An Almighty God

If not for an almighty God

who could have created the earth?

Speak to me not of inventors,

researchers, scientists.

Their works are both

improvement and ruination.

Humans, thanks to God,

have the ability to think,

yet we frequently do not.

Sunday rolls around and we find

excuses

We run hither and yon,

never stopping for even one moment

to give thanks to the One

who breathed life into our lungs,

blessed us,

filled us with promise of accomplishment,

then set us free to stumble our way

through life,

learning, hopefully, from errors.

All the while He sits in heaven

smiling down at His creations

waiting for the day when His loves wake up

and then take time

to sing His glorious name.

He welcomes even the unrepentant

saying, “Come here, my child.”

I, for one, will cuddle next to His chest

and cry tears of joy.

God is my reason for being.

I must never forget.

Emotional Rollercoaster

Alone

In the middle of a crowded room

Silent voices scream for recognition

Fear

Twists guts into compressed clay

Paralyzing limbs, numbing throats

Degradation

Fills the ears of the emotionally injured

Ruining scarce moments of hard-fought joy

Depression

Carries sinking hearts into oblivion

Erasing memories of happiness felt

Hands

Reach out, begging for salvation

Yearning for one sign of love

Answers

Arrive in rain-soaked clouds

Pouring down tears of understanding

Compassion

Clears the night of unmasked terrors

Awakening remnants of esteem, long forgotten

Joy

Blooms in multi-colored bursts of words

Spoken, thoughts shared, kindnesses felt

Light

Seeps into crevices of the heart

Obliterating shards of self-doubt

Happiness

Explodes in multicolored bursts

Opening souls to welcoming voices

Surrounded

Encased

Enfolded

Alone no more

Come for a Visit

Come for a visit, Grandma, please.

I want to sit upon your knees

and feel your arms around me tight

all afternoon and into the night.

You don’t have to bring me anything

like dolls, ponies, a pretty ring,

books, finger-paints, or fancy clothes.

I don’t really need things like those.

All I want is to feel your love

tightly around me like a glove

and snuggle deep into your arms.

My own special lucky charms

When can you come to visit me?

I’ll pray today, my eyes to see

your smiling face and comfy knees.

Come for a visit, Grandma, please!

Dream Logic

When delicious dreams dance

Through your sleepy cerebrum

Do you see ghosts galloping by?

Are angels announcing successful situations?

Or decidedly deadly demons destroying

Your timely treasure trove?

Might competing cherubim choruses clash

Creating unheavenly harmonies, or

Little leprechauns lustily leap through,

Waving windswept rainbows bending

Toward the lavish land?

When unlucky lions lust for

Momentous meals does your being believe

It’s treacherously true, or does

Righteous reasoning untangle gigantic gnomes

Grappling on your luscious lawn?

Carefree cats carouse in your yard

Delirious dogs dangerously stalk prey

As your heavy head haltingly falls back upon

Puffy pillows of dainty down.

Soldiers slash and burn buildings while

Crafty commanders shriek scrabbled sentences

Waving wicked wands that sprinkle sparkles

In the deepest, darkest night.

Vicious venomous vipers sizzle zooed zebras

Lounging lazily behind links while

Porcine pandas ponder bulky bamboo

Priests praise gods in unholy ululations

While communities corrupt into chaos

Rioting right through your lonely life

Mothers majestically cradle crying babies

Born in proud poverty while

Faith filled fathers find superior strength,

Saving all from untimely death

Logic, luckily leaves as soon as eyes

Close and delirious dreams drip

Drop by drop preparing paths for

Dream logic to wind its wicked way

Into your nightly nirvana.

Never can one predict what may emerge

When the eyelids languorously close and

Dream logic descends.

