Siegfried Sassoon

Siegfried Sassoon. 1886–1960

Aftermath

HAVE you forgotten yet?...
For the world's events have rumbled on since those gagged days,
Like traffic checked a while at the crossing of city ways:
And the haunted gap in your mind has filled with thoughts that flow
Like clouds in the lit heavens of life; and you're a man reprieved to go,	5
Taking your peaceful share of Time, with joy to spare.
But the past is just the same,—and War's a bloody game....
Have you forgotten yet?...
Look down, and swear by the slain of the War that you'll never forget.
Do you remember the dark months you held the sector at Mametz,—	10
The nights you watched and wired and dug and piled sandbags on parapets?
Do you remember the rats; and the stench
Of corpses rotting in front of the front-line trench,—
And dawn coming, dirty-white, and chill with a hopeless rain?
Do you ever stop and ask, "Is it all going to happen again?"	15
Do you remember that hour of din before the attack,—
And the anger, the blind compassion that seized and shook you then
As you peered at the doomed and haggard faces of your men?
Do you remember the stretcher-cases lurching back
With dying eyes and lolling heads, those ashen-grey	20
Masks of the lads who once were keen and kind and gay?
Have you forgotten yet?...
Look up, and swear by the green of the Spring that you'll never forget.

poetry night

it's the tie that binds.
waters dare not quench, but i forget the rest.

no gift can reunify, reignite, nor rebuild.
Fear tells me all the what ifs are true.

gestures mock, words decay, intentions slide back beneath the surface.
they are dim mirrors of what was real.

the leaves are here.
i see the leaves and i hear them and they are with me.

You are the leaves, but you seem distant high above me, speaking in foreign hushes only the trees can understand.
You seem to be watching my every move, thought and action.

it is disgusting the way despair provokes art.
i despise this weakness, this wretched crutch.

i eat the food of love, but it tastes like stones and sand and tears.
you meant it, i meant it, but we never remember.

we curse our handiwork, our gifts, our hearts.
we shred our bonds, we have shot the beast.

togetherness is not enough, love is not enough, words are not enough, things are not enough.
the tide drifts away and i have the empty circle of zero right here between my arms.

if you want meaning, it will sound trite.
you know the so called value of the things i have, rust and dust, intentions and pleas, shadows and prayers.

i will always love.
i will always mean it.

i will never leave.
i will always love.

Living in the Sand

Deuteronomy 11:18-21
Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the LORD swore to give your forefathers, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.

Mark 10:13-16
People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.

I have a niece who’s name is Zoë. She’s 3. She and her family came down for a visit not too long ago and, among other things, we all had a chance to hang out in the back yard one afternoon.

I built a sandbox back there for just such occasions.

We could hardly get Zoë out of it. And the sand box is something that I can still get. I can still sit in there with her and play and shovel and in some way understand the allure of the sandbox. So we were back there playing in it, and she did something surprising.

She was just sitting there in the sand and then she leaned forward and laid down in it on her stomach. She started making a face plant sand angel, arms and legs moving the sand around. It was great. I just sat there watching her and thinking, I should have made this thing bigger—I want to try that! She was just swimming in the sand, and she gave no explanation to me as to why, because I am sure that it was clearly evident to her, and needed no explanation.

Now her mother and my wife were a ways off and I don’t think they saw what was happening. I had a flash of concern, I thought, Should I stop her? Should I get her out? Maybe scold her? But at the same time I thought of what the damage really would be; a little dirt in the clothes? Maybe some sand in my house when she changed for her bath? I can handle that. So I just let her keep on. And while I was watching her and laughing, I thought to my self, Now THAT is playing in the sandbox. That is some serious sandbox time. I thought too that since I didn’t have kids, I didn’t immediately know what was the right thing to do, what were the rules, but the more I watched her just wallering in the sand the less I figured that I needed to stop her.

She saw me chuckling and grinned this huge grin at me and then sat up and started heaping sand on my knees.

Kids are great aren’t they? The Bible has some very specific things to say about children as well, and even makes some of its most important stories include the childhood of that person. Isaac and Ishmael, Joseph, Moses, Samuel, David, Josiah, Timothy. There are verses and verses of what the Bible says should be done to and for children.

Genesis 15:5 talks about children as a reward from God, as part of His promise to the people of His own.

Exodus refers to the people of God’s chosen as children. Over and over they are addressed as such.

Psalms 8:2 describes children speaking about the strength of God and silencing His enemies!

