The water meter reader stopped by
To read the month’s use. He said
The meter was supposed to be on
The northeast corner but he couldn’t
Find it there. We said it is on the
northwest corner and he said
That is the electric meter. Then
We said it was behind the bush
Under the window on the north
Side of the house but that is the
Gas meter. Finally, the young man
Found the small meter hidden by
The dune grass, Vinca-vine and a
Large shrub. The meter reader
Said he would remember it in
The future and we said thank
You for letting us know where it
Is. We have only lived here twenty-
Years.

Like Joshua I commanded
the sun to sit still in the sky.
Why?
I just wanted a little bit more time
for the sun to shine
so I could sit and pine
in the twilight of the day
to take in the glory
of the birds (even the bluejay),
the fish, the fox
who came to drink from the pond,
the red pines, white pines, hemlocks,
spruces beyond,
the flowers, annuals and perennials,
red, yellow, orange, blue
shining in the afternoon’s golden hue.
I just wanted one last look.
The earth continued on it’s path
and the sun went down
and in nature’s breathtaking,
waning moments
I knew where glory runs.
Trusting earth’s journey,
the rising again of the sun
I would rest content
awaiting glory’s
blazing moments
sprinting past,
my eager eye to catch.

When King Herod went on a rampage
of killing Hebrew babies two and under
in the hope of destroying the prophesied

King of Kings, Mary and Joseph fled with
baby Jesus out of harms way to Egypt.
They stayed until it was safe to head

home. Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus
fled terror. Baby Jesus was a refugee.
Baby Jesus was a helpless immigrant

in Egypt. Baby Jesus emigrated to Egypt.
The King of Kings was a refugee; the
King of Kings was an immigrant; Jesus

is a refugee; Jesus is an immigrant.
Where is Jesus? Jesus, King of Kings,
is there with the babies who have been

torn from their mothers’ breasts; Jesus,
King of Kings, is there with the babies
torn from their fathers’ arms. Where is

Jesus? Jesus sits in the sweltering heat
with the babies. Jesus loves the little
babies, all the babies of the world; red,

black, brown, yellow and white, they are
precious in refugee, immigrant Jesus’
sight. Immigrant Jesus loves the little

babies of the world. There is Jesus.
If we are Jesus’ body, how will the
babies know Jesus is there?

Where are we?

*idea from a meditation by Frederick Buechner
and a blog post by the Rev. Dr. Barbara Edema

What if Adolph Hitler
wrote the best poem ever?
Thank God, that isn’t
something we ever
have to consider.

What if Idi Amin
wrote the best novel ever?
Thank God, that isn’t
something we ever
have to dwell on or in.

But there are others —
poets, novelists, artists —
moral degenerates.
Do they get by on their
literary merits
or should they be held
accountable
and their work
rejected
or should their work
be judged separate?

The representatives and senators
want, more than anything else in
life, to be reelected, quite simply.

That is why they don’t represent
the people, but bow before the
(p)-resident in fecklessness and
fealty.

He watched the high school girls’
cross-country team practicing.
They sped past his house, up
the dune and back down again.
One, short speedster with pony-
tail flying, flew like a hare
past all the others, up and down,
up and down and round again,
circling her teammates. He watched
the stragglers and relived his
high school cross-country days
as the team straggler. He wanted
to run out the door and give the
stragglers encouragement telling
them that he now has forty-thousand
miles in forty-five years running on
his legs and that, indeed, the race
does go to the perseverance of the
tortoise, but, he stopped short. What
girl wants to be compared to a
tortoise?

There are intrusions
that come into well-planned lives
but nature survives.

Nature surely thrives
in spite of the best-planned lives
Intrusions happen.

Into best-planned lives
the gift of nature happens.
Intrusions denied.

“And all shall be well;
all manner of things shall be
well,” while nature thrives.

The history of humanity
is not told with historical
accuracy in the history
of humanity, because
the history of humanity
is written by the victors,
plunderers and pillagers
who would never wish to
be seen at all as such
(It’s Custer’s Last Stand;
what a great white man.);
school children get a re-
visionist human history
that looks sweet and nice,
almost exclusively for
whites who are portrayed
as being nice and right
because their god is on
their side while black,
brown, yellow and red
people died. Thank
heaven for a few good
Sunday School teachers
who faithfully read the
red-lettered words of
the red-lettered Bible
and had the children
sing, over and over,
“Jesus loves the little
children, all the children
of the world, red and
yellow, brown, black
and white, they are
precious in his sight,
Jesus loves the little
children of the world.”

The (p)-resident’s wife’s jacket
stated, “I Really Don’t Care; Do
U?” This was the jacket she
wore to greet the traumatized
children torn from their mothers
and fathers at the border. What
kind of message was that to
send — I say one thing but mean
the other or the (p)-resident
slipped it on her before she
left for the plane and she had
no idea what she was carrying
on her back like some crazy
adolescent prank of slapping
a stupid sticky note on the
jacket? And the (p)-resident
bragged about it. Well, guess
what? FLOTUS is betrayed again,
this time with something disgust-
ing all over her back.

Someone said he was just
“getting things off his chest”
not really writing poetry and

he got to thinking about that
and the function(s) of poetry
and how it is about all kinds

of 
things (at least 55 differ-
ent forms not to mention an
infinite variety of content)

which includes the afore-
mentioned “getting things 
off
one’s chest“ (idiomatic 
phrase

not unlike the harsher 
“venting
one’s spleen,”) and so, he address-
ed the criticism by writing this

so it would no longer “stick in
his craw.” Ultimately, isn’t it
all “in the eye of the beholder,”

anyway and shouldn’t we “first
remove the log from our own eye,
so we can see clearly to remove

the speck from our friend’s eye”?
There, the “bone of contention,”
is dislodged 
and tossed in the

garbage behind closed doors where
the Chocolate Lab can “sniff it out”
but can’t get at 
it.