In Due Season

Every morning—the sky—
a different color.
A glimpse into your glory.
A revelation into your
infinite possibilities.

(For even at rainy dawn,
your golden light breaks through
at a distance.)

Minute by minute, there’s a new hope
and a fresh beauty unveiled.
At the right time…
in due season, I too will understand.

-klb 6/21/04

Wonderful

You hem me in--behind and before,
within and without,
past and future.
Like a mystery glimpsed,
you have set yourself before me,
while I have been unraveled
from spirit to bone before you.

You have read my book of days—
each line and between.
Are not my unspoken desires
known to you?
Are not my hidden agendas
clear to you?
For you have created
the language of my dreams
and taught movement to my being.

O God of Jacob, God of my heart,
you are fearfully wonderful.

-6/18/04, from Psalm 139

I've just finished reading "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers. There's a lovely passage that describes the life we live on the outside, interacting with other people, and the inner life of our mind and heart. One of the characters depicted this duality by describing it as an outside room and an inside room. As she grows from being a child with freedom to explore to functioning more as an adult and getting a job to help support her family, the inner and outer rooms change.

She says, "But now no music was in her mind. That was a funny thing. It was like she was shut out from the inside room. Sometimes a quick little tune would come and go- but she never went into the inside room with music like she used to do. It was like she was too tense. Or maybe because it was like the store took all her energy and time. Woolworth's wasn't the same as school. When she use to come home from school she gelt good and was ready to start working on the music. But now she was always tired. At home she just ate supper and slept and then ate breakfast and went off to the store again. A song she had started in her private notebook two months before was still not finished. And she wanted to stay in the inside room but she didn't know how. It was like the inside room was locked somewhere away from her. A very hard thing to understand."

I have had this feeling and sadness of "losing" the inside room many times over the last few months. But even as I type the passage above, I think there may be some deception there. Surely nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, or from himself, or from our true selves in him. Not work, not tiredness... The passage describes how I feel, but not the truth. It's not the same thing.

Some new poems....

Morning Prayer

Holy Spirit, counsel my heart.
By your great wisdom,
lead me to listen to the One I love.
I will open my mouth;
fill it with good things
that please my Beloved.
Awaken my deep to your deep.


Faint with Love
(from Song of Songs 2:5, 6:3 and Eph 5:32)

Tell him I am love sick.
Tell him I am overcome
by his faithfulness to me.
Tell him I am overwhelmed
by the fervour of his love.

I am my Beloved's
and he is mine.
It is a mystery
(too wonderful to comprehend).

Tell him I am faint with love.
Tell him I am blessed
among women by his wooing.
Tell him I am strengthened
and refreshed by his love.

I can give love
and I can receive love.
It is a mystery
(too wonderful to comprehend).