Mark 9:37 is a passage which has Jesus telling us that to be welcoming to a child is to welcome Christ himself.

Matthew 21:16 Jesus talks about reveling in the songs of praise that children were offering him.

We read another few passages this morning. All of these things add up to one thing in my understanding that children are important.

And that may sound like a, No Duh, kind of thing to say to everyone. Obviously kids are important, where would the human race be without them?! We have children’s camps, children’s time in church, children’s Sunday school, pre-school, Montessori, baby Einstein, transitional children’s food, children’s fashion, toy sections in every store on the face of the earth. Obviously children are important!

But, really, I am meaning that children are spiritually and emotionally important to us. Think about a child, and not about the mundane misunderstandings that have to take place in order to get them to live in the world of adults. Think about that kid in the sand-box and what is really occurring there. There is complete involvement, an eagerness to participate, laughter, questions, and imagination.

Apply those same ideals to worship, or our life of faith and children can cultivate the spiritual life of others with those traits.

Everything is new to them and they help us see God through new eyes. They ask questions that help us clarify our beliefs and add energy to our own prayers to God.

What is worship? Children worship with each new discovery of their lives. The aspects of worship--reverence, respect, love, awe, praise, adoration, appreciation, and honor—these come naturally to children.

With all of these things in mind I think I might go one step further and say that children are spiritually integral to our lives. In that mind set it gives new meaning to the phrase “Be fruitful and multiply.” But those words make a strange kind of conjunction with what Christ says later about children and the kingdom of heaven don’t they? God isn’t telling us in Genesis to populate the earth with our progeny just for the sole purpose of crowding the land with swarms of humans, but instead is giving us a biological charge that he knows will be another way for us to understand and experience God while on earth.

Because you have to be an adult to perceive the wonderful things that children do. As a child you are just living life. As adults we can see the experience and understand it and allow it to affect our spiritual nature. But we have to allow it.

In the Gospel lesson today, we have a pretty classic tale that we have probably all heard before. Jesus is out and about with the local people and there are whole groups of them who have brought their children. Now, children in this society are viewed very differently than today. They are socially and physically powerless. Nearly half of all children in the ancient world died before they were 12. In gentile communities a child would often be abandon if the family couldn’t provide for it.

The disciples in our reading are busy being about the work of the kingdom. They have the Roman and the Sanhedrin and the Pharisees breathing down their necks at every turn. They just don’t have time for the foolishness that politically powerless children represent at this engagement. Jesus needs to be about telling people how to throw off the yoke of oppression and learn a new way to seek the will of God. This is important stuff. Take your kids and go home people. The word rebuke in our reading is “epitimao” in Greek and means strongly hindering. You could almost imagine the disciples as line of bouncers at a concert, refuting those who aren’t making the cut, denying entrance to the backstage.

Jesus however turns all of those notions completely on their ear. He realizes the truest form of what the Father was saying when the original couple left the garden of Eden. He is able to see beyond the social feelings of the time and see what God means for in our children. And he says two very important things. First, that while he and the disciples are working to bring the kingdom, it doesn’t belong to them! It belongs to the following generation. He says to the disciples, you are working for a legacy, not for your own interests.

The second thing he tells them is that further if you cannot act like a child in regard to God you will never be able to receive what God has in store for you. And then the scripture does something wonderful. It describes Jesus’ tender actions that have become the inspiration for scores and scores of paintings the world over. He takes the children in his arms and blesses them.

This is a blessed statement for us. In these few words Christ gives us subtle and important instruction in life. First that we are required to think of our actions here as a legacy for the following generation. And not just the day in and day out grind of providing for the family, putting food on the table, and clothes on their backs. But instead the spiritual provision of how to act, how to seek God and how to understand the faith.

And as is His style Jesus asks us to do something and then in the same series of sentences tells us how to fulfill the change. You want to know what you need to teach your children? Well, it’s what they already do by nature. How does a child believe and love? Ever had a child zero in on that one special stuffed animal? They believe that against all the evidence this thing of fluff has emotions and heart just like any of us. They love it with all their hearts making no distinction. The commit to it with total abandon.

I think again of little Zoë in the sandbox. Embracing every grain in the joy of the feeling and the ability to just play. That is the heart that God is requesting from us. He tells us, if you want to see the true kingdom, then come like this. Concentrate only on me, commit to the action with everything that you are. Waller around in my Love!

Go on a walk with a child. We were walking with Zoë and every pebble she picked up was interesting and special. She gave every single one of them to my wife to put in her pants pocket. We would only walk a few steps before she would pick up another. Children approach the world with wonder and questions. Reverence, love, awe, praise, adoration, appreciation, and honor come naturally to children.

