Eve ‘While I sit at the door Sick to gaze within Mine eye weepeth sore For sorrow and sin: As a tree my sin stands To darken all lands; Death is the fruit it bore. ‘How have Eden bowers grown Without Adam to bend them! How have Eden flowers blown Squandering their sweet breath Without […]
Part Four: Time and Eternity XVI THE CLOUDS their backs together laid, The north begun to push, The forests galloped till they fell, The lightning skipped like mice; The thunder crumbled like a stuff— How good to be safe in tombs, Where nature’s temper cannot reach, Nor vengeance ever comes! Emily Dickinson
Godzilla’s Parents It was a lizard’s DNA Invigorated by an A- Bomb test and grown a size so huge There could be from it no refuge A beast emerging from the sea Supercharged at Bikini, An accident without designer, No thanks to Teller, Oppenheimer I saw it on a movie screen, The biggest lizard ever […]
Friends One Flesh Everyone needs someone to say always forever. Everyone needs someone to say never alone. Everyone needs someone to say here together. Everyone needs someone to say this is home. I’ll be that someone who tells you forever, That someone who sees you’re never alone. That someone who says here now together, That […]
Count the Cost …It’s so easy to guard myself from the essence of sacrifice And play the same mind game and do just enough to get by But that’s not what it is to be great, it’s not what it is to be a saint I don’t want to be dead bones in a box, […]
All You Have Given Me I love You, Lord. You embrace me In our communion Of Eucharist. I believe in Your love For the sinner. I am that sinner. You come to me. I am empty and poor, Yet, You make My poverty Your paradise. Here I bring to You All You have given me. […]
“…Now more than ever we Christians must choose Will we ignite the light from the wick in our lives And fight for what’s right? Or let the enemies plight for an everlasting night Wreak fright through our demise…”
Wondrous Wind and Waltzing Trees Wondrous wind and waltzing trees, Look what the Lord has given me. The beauty of the dance, In the trees He grows. And the soft silent wind That rustles the leaves. What a gift, He has given me. This among so many, He has placed in my path. So I […]
Daddy By ten, I thought “paranoid schizophrenic” meant “father”. And “son” came to mean surviving. But as I got older, there was power in saying words That made the scar on your forehead flame red. But sometimes I felt moments of goodness. I was your son. You demanded I look at you and not cry […]
Wisdom, Come Wisdom, come sit beside me. Come, quiet my soul with Your whisper of peace. Come, with heavenly companionship. Come and remain, all my life long. Wisdom, come here beside me. Copyright 2015 Joann Nelander
The Gardener Never covered in winter Never watered But for the whims of chance clouds Never fed But by the searching’s of desperate roots No cultured rose is this And yet And yes This one is exquisite Let us bring it To our gardens Giving color Where before was only cultured foliage We will find […]
In Pilsen Snow, Philip C. Kolin has written a collection of poems that share his stories of growing up as one of many Czeck immigrants in Pilsen: a neighborhood located on the West Side of Chicago, Illinois. I have had the privilege of reading Kolin’s poems over the years. His are of a standard that many, including myself, aim to achieve. It […]
In Praise of Feeling Bad About Yourself The buzzard never says it is to blame. The panther wouldn’t know what scruples mean. When the piranha strikes, it feels no shame. If snakes had hands, they’d claim their hands were clean. A jackal doesn’t understand remorse. Lions and lice don’t waver in their course. Why should […]
Herself A Rose Who Bore The Rose Herself a rose, who bore the Rose, She bore the Rose and felt its thorn. All loveliness new-born Took on her bosom its repose, And slept and woke there night and morn. Lily herself, she bore the one Fair Lily; sweeter, whiter, far Than she or others are: […]
Morning Sigh A sigh of longing A sigh of love A sigh bidding to my side The Lord above. Breathe in the Spirit. Breathe in that Holy Ghost. Breathe deeply in the morning The God of hosts. Joann Nelander Copyright 2013
Medusa Medusa slain by Perseus, To gaze would turn a king to stone, Revolting head with eyes of glass The face it showed you had to own It showed the one you really were, Schemes, evasions, lies exposed, And this the horrid power of her: Severed head, the truth of those Still the mirror shows […]
Soon Child in your mother’s womb, She grows with you, and I, the watcher, wait. Speaking without touching, I do not see you, but you are Wondrously full of beauty. Hoping you know my voice, It is not hers, not yet all around you. For now, “I love you” in my words out here, Wanting […]
With bluster, ink, and bray. Lawyers five, get their way. Out with God; in with sex drive. Salute Sodom; so they connive. Let them preach right prim of legality, That man’s law must be obeyed. But ‘tis base to bow, when reality Has the highest law betrayed. T’would be wrong to supersede, Against authority properly […]
A Spoken Word Poem by Fr. Pontifex (God is Dead: This video is in response to the claims of the “New Atheism.”…Science and reason are not incompatible with faith in fact they complement each other very well because they come from the same source, God. )
…But Sure as Shootin’ He Reined Me Up! I am of the Lord for He has called me I am of the Lord for He sought me out I am of the Lord for I heard Him calling I am of the Lord for I turned to listen There is naught within me that is […]
A Spoken Word Poem by TJ Burdick (Vox et Veritas- The Best line Never Mentioned in Scripture)
WonderLove When I softly sing a lullaby alone to you, I wonder if in heaven you can hear. When I whisper that I love you love you now, I wonder if you’ll ever want me near. When I try to touch your tiny cheeks and hands, I wonder if in heaven you can feel. When […]
Child of the Cross Mother Mary, Witness of the Passion, Suffering witness, Living the Passion, As your Jesus Hung on the Cross. Pray, Mary. Pray, My Mother, Pray for me, Who am so scattered, Distracted and disengaged. Pray every moment Of my life here on earth, That I be prepared for suffering, That I be […]
Of Course the Rain- Psalm 29:9 Everything has its own voice, its own story, even this grey day long winter rain. For today, even at mid day the sky lay like a heavy regret, thick and leaden and unyielding with its threnody of thunder echoing in the heavens. Of course this rain has its own […]
