• [CHRISTIA] new poetry, "Nor Bathed, Nor Washed"

    From Mark@1:396/4 to Practical Christian Life on Sun Jun 14 12:57:45 2020
    From: lamppoet@CENTURYTEL.NET (Mark)

    We do lots of things entirely unrelated to the most important
    commandment.and the second.



    "Nor Bathed, Nor Washed"



    ("This is the first and most important commandment." Matthew 22:38)



    Wetness never surrendered our sins, nor bathed, nor washed
    them.
    A chanted prayer or babbled tongue never broke the ceiling,
    revealed the spoken faces or reassigned the thirsty graces
    to the needy-not-us.
    A whirling grandchild is not the Spirit's toy,
    divine words are not playthings to conjure a win
    or a raise,
    hide my sin or drop the haze upon my exposure.
    The best for me and the slight for you,
    the blessing upon my brow while it must be the cursed
    who cannot pay the rent or
    who have tsunamis sent to wake the dead. I love
    my religion, my old songs, sawdust and drum kits
    all within the hearing of the hungry who do not
    know how to clean their houses or their children,
    who swipe their paper-thin soles upon the newly-laid
    carpet. (Will you sit here, closer to the door, and maybe
    we won't have to replace quite as much flooring.)



    I'm the worst, I've just rehearsed my compassion.



    Loving up and loving down, embracing light, enwrapping sound,
    carousels of words, morsels of moments we hope will please
    the deity we've become.

    Oh holy and glory, all truth and only All who leaves
    no space vacant in Your Fullness; who leaves no heart
    empty in Your With-ness; let my witness be, my reality
    the
    elite thrones torn down and shattered, replaced
    by
    a simple and slightly tattered shirt from the back
    of my closet
    that I wear when I visit my
    closest friends.





    Close,

    mark p.

    lamppoet@centurytel.net



    Mark's Blog

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