God tries over and over through scripture to have us understand the meaning behind that. The importance of this constant wonderment.

The verse from Deuteronomy might seem a little odd this morning, but I want to draw it in here. In verse 19 when it starts talking about how to teach the children, I think it is making a little joke. “When you sit at home and when you walk on the road, when you lie down when you get up…” Yeah, on the one hand it’s a great piece of scripture that tells us that anytime is the time for talking about God and who He is, but more than that it’s making a little joke about kids in general. What parent reading that wouldn’t think, yeah, if I can get a word in edgewise. Kids ask questions and talk before bed, they need stories or extra hugs or water or whatever, they talk getting up, they talk on walks they talk when you are sitting, they want to involve you and play, and DO…

In one way it is saying that we can teach children and answer their questions not just in the church, and that means all of us, not just the parents of those particular kids. Yet in another way it is exemplifying to the adults what kids already know. God is everywhere, worship of God can be everywhere, and out hearts should be in that desperate place of needing to find out more and more and more all the time. God is infinite. And if we really believe that then we can also believe that we will never really know all there is to know about God.

I think we get to a certain point in our adult lives and think, well I know enough now. I might figure out a thing or two here and there, but really.. I’m kind of done. Much to our great and faithless tragedy. We loose the ability we once had as children to be in constant question and wonder about all the facets of God.

And so God blesses us with children; who have that awesome ability not only to quiz you to death but to love you implicitly at the same time. And that is a great way to treat God. Question and ask out of that desperate need to know Him and His world better and better and still Love Him without any reservations.

So you want to enter the Kingdom? Not only are we called to live and work for it, in order to ensure the legacy of faith and a beautiful world for the next generation, but each and every one of us, must realize the amazing power and blessing that comes from living a spiritual life exactly as a child would live it. Get in the sandbox, and lie there with total abandon.

Middle East Pop Quiz

by Charley Reese

It's time for another pop quiz on America's favorite region of the world – the Middle East. Let's get started with the subject of nuclear weapons.

Which country in the Middle East actually possesses nuclear weapons?

Israel.

Which country in the Middle East refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty?

Israel.

Which country in the Middle East refuses to allow international inspections of its nuclear facilities?

Israel.

Which countries in the Middle East have called for the region to be a nuclear-free zone?

The Arab countries and Iran.

Which country in the Middle East occupies land belonging to other people?

Israel, which occupies a piece of Lebanon, a larger piece of Syria, East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.

Which country in the Middle East has for 60 years refused to allow refugees to return to their homes and refused to consider compensation to them for their lost property?

Israel.

Which country has roads on which citizens who are Arab may not drive and housing developments where Arabs may not live?

Israel.

Which country in the region has violated more United Nations resolutions than any other?

Israel. The United States has on more than one occasion gone to war ostensibly to enforce U.N. Security Council resolutions, but when it comes to resolutions directed against Israel, the U.S. is like the amoral monkey that sees, hears and says nothing. That raises the question of who's the dog and who's the tail?

Which country in the region has in the past been led by men who at one time were terrorists with a price on their heads?

Israel. Former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir once led the Stern Gang and ordered, among other things, the assassination of Count Folke Bernadotte, a Swedish diplomat working for the United Nations. Former Prime Minister Menachem Begin led the Irgun, a terrorist gang that among other things blew up one wing of the King David Hotel, killing nearly 100 people.

Which country in the Middle East openly employs assassination against its political enemies?

Israel. There have been assassinations carried out by some of the Arab governments, but they usually don't own up to them. Israel has created a euphemism that the suck-up American press has readily adopted: "targeted killings." A British journalist told me once, "The Palestinians have a talent for picking bad leaders, and the Israelis have a talent for murdering their good ones."

What are the top five countries from which we import oil?

Here they are in order of volume: Canada, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Nigeria and Venezuela. The next time you hear some blowhard politician ranting about how the Arabs control our oil imports, remind him or her of the facts. By far, a majority of oil imports come from non-Arab countries.

Which country in the region receives an annual gift of $3 billion or more from Congress?

Israel.

Which foreign-aid recipient is the only one allowed to receive its aid in a lump sum and which routinely invests part of it in U.S. Treasuries so that taxpayers pay them interest on the taxpayers' gift?

Israel.

Which country in the Middle East has the most powerful lobby in the U.S.?

Israel.