The Car Ride

Driving home the freeway jammed

Even the diamond lane crammed

Cruise ships seeking safe repose

Passengers fighting off woes

Fingers white around the wheel

Hearts forgetting how to feel

Tunnels permanently blocked

Wooden doors steadfastly locked

Hopeless, dreamless, zombie-like

Pounding in the golden spike

Absolute sincerity

Wallows in simplicity

Disaster looms up ahead

Patterns melt the tangled thread

Revolutionaries sway

Blinkers indicate the way

Arterial trends emerge

Widens an expansive urge

Switching lanes has come too fast

Now forgetting all the past

Exit sign soon arises

Throwing off all disguises

Speeding in direction shown

Eager not to be alone

                A Dream of Peace

I dreamt that I traversed the sands of time

to a place mysterious and sublime.

Where gigantic trees with branches stout,

safely nestled all feathered friends about,

providing shelter from many foe,

yet allowing freedom to come and go.

Silky soft leaves whose gentle caress

becalms restless souls, soothes with fine finesse

young and old alike; no bias here

where all live in peace for many a year.

Through the sands a winding river ran

giving sustenance to both beast and man.

Surprisingly blue with not a trace

of sinister longings upon its face.

It speaks of a sweet love; it calls to me,

“Step right in,” it says, “ and I’ll set you free

from all that ails; as well sin and pain.

You have nothing to lose, but much to gain.”

With tremulous step I slowly crept

into her warm, comforting arms.  I slept.

Or thought I did, for there soon appeared

hosts of angels. I panicked, afeared

of my demise. But to my surprise

they lifted me on high with joyous cries.

The night did end. My dream soon left.

The suffering world found me quite bereft

and yearning for that heavenly place

whose welcoming arms did me quick embrace.

One thing alone I brought home with me:

knowledge that all men could soar high and free

seeking truth, wisdom, righteousness, and grace.

making earth a truly heavenly place.

Changing the Bed

Mindlessly, I pulled the pillows off the bed

Thinking about what my husband had just said

About feeling adrift in a world gone mad

Fighting over things that folks once had had

Pillowcases not so gently tossed aside,

My mind roamed to all those soldiers who had died

Fighting against the wind in lands far away

Laundry on a line, too tightly bound to stray

The plaid coverlet dumped carelessly on the floor

Landed, with aplomb, blocking the bedroom door

So many paved paths deadlocked by tragedy

Murdered teens drowning in the filth of the city

Layer by layer I stripped my place of rest

As if preparing for a traveling guest

Who’d put alterations in my troubled brain

Inspiring change, much like a runaway train

It came to me, then, the trouble we are in

Referred back to when the world began to spin

Dirt drifted down, quickly tarnishing the soil

Sturdy stains from which all men would recoil

Yet, like drawn to the fire of a brand new day

Cleansing ideas floated in with the sway

Influencing hearts to always seek the truth

Strive to avoid the repulsively uncouth

Gathering the detritus of my hard work

I realized that there is one mammoth perk

When assembled together, my bed will please

Only then did I relax: my mind at ease 

               Despair

Crispy, crunchy bits on the floor

Remnants of what was once me

Speak in sequestered voice

Whispers for none to hear

Memories masked in flimsy gauze

Distort into moaning miseries

Slices of soul oozing through my eyes

Trek along determined trails

Hollowness hails each morning

Darkness so deep that no light gleams

Heaviness haunts my limbs

Paralyzes rational thought

No hope, no light

Nothing but everlasting midnight

Covers my heart

Entrapped in cement, I wail

           A Grain of Sand

Nothing more than a grain of sand

one among a cast of millions

arose and accepted the burdensome

yoke of humanity, the drudgery of life,

the pains, torments, tears, and fears

until love entered his heart.

Nothing but a tiny grain of sand

now filled with a woman’s love

beaming broader than the sun,

wider than the Milky Way

standing tall, strong, proud, and fearless

with her vision in his mind.

Nothing but a proud grain of sand

knelt by her side, making his

wishes known, the dreams of his soul,

the secrets of his heart,

the projects, plans, ideas, and thoughts

searing his vision.

Nothing but an exultant grain of sand

stood with his love at the altar

pledging faithful love, devotion,

a lifetime of togetherness,

trials, tribulation, joys, tears

traveling the path of marriage.

Nothing but two grains of sand

forged through the world

casting aside the millions to

focus on the other, the others that

they create, the little ones, children,

loins of our loins and loves of our love,

for now and forever. Amen.