With All the Bells of Heaven

As I’m reeling from feelings of uncertainty and anxiety,
You come to turn my mourning into dancing, prancing
Like the deer across the mountain slopes of your love
From above, even as you give me a newer song to sing
Long into the night free from the fright of every blight
With promises of more than a share in unending care,
So how can I not sing in the comfort you bring to me?
And with this, joy wells up with all the bells of heaven!

Your Love Washes Over Me

As I bang my head against the wall in the halls
Of this home, not my own; sigh and loudly cry,
Your compassion washes over me like waves
From rich love wider and deeper than the sea,
And you had no bed, nowhere to lay your head,
But you’ve said you will take care of my needs,
Sowing seeds of faith that grow ever so slowly
As you provide my daily bread, day after day,
And remind me I do have somewhere to stay,
And so what shall I say? And how can I repay?
I say ‘thank you,’ as I bathe me in love so true,
Which canopies over me like the skies so blue!

Love of the Beloved

In Celebration of Easter

How can it be that I should see the love you have for me?
That you would take me in your arms away from all harm
With no need for alarm is a charm no money could buy,
And freely I sing gleefully of your passionate compassion
That you do not ration but give liberally that I might live
So peacefully within your bright light, my saving Knight!
And so my very heart takes flight with no fight or fright
As your love takes me higher and kindles fire in my soul
Where there was a gaping hole until you stole me away
On the day I was lying and dying, crying at my loss of life;
Yes, you found me bound to the nefarious angel of death,
Breathing my last breath, then you gave me your breath
That I might live again and forevermore with you, in you,
By you and for you, O Beloved and holy lovely Shepherd!
. . .
O how can it be that I would see the love you have for me?

Happier Days Are Coming

Happier days are coming, blooming within the soul
Of the one who waits expectantly with living hope
And expectation in anticipation of fresh joy untold
With bold confidence that happier days are coming,
Looming large on the horizon as prayers bear their
Weight in heaven above, from where all blessings
Flow as sacred wind blows, rushing in with answers
To supplications made in humility with the ability
To believe, relieving distress and dismay with rays
Of bright light flooding every part of the heart now
. . .
Happier days are coming, blooming within the soul
Of the one who waits expectantly with living hope
And expectation in anticipation of fresh joy untold,
So be bold! And hold on! Happier days are coming!

Plea to My Son: Wisdom Living

So many times in life I thought I knew what was best
And I wore the vest of pride in stride with arrogance,
And I tried with all of my might to make it all so right
Only to fall into the dark night of the soul with a hole
In my heart and my mind bound against sound reason,
Collapsing into an awful season of tumultuous unrest,
And all the while there were blessings untold for me
That I could just barely see in the distance but would
Not touch in my insistence to forge ahead with plans
Of my own that were sown in isolation and darkness;
And, oh, how I wish now that I could go back and bow
To sense and sensibility, to rewrite my past in lasting
Joy and peace with a new lease on life . . . but no, son,
This I cannot do and so I sue myself in the court of life
So rife with pain and such little gain from such insane
Decisions and I hold my history in derision, my child;
So I say to you, do not walk the same path I’ve walked,
But be sober-minded and clear-headed and do pray
Before you say what you think you want and then leap
Without looking! Read the book of your own father
To learn and burn not with zeal but hear without fear
Wise counsel offered and open your eyes to see gifts
Already bestowed in your life and do not thrown away
What has been so freely given to enliven your fantasy!
Sense and sensibility under the cover of prayer, my son;
Take the higher and better road; yes, the better road!

Flowing Into One Another … Your Love

Oh I prayed and thought you didn’t hear, my Shepherd so dear;
So I screamed and fell, yet you still felt so very far away.
I cried, lamented, and my very soul was gripped in abject fear;
In oppressive darkness I laid down with my own ending so near.

Ah, do we embrace before ere we touch? Sweet kiss
In the Eye of the Mind before lips ever meet?
Like the oceans and the river and the mountain
Springs, do we flow into one another, fulfilling?

You awakened me from my deathly slumber and enabled me to see;
You moved in the night in heavenly light, and answered my plea;
You opened my eyes, breathing in me life in timeless eternity,
So your Spirit rushes in, and in your love is my only safety.

Ah, shall we laugh and cry like the wind and the rain?
Play like the moonlight across sweet mountain lake?
Shall we belong to each other, both giving and receiving,
Never living apart, no more than branch without tree?

Note: First published in June 2015, now republished due to some renewed interest as well as for the enjoyment (and inspiration?) of new reader-followers. Blessings to one and all!

Battlefield Heart

Where have all the birds gone with their morning song?
Why are the days so long and the winds cold and strong?
And why does my spirit belong to the night with blight?

Rise up, O heart, and take your part in the battle fought!
This war has been brought to your own doorstep so fight
With all of your might even with no termination in sight!

Struggle with determination to victory over damnation,
And surely your Beloved will come to you in battle array
To lead your soul to bright light and the victor’s crown!

Come with the dawn, mighty Warrior
Into the foyer of my heart with sword
And reprimand this sickly, thick dark
By your powerful Word of command!

And my Beloved shall bring to me again the morning song,
And fill my days with love from above, so warm and strong,
And in my spirit there shall be no more night with blight. . .

Mounting On My Knees

†

All consumed by you, the tomb of my soul gives birth to its worth;
Where once there was gloom and darkness, there now blooms life,
And I am being groomed for something more in the Womb of Love.
On my knees, my knees, I see the flowered trees of heaven dance
And the hinds prance from one mount to mount ~ who can count?
Bleeding tears from my eyes the size of tidal waves, what saves;
I’d forgotten I’m stronger when bowed low than standing for show;
Ah! Spirit of the Living Life and Light and Love from high above,
Show me now in which way to go, not with haste, but wisely slow;
Now I know, I know, I know . . . I am bended low higher than ever!
I shiver at the flow of Life surging thru my soul, my ethereal veins
Running with Blood not my own, veritable flood of heavenly Light
So bright, who can look upon the sight? And no longer dark blight,
My inner-man shines thru the night, and is there any more fright?
No! Consumed by you, the tomb of my soul gives birth to its worth!

†

Note: First published in February 2016, now being republished for the reading pleasure of new blog followers. Blessings to one and all!

And the Darkness Has Not Overcome

Blot out the sun, erase the stars till there are none,
And pull the full moon from high in the night sky,
And let the starkest of darkness draw ever so nigh,
He would not overcome the light from your eyes,
So fiercely piercing and bright, brilliant to my sight,
And all the thick, pitch black would just roll back
Like an ancient scroll without taking his toll on me,
For though I be blind to all else, I would see you
Shining in all of your beauty . . .

In you there is no night
In you there is no blight
In you there is no fright
For you are bright
For you are light
You are my sight

You are the ever-rising dawn to whom I am drawn,
And how do I feel when you peel off the darkness?
Safe and secure in the allure of your beautiful eyes!

Resuscitation

Suddenly now, life emerges again to begin again,
Where once there was but dearth and cold death
Because of my choice made with an empty voice,
But you have other plans for this foolish man,
Plans that span time and space in pace with love
From above, and so now another chance is given
To enhance my days along the way of this life . . .
And she comes with candle alit in her sweet soul
To fill an obvious hole in my own where you had
Already carefully sown the seeds of compassion,
So suddenly this man can smile and laugh again!
. . .
Suddenly now, life emerges again to begin again,
Where once there was but dearth and cold death