Which country in the Middle East are most American politicians, journalists and academics afraid to criticize?

Israel.

On behalf of which country has the U.S. vetoed the largest number of U.N. Security Council resolutions?

Israel.

What country do the people in the region consider the world's biggest hypocrite?

The United States.

Which countries in the Middle East have attacked U.S. ships in international waters?

Iraq and Israel. A lone Iraqi plane fired one missile at a U.S. ship by mistake. The Iraqi government quickly compensated the U.S. In 1967, Israeli airplanes and torpedo boats attacked the USS Liberty, killing 34 Americans. The U.S. government declared it an accident even before the ship limped into port, and to this day Congress has never held a public hearing and allowed the survivors to tell their story. Their story, by the way, is that the attack was deliberate. Israel compensated the families of those who were killed, but resisted for years paying compensation for the ship.

To give or not to give

Random thought for the day...


Acts 20:35
"In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.' "

Interesting line, that is only from Paul quoting Christ. It's not even in the Gospel of Thomas as far as I could read...

If we are Blessed by God though, we are blessed with a purpose. Be are Blessed to receive things from God, that is our Blessing. We receive as His children, the benefit of wisdom, or forgiveness, etc. We are called to then give which in turn will result in the more blessing, the greater blessing. The blessings on top of blessings.
Only by giving can we achieve the upper echelon of the Blessings in store for us.

Father Bother

I used to baby sit in High school. Statistically there aren’t that many guys who do that, but I had a pretty special case with a few of the kids in my church. There was one family of three girls who were so very near and dear to my heart. The youngest I actually saw being born through her mother sharing the video with out youth group.

Babysitting in so many ways taught the lessons of fatherhood to me in a wonderful way, kind of like, being allowed have some of the experiences without the worry of full time responsibility. And, I don’t really mean the how to portion of father hood, the bottle warming, the diaper changing, the games, the bed tucking, the lullaby singing, the book reading, the shoe tying, the nose whipping, the band aid sticking or any of that. I mean the real processes of being a father. The learning not to worry about every single step the child makes. The learning of how to be in wonder at this little kids amazing ability to see God and know the love of Christ. The learning of how to create in them a sense of who God is personally for them. Those are the real pieces of fatherhood that we all look towards.

I feel bad for fathers these days. And I will say this now as someone who isn’t yet a father because I want you all to know that there is someone on the outside that recognizes this and shows solidarity! I feel bad for them though because they get a really bad rap according to the world at large. Which I realize we aren’t supposed to be listening to. As Christians we try and hone our ears not to the things of the world but instead to the things of God, but I think that so much of it permeates our thinking regardless. Do you notice it? I’ll give you some examples. You know the show “Everybody Loved Raymond”? I used to love that show, Peter Boyle the actor that played the father I think is one of the funniest actors ever. But I used to really like the humor and the meter that the show had, until I realized what the show was really about. It revolves around the fact that Ray, the main character, is a screw-up. First as a husband and then later as a father, it continually points out his, sometimes well-meaning, but eventually disastrous pratfalls as a man. And sure, to a point it’s fun to see the failings of ourselves in others, but the show takes it to a ludicrous extreme.

But now of course, one show does not a conspiracy make, but lets continue…

Who like eggo waffles? Leggo my eggo right? In the past two years they have been running a series of cartoon commercials which involve a bumbling dad trying, and never succeeding, in trying to get one of his daughters waffles. And again, funny at first but after a while I find myself just saying to the girl, “Come on! He’s your dad! Make the poor man a waffle!” But again, maybe I am being too sensitive.

There is another show called the “King of Queens” that goes in a Ralph Cramdon-esque move. (Remember that show the Honeymooners?) Here again, we see the deficient husband constantly supported and dragged out of trouble by his obviously superior wife.

And who can forget “The Simpsons.” Probably the best example of the moron father figure, the only saving grace that they give Homer, is that he is sometimes deeply sincere in his love for his family.

Another popular show from a few years back is “Malcom in the Middle.” In which their father Hal, is consistently either trying to hide trouble from his berating wife, or plotting with his sons to something they know the mother would never approve of.

Now of course if there were gross misrepresentation of reality there would be no show, nad it wouldn’t be funny in any way. But it just seems to me that the bar of expectation for fathers has been set pretty low by the world at large.

Media like that makes it easier for us to forget that fatherhood is a calling from God. The character of a father has lasting influence on the children of his family. We can gloss over that fact sometimes. We can concentrate too much on the father as the provider, the open wallet, the worker bee… We forget that God has placed this man in the family for an express purpose. There was no chance in his being a part of this family, he is called every day to be a part of the workings and the spiritual growth of the family.

