving to nothing.
risk it all, keep no-
thing in your hand; grasp thin air
and take everything.
taste your fears, salt-tears
sting your eyes; glare like the sun-
set on the last day.
poems 