oh God
my darkness is a wall
where I alone am beating
and implore the blank between
to yield to sounds and blows
into vacuum fleeting
since I have started
all the other roads
and have no answer seen
but blindness stark
I can’t retreat –
God of darkness
do you hear? remember
I am always at your feet
 
(1960s)

 
from twilight threat
deliver me
darkness of night
death of cold
gray devils
of an empty soul
that coming season’s
distant sun
falls early –
in my dread
I can barely
live till north-time
break its power
or see me dead
 
(1960s)
 

As from a statue in a fountain
Time pours out, from You on us  
obediently dispensing moments
perhaps counted
yes, Time, so precious
 
And we grasp drops in sunshine,
split all these to sparkles
refracting and reflecting,
tossing a shower of diamonds
back into God’s catch basin  [i] 




[i]   Isaiah 55:11 – “Isaiah”.  United States Catholic Conference of Bishops. {https://bible.usccb.org/bible/isaiah/55}  (accessed January 19, 2022):
“So shall my word be
that goes forth from my mouth;
It shall not return to me empty,
but shall do what pleases me,
achieving the end for which I sent it” 
 

 
Dear God
sometimes it seems
you have overshadowed my flame
smothered it
stamped on it
then ground your heel in me
and walked away

 
this new and foreign element
came so sharp and forcefully
lodged so firm as part of me
the pain of entrance
gives it some resemblance
to the splinter
which yesterday
pierced into my finger
 
if it is to be removed
no probing will dislodge it
the way must be kept open
with a confidence in forces
reaching toward health
to gently lift and press away
the portion undesirable
when time is ready
 

 
On those winter nights
entitled Mornings
we try to raise our minds in prayer.
 
Our first thoughts
– with or without creature comforts  –  
do not reach far.
 
Oh, bless us from presuming
that our Reaching is enough.
 
Light some spark
to make us shine this day.
 
If there is a path to be seen
a love to be loved
a suffering or forgiveness,
help us to and through it
 
One more prayer in darkness :
Let us rejoice
with childlike wonder
in your Day.
 
(1990s)   

 
Well, Lord, that’s three years gone,
three years – 
gone. . . . 
 
Did I say three?
No, four,
four years
And much, much more.
 
But we won’t talk about it now,
no, we won’t talk about it.
 
Or think about it,
now.
 
It was –
in a sense, is,
and I
 
still am,
poor remnant me.
 
I could bring you the pieces –
I will bring you the pieces
when I come visit you, Lord.
Then I will ask, “Why?”
 
It was.
“Why?”
– when I talk to you.
 
I could ask you here,
but would rather later
very specially
hold up the pieces.
 
Let no one see the question
or the pain,
only pieces.
Others
can forget.
 
And, as for me…
let’s not talk about it now.
 
(1970s ?)   

 
Dear God
help me to live all my actions
so there are none I wish unlived
let me be single, not double –
when I look behind, no backtracking
beside a me that should have been.
God who can bring good out of evil,
I still do not wish evil.
Let the future be all forward,
much rather cut those wanderings,
help me sort and turn away.
Grant your guidance
that I may not be deceived
on that narrow path
walled from the world’s eye,
where the steps are only mine.
Let them be all true

 
Like a great eye in the heaven
looking at a hermit hut
my God sees inside my little wall
and only He knows
whether I do His will
 
In the provided loneness
of my hut-like self
I listen or don’t listen
clean or don’t clean
build or don’t build
grow or don’t grow
pray or don’t pray
serve or don’t serve
love or don’t love
and no other hermit knows
 
He looks where no one else can see
He hears where no one else can hear
He speaks where no one else can speak
He loves where no one else can love
Before he sends me to my neighbor
 
(1990s)  

 
.… settled down
after chaos week
terror days,
statistic’s fear,
but here a respite
without rules, or jots and tittles, dotted “i” s,
– just the peace
of day descending
beauty’s wonder, praise
a change in set of light
where Love could meet
in fuller sense of blessing
named – “Shalom”  [i]  
 
(2020s) 


[i]   “Shalom”. Etymology Online Dictionary.  {https://www.etymonline.com/word/shalom }  (accessed January 20, 2022):
“Jewish word of greeting, Hebrew, literally ‘peace,’ properly ‘completeness, soundness, welfare,’ from stem of shalam ‘was intact, was complete, was in good health.’ Related to Arabic salima ‘was safe,’ aslama ‘surrendered, submitted.’  ”