This is something that we have touched on in some of our Family retreats this past year. We talked about the role of the father, and the mother, in the Christian household. In fact, there is one family that I know remembers the lesson well. Usually whenever I am around them at a church even the mom makes a point to call the dad “Captain” which was one of the ways we discussed the father’s role. Which I think is great that they joke about it cause it means they remember the lesson!

Biblically the father is called to do three things in the family. He is called to be the minister of the family. Dad is called to act as and emulate Christ to his family in a very particular way. We are all called to be like Christ in everyday life, but the father is called to act as Christ acted toward the church. He is to guide and lead the family in a righteous way and care for the spiritual needs of the family. We concentrate too much on the idea that the leader is supposed to dictate the rules to everyone, but we need to see that the best leaders throughout history are the ones who provided for the needs of their community. A good minister makes the people a priority, and so must the good father as minister.

The second part of a father calling is to be the manager of the family. 1 Timiothey 3:4 states that in a very clear and real way. A good manager though again does not dictate to the household what must be done. Think of the greatest managers you’ve ever worked for or with. The listen to your needs, they gather knowledge and they create a workplace that is going to be the best for the company or product you are trying to create. And the same applies. The product is a group of people who lead a Godly life, and only by knowing your family, listening, and being prayerfully dependent on God can a father manage the household well.

The third aspect of the calling is one of the most important, and is sometimes the easiest to overlook. A father is a model to his family. We all might have a story or two of an adult in our life giving us the old “do as I say, not as I do” speech. And how much water did that hold with us? Not much with me I might tell you. We naturally want to do as the group does. We spend so much time in the church and in Sunday school talking about how to better model Christ so that others can be taught and inspired by our example. And is the example ever going to be perfect, dads? Heck no, but even that is wonderful lesson of behavior for all our children. It becomes something real that says, this is how you mess up. Which is a strange thing to think about, teaching someone how to mess up, but if we never saw anyone having a crisis of faith or messing up then when it happened to us, we would be totally unprepared for it! To a certain extent our kids need to see our failure and how we deal with that as much as they need to see our success and blessing.

So when does this calling cease? When they are 18, 20? When they get married? Some of our older fathers out here know the answer to that. NEVER! At 30 I still know that I need my father for his knowledge and guidance. He is still the model for my life, and will be always. Fathers and men of faith are integrally important to the spiritual life of our families and our church community.

There is a legacy to be left to the future generations, one that is left by fathers and mothers, by church fathers and church mothers. You know who those are? Those are those extraordinary people in our church family who aren’t related by blood, but are related by love. I had one or two growing up in my church and they changed the way my life was shaped through their powerful example of Jesus Christ.

Every one of us is called to do that for the children of this church.

But there is a legacy we leave. We aren’t going to be here forever. We are leaving this church in the hands of those who come after us. And they are going to do with it as they will! Hopefully, they will have the understanding and knowledge of Godly Presbyterianism to guide them that was instilled there by our efforts. –but that all depends on our actions today!

I have a young friend who I have recently been re-connecting with on email. At one point this past week she and I traded a few favorite Bible verses back and forth. One of mine comes from Ephesians. It’s well known, but the section I wanted to concentrate on here this morning might not be. Ephesians 6:12 states that our battle, our fight is not with the people of this world, but the invisible powers that seek to de-rail and destroy it.

As we consider how we are going to leave a legacy, we must be aware that the powers of un-doing out there are going to work against it. We must know that our persistence is needed in all things. They are going to make this idea of family leadership seem like something that’s not so important. They are going to want us to not be the best example of a Joyful Christ when we come to church. They are currently working to make our lives so busy that we do not have the time to influence our children’s lives. Our legacy requires our persistence through them.

Our legacy also depends on our relationship with Christ. We talk about that in a kind of abstraction sometimes, but it pervades our life in a very real way. Is there trouble with your personal relationships? At home? With friends? Then we need to check our relationship with God. The relationship that we hold with the Almighty is reflected and refracted back into all of the other relationships of our lives. If our personal relationships feel like they are in trouble, or just not sitting right, then there is a Higher calling we need to deal with first. Romans 12:1-2 tells us not to conform to this world but to instead be transformed by renewing our minds so that we can show people what the will of God is. Paul is asking us to continue to pursue, pursue, pursue that relationship with God. To keep after it. Always, always… I had an elder friend in a previous church who was just always flirting with his wife at the age of 80. I commented once that they always seemed giddy together, and he said that there was a reason behind it. He said, I never stopped pursuing her heart. Here is a man who had been married more than 50 years who was still trying to win the affection of his wife! That is our calling to God as well. To be in continual pursuit of the mind and heart of God. To constantly be transformed to know the will of God.

