Sneaky Peeks

 

My parents were Good Readers.
They had Good Taste,
and volumes of Great Books
filled the bookcases of our home.
Some of the Great Books also
had Great Pictures, and we three kids
liked to look at these, with our parents’ permission.
Being very careful, we would thumb through
The Brothers Karamazov, Ancient Chinese Poetry,
 and Don Quixote de la Mancha, fascinated, guessing
what the stories might be about

One day we made a Find.
Tucked among the Great Books
we found a collection of literary essays
from Playboy Magazine (about which we knew nothing).
It was mostly words, but here and there,
scattered between the essays, were cartoons.
We didn’t understand the captions,
but the drawings
made us laugh. All these
naked grown-ups—both men and women—gamboling
about in fields (“gambol” is the only verb that works here),
doing strange things.
Who could have thought this up?
It was both informative and hilarious.
We instinctively knew we must keep
this viewing pleasure a secret from our parents, and so
we found a hiding place in the bookcase.

One afternoon Mom popped in to find out
what we were laughing about. She saw the book.
She quietly left the room. I worried we might be in trouble.
But neither of our parents said anything.
The book, however, mysteriously disappeared.
We never saw it again.

No discernable answer

I was sitting by the window
reading my Bible,
struggling with belief
as Lot’s wife
turned into a pillar of salt,
when the light
of the rising sun bounced
off my iPad and threw a diamond
of fire on the wall.
It looked like a flaming tongue.
Is this a sign? I prayed.
Are you answering my need
with a Holy Spirit anointing?
But why a single tongue of fire?
O Lord, send a conflagration!
I discerned no immediate answer,
went back to waiting.
As the sun rose higher,
the diamond disappeared.

The mystery of language: poems from Babel

Where?
Genesis 11:1-9

Why did they think
that building a skyscraper
could earn them a reputation,
make them famous,
if they were the only
inhabitants of the earth?
Where were the other people
who would applaud?
What other nations would tremble
at the mention of their name?
Is there something
going on here
we know nothing
about?


What Comes First?
Genesis 11:1-9

Is it language
that divides people,
that causes separation and enmity?
Does language determine culture,
define worldview,
plot the course of history?
What comes first?
This is more complicated
than chickens and eggs.


From Babel to Music
Genesis 11:1-9

For one who loves languages—
English first, then Spanish,
Portuguese, Aymara, Greek, and Hebrew—
the fate of Babel
hardly seems like punishment.
Maybe—just maybe—
this was part of the original plan.
More than a curb on power and pride,
maybe it was a way
to scatter abroad the beauty
of diversity. Make the work
of building unity more musical.
Worth the effort.


Two Ways
Genesis 11:1-9; Acts 2:1-12

The Old Testament God
used language to divide and scatter.
The New Testament God
(ironically One and the Same)
used tongues of fire
to birth a new people
called to unity,
commissioned to gather in the world
with the one language of love.

How I Am

Sometimes I am firm,
resolute, and strong.
I say what I mean
and I mean what I say.
Other times, given my age,
I sort of tend to be wishy-washy.
I do, absolutely, remember
a time several years ago
when I impressed myself
at how decisive I was.
I enjoyed the feeling
and determined to feel that
firmness of character
again in the future.
And I will. I’m almost
certain of it.

Five views of the lions' den (Daniel 6)

1 The Satraps

Petty politicians,
irritated by integrity,
consumed by mongrel jealousy
that an upstart immigrant
should get the biggest bone,
they schemed and deceived,
then smirked when it worked.
But it didn’t.
In the end,
the only bones being given
were theirs.
To the lions.


2 Daniel

Integrity, honesty,
devotion to God—
all of this was true.
Even so we can’t assume
that Daniel wasn’t afraid,
that as he prayed in the window
he was not stinking with fear,
throwing up to God
his panic. Help me!
We can’t even assume
he was sure
God was listening.


3 King Darius

Friendship with the Hebrew
had subtly changed him.
Exposure to light
in a dark place
does that to people
over time.
Thus his distress
at his own foolishness,
thus his sleepless night,
thus the mixture of doubt and hope
in his anguished question,
Daniel, did he rescue you?


4 The lions

What was this scorching ball of light
thrown down so suddenly,
causing them to scatter to the peripheries?
What terror drove out hunger,
shut their jaws?
Or did the glory so overwhelm them
that God’s dumbstruck beasts
simply went to sleep?

5 The people

Forced by royal decree
to add the God of Daniel
to the Persian pantheon,
how did the citizens respond?
Did anything eternal happen
in the homes and streets
of downtown Babylon?
Perhaps a ray of light entered
the collective consciousness?
Did the foreign deity ever
become more than Daniel’s God?
Or did he only add another hue
to their already rainbow spirituality?
Does conversion by coercion
ever work?

Pacifist Poet

William Stafford, sweet poet,
said that one in every ten poems
he wrote was good enough for publication.
That encourages me
‘cause I write a lot of bad poems.
But, like Stafford, I’m a pacifist.
I don’t kill any of my poems.
For the nine poor poems
I find a comfortable spot,
lay them down, and let them sleep.
You get to read the tenth poem.
Lucky you.

                                Eddie Lobanovsky

Poems from the book of Colossians

 Last year I adopted the spiritual discipline of meditating, praying, and writing poetry through the books of the Bible. I'm building up quite a collection. I'm not sure how good the poetry is, but the practice is causing me to read Scripture in a new way.

I begin each early morning time with the prayer from Proverbs 119:18: "Open my eyes that I might see wonderful things from your word." After reading and spending time listening in silence, I converse with God about the portion I read. That's the poetry part. Simply conversing with God.

Recently I spend several weeks in the book of Colossians, Paul's treatise on the doctrine of Christ. Here are a few of the poems (likely to be edited and polished in the future).

Hold Fast
Colossians 1:17, "...in him all things hold together."

Jesus is the gravity
that keeps our feet on the ground.
He's the centripetal force,
the reason we don't fly
off into space, lost forever.
He's the magnet
that binds us to faith, hope, and love.
He's the compass
that heads us down
the true path.
He's our superglue;
we need never come apart.
Someday all things
will join in him,
a vast and holy reconciliation.
In the meantime,
Jesus is what keeps
you and me
together.

Unselfish
Colossians 1:24, "...I fill up my flesh what is lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions...."

Christ suffered
for our sakes,
but he didn't keep
it all for himself.
The bucket of miseries
is not yet full.
We get to add to it.
We get to fill it
because Jesus knew
we'd want to suffer
for his sake.
So as we carry the good news
to all people, we weep,
we laugh, we bleed,
we bind our wounds.
We serve with joy.


Well Dressed
Colossians 3:12, ..clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience."

They many not be the latest fashion,
but your new clothes fit perfectly.
You've never looked better.


"Masters...
Colossians 4:1

"... Provide your slaves
with what is right and just."
Free them.


Remember My Chains
Colossians 4:18

When you pray
include those in prison
paying for the harm
they've done to others
and to themselves.
Include those
unjustly imprisoned
for faith, race, or human error.
Imprisonment has a way
of dismembering people,
ripping them from family,
values, and life's normalities.
Re-member them
in vision and petition.
Re-member all the broken ones--
refugees, victims of war or rape,
neighbors beaten down
by domestic violence,
loved ones battling cancer or addiction,
those suffering rejection and divorce.
The lonely.
People have so many ways
of being enchained and broken,
of being torn and dismembered.
Your task is to remember them.
Remember them everyday.