How long did you know, Lord,
how long did you know,
before I was born,
so long ago?
 
How long did you know, Lord,
how long did you know,
all I would be,
so long ago?
 
How long did you know, Lord,
where I would go,
when we started together,
so long ago?
 
How long did you know, Lord,
all that I know,
the life I live now,
how long did you know?
 
How long did you know, Lord,
what I do not know,
how long did you know,
the way still to go?
 
How long did you know, Lord,
how long did you know,
how much you did love me,
so long ago?
 
(1990s)

 
Jesus on the cross, reach down,
reach down to me
My simple prayer this is:
to Thee
 
My failings win,
I cannot reach or see,
But through thy love, your love for me,
I know of Love’s eternity,
 
My hope, your Love for me,
And so I ask –
My Jesus on the cross,
in prayer to thee
 

 
If I wanted to sit at your feet,
your Presence was here.
If I wanted to hear you speak,
your Word is read.
If I wanted to see you,
your Body is held high.
To touch your garment,
I can embrace Communion.
 
If I wanted new beginning,
my journey starts with you, O Alpha!
Or to end my sorrows and slavery,
here, my Omega.
If I wanted the center of the universe
there was this liturgical moment
when East and West heaven and earth
meet in divine oblation.
 
And if I could not be here,
I could reach this all in prayer.
No need for pilgrim wandering
To find a teacher or an answer
Or rational explanation set beside your Mystery.

No, rather, we celebrate your Revelation.
Our belief is simple:
God came revealed, incarnate,
died, ascended
He left us, living after,
with his Spirit.
 
We Christians see the comings and the goings
of this world and now believe
we are His Body,
our actions in and for him.
We believe we are the Church,
living through the Spirit,
the aftermath of the Ascension.
Surrounded by miracles, we await God’s day
quietly, in Ordinary Time.  [i]  
 
                                                                        (1990s)


[i]   “Ordinary Time”.  Wikipedia.org. {https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordinary_Time } (accessed January 19, 2022).
“Ordinary Time … is the part of the liturgical year in the liturgy of the Roman Rite … which falls outside the two great seasons of Christmas-tide and Eastertide, or their respective preparatory seasons of Advent and Lent.”  

 
You promised to be with us always,
always, until the end of the world,
but where are you?
               * * *
You are in Awareness
when I wake in the morning
whether or not I greet you
that first moment….
 
You are in my Home,
my comfort where I rest,
the nest for one or many –
structure of human love
 
You are in every Person
You have told us so,
that we are all members of one Body,
your Body, each a different part
 
You, Creator, are in every blade of grass,
each flower, wave or mountain
each moment, drop of dew,
dead seed and new beginning

Your special Promise brings you there
when two or three
gather in your Name
–  Behold!
 
You wait “reserved” in Tabernacle ark
God in the Temple of his Church
intended for our visit,
Your building has a Center
 
You shine in Monstrance to adore
with candles and gold
perhaps incense and song,
sometimes in lonely vigil
 
You are in our Congregation,
a great diversity which shares
no age, or looks, or taste, or thought, or motive
but only You, as your Body
 
You are in the Ordained, those ranks,
up through the Holy Father,
built on Peter-Rock,
Shepherd of your great flock
 
You are in the Ritual of today and yesterday
 “Do this in memory of me” –
Priest’s presence, words and gesture,
“line of Melchisedek”
 
 You share the heavenly junction
when angels with your Mystical Body,
Church Triumphant and Militant,
pause in Liturgy’s Mass to adore….
 
You are that repeatedly new Presence
for which no culture truly has a word,
“Transubstantiation” coined to term
the humanly inexpressible
 
You are in Communion’s closeness
when you visit me, one of many,
whether attention  “there” or absent,
only to find Fruits afterward
 
You speak in “Ite, Missa Est,”
sending us to bring you to the World,
to love your Least Ones,
as loving You, one-on-one
               * * *
You promised to be with us always,
always, until the end of the world,
and we find you  –  everywhere
 
(2010s)

 
A handful of happiness
like sand, or snow, gold, or seed,
gripped to feel the fullness
wants to open fingers,
sprinkle and scatter –
rejoicing new places
 
(2010s)
 

 
Word root of “Lent” means Spring
Word root of “Lent” means increase
Word root of “Lent” means slowly
Word root of “Lent” means release
The season that springs from roots….  [i]
 
In northern woods a stream
has forced a dam of ice across its banks
chunks white, translucent, glowing watery green
caught against tree trunks
and still melting
 
How thick those plates
when formed in higher swamps and shallows,
how long before they cracked
to blocks and pieces
tumbling freely down to impasse
 
With warmth some extra force was added
to carry down this pile –
gushing falls, perhaps great rain,
a rush that tore and lifted, came
forcing winter’s frozen remnants here

   (continued on next page)

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Now, still waiting
for more sun and flowing
to break this jam
they cause amaze –
short permanence so threatened
 
by intermittent, jagged breakdown
till all of winter disappears
 
(2010s)


[i]   “Lent”. Online Etymology Dictionary.  {https://www.etymonline.com/word/lent } (accessed January 20, 2022).
 

 
Dear Friend, forgive
if like the tide
I follow moons to far-off shores
or ocean center rendezvous.
Forgive me if my vagrant waves
leave no promise of return
except odd gifts for you to store.
Trust that somewhere, as from you,
their waters drink up secret strains
till, moon-relinquished, back they turn
with fragrance to add more.
 
(for R.V. - 1960s)

 
I can’t believe in life,
that’s it!
I’ve tried each day
“Next year,” we say
What happens in between?
Six new worlds at least
and I’ll be fooled by all of them
 
Perhaps a thousand years ago
when time was slow
and all one life the same
Perhaps some child’s new eyes
said, “Land and sea,
friends and me.”
Perhaps then life was tame.
 
We have the same God still,
No doubting that, I know
It’s Life I can’t believe in,
his blindfold game below
 
(1960s)

 
we, tiny sea animals
have a place and function
doing slow work sifting
each with our tiny cells
the ocean water which passes
building a house to protect
our small and vulnerable selves
 
then we die and our ruins
in colonies or alone
gather below unnoticed
our work is quietly resting
tiny sediment bones
and all the while above us
others come and go
 
our leavings transform in stages
starting with fine drifting sand
later mountains and cities
are made from the rock of our shells
or planted with feet firm upon us
because from the fluid ocean
we have created the land
 
(1970s)

 
Like a priest holding up a wafer
I offer Thee this mood
sliver of existence
reflection’s food
 
May it be consecrated until
we can see Thee
 
(1980s)