Through all of this pursuant perseverance we must know that our faithfulness in action will be met with honor. God promises as much in Mathew 25:23. To the servant who does well with his masters gifts praise is given. And not only praise the blessing, the promise of other things. Those are powerful words when we consider the source. This is an absolute. God says, if you are faithful to me and persevere you will have the blessing. More than that the end of that verse says that we are to share in the masters joy!

Father’s Day makes us consider so many things, about our own fathers, and for some about the fathers we are still or will become. This is a wonderful time to step out and be transformed and renewed in our leadership in not only our homes but in our church and our community as well. God does not place slobs and dullards in His community of faith. Own the faith that God has put in all of us, and renew the legacy that we leave for the next generation of Christian Believers!

Snaps PLease

My ferocious.
At do withdrew,
numerous.
Is frequently plural?
To former in cheap solemn.
Be it fulfill hemisphere intrusive.
That hereditary? For the audition bags.




So this is some junkmail I got the other day... It is, I assume, some word generator they have created to try and bypass the filters. But... it comes out sounding like beatnik poetry in some small way....
"My Feriocious." I like that... Ask not for whom the audition bags... It bags for YOU.

Perf-ect

Tiny perf you’re short for something

Words that get chopped consider where goes the rest

A tiny graveyard made just for them

The character we invent to be the task master of this imagined penal colony…

fax

info

res

Do you keen for your ending mates?

The other parts the completeness you never knew you missed?

What Happens over Jazz

Words fly and are the measure of man
Take stock of your syntax, your sinful desire
See what you are
What you were
Realizing that the past was a sum total of an equation you forgot
Sitting, languishing in a book bag never cleansed.

Intrepid reason collides with plebeian emotion
Trying to out do each other, the dare comes out
The double dog, the triple, can you handle that?

Graded heads bowing and bobbing to the god we created
not of blood and bone but of high minded intellect
worship until we weep, panting plaintively over another one
lost to the faith we have so carefully constructed.

Burned on a Saturday Night

Hot milk – steamed bliss

Running out of that marvel machine – hiss…

Comes from a cow, but don’t tell me how

You make it sound only like so much… well

From boy to grown man, is there anything better?

The smoothness of cream, the sweetness of butter

A love affair that began at state fairs

4H you are the one true god

Melatonin, melatone-down my life

It’s a mad mad mad mad cow disease

To keep a secret so incomprehensible

complex drink full of math and chemistry

whipped and added, frothed and chilled

boiled, putrefied, curdled and milled

Romance of lactose, a sweet caress on the tongue

For that frothy Freudian, my tastes yearn

Yet… wait, my lid? Is it not on quite right—sigh

And now what’s there to show? Second degree burns.

Our Welsh flowers Bloom Anew

What happens in the intermittent?

The space between the spaces we thought we could control?

Flesh flies and feelings turn and double and triple

Back around to a place they started that’s not the same point as before.

Some masochistic equation that needs yards of board and chalk to even attempt to resolve.

Solve for x

Solve for me.

Hours and hours a day turn to wisps of memory and gossip transferred from here to here to here to her…

But still the oldest adages are the truest.

That time brings temperance in a sweet cool way.

That wisdom begets age begets wisdom begets wonder.

Everything else burns away in the crucible of time

That ever-present effervescent animal that lurks stalking and devouring all but the things that are most real.

The things that Are

So we stand here at this corner stripped bare of everything that used to comfortablely cloth us

We stand here survivors of another age

Believers in a renewed evangelist

Wishers of a reconciliation

Well.... Hell.

Hey guess what? The creator of the universe? Yeah, he doesn't need to to start a Facebook group about how scientists in Siberia drilled a hole to Hell and then tell everyone that if they don't want to be tortured they had better sign up for teh Christian bandwagon.

http://www.snopes.com/religion/wellhell.asp

Four seconds of research tells you it isn't true, and then what does it do? It makes Christians look like a bunch of gullible morons who don't have any idea what is true.

So do me a favor. The next time you get the urge to start a new group about how great God is, and put links to all the "true" stories of faith out there? Don't. The faith will be a lot better of without you.