Poetry

Dancing with The Middle Kingdom

December 9, 2019 0 Comments

So the dance continues, but no one rejoices. And no one really believes the detainees “have completed their studies, found stable employment with the help of the government and have improved their quality of life and live a happy life.” (The Guardian)

So instead we shall lament for and with the Uighurs. #Advent

Dancing With The Middle Kingdom

New neighbours were sent to be with us. We 
know they can’t stand us.

Throw your doppas down they told us. Your 
songs are forbidden they told us.

Contempt, it rises like a lunar compass
shackling us both in a silk road conquest.

Home comforts have been taken from us. Our 
children are lost so utterly lost to us. 

Who surveils freedom’s death for us? Who 
hears the child’s cry far from us?

With pork dumplings they torment us. With 
baijiu they seek a ruckus.

Divine irony may make them like us. Swine
flu may make spare ribs as rare as mercy for us.

Empire building requires faces barbarous. So 
according to their hearts they see us.

We are nothing except what they want from us. They 
seek a solution for us, a solution for

Poetry

, , ,

Who Reads Poetry?

December 6, 2019 0 Comments

While in a prayer meeting this week this question and the answer came quick. I had started with the question of Isaiah the prophet’s poetry which I suppose we can call the Lord’s poetry. Who reads God’s Word deeply? And then question in my mind “Well for that matter, who reads poetry? Who reads poetry?”

The answer came as a picture first and then as words.

Who reads poetry?

Perhaps those who will 
tarry under trees
‘till their souls
rooted in soil 
breathe
again.

#poetry #slowdown #deeproots #atthecross

Poetry

,

Catechism + Comment

July 16, 2019 0 Comments

I. O Mortal, what is required of thee?
To act justly.

When
the man at the top
refuses to be
the man at the bottom
he will not be
for the people.

II. O Mortal, what is required of thee?
To love mercy.

When
your counsellors have retired,
When
your news is on repeat,
When
your body has resigned,
do you sleep?

III. O Mortal, what is required of thee?
To walk humbly with my God.

When
the man at the bottom
refuses to be
the man at the top
he will not be
for himself alone.

Leadership, Poetry, Society

Lament for Refuge

June 1, 2019 0 Comments

You have searched me, LORD and you know me.

My life of aspiration
Was bought in sweat and deception
For my ancestors came from the wrong nation
And were treated with contempt and degradation.

You created my inmost being and knit me together in my mother’s womb.

In every space I have tried not to die
’till a friend said, “Go West young man,
They love the truth.” So I have arrived to find
The truth is not enough — they would rather hear a lie.

Search me, God, and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts.

Peace eludes me.
I don’t have a way.
Truth enslaves me.
I don’t want to hide.

See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

I love life.

Poetry, Relationships

,

No Nostalgia for Shells

May 28, 2019 0 Comments

The soft blue swatch
that caught my eye
would not yield–
either
a tale of security
or the song of your
wild fortunes.
My questions could not penetrate
the folds of your recent past,
yet gratitude swept over me like light on ancient paths,
illuminating our common plot
and the Spirit’s gracious gifts —
the free
must have room to grow
and time for wings
to stretch.

Change, Poetry, Relationships

, ,