Category: Other Poetry

Mended Hearts

In Advent we of sin take stock,
     For soon we’ll see the Lord
And don’t want sin our hearts to block
     From mercy’s cleansing sword.

We know our hearts will pruning need
     By two-edged sword, His Word,
To open us to Blood He bleeds
     In us, a cleansing flood.

From Bethlehem to Calvary
     He cleanses us within,
As new-born He now makes us free:
     Our life begins again.

We hand-in-hand to glory go
     With mended hearts made strong
By Him who’s raised so we can know
     With Him we all belong. 

Our Lord’s Visitation

Continue, Lord, your story through your Church
This Advent as the dawn of new day breaks,
When you again with your hand our earth touch
To show you never will your world forsake. 
In coming, give us your humility
To break our pride that we may you embrace
In Bethlehem, where our hearts long to be
With poor and wise, receive your saving grace.
Bring forth your fruit in plenty for your land—
Too long has starved for Truth in Holy Food.
In us, show forth to all your loving hand
By Spirit who breaks bread on Calvary’s Rood.
In us, continue visitation made
By Father in His Son through Virgin Maid. 

A Warrior’s Sword

His Cross becomes a warrior’s sword,
     And with it death was slain;
Both sin and death now know their Lord
     Who one of us became.

His purpose was to cut the chains
     Of sin bound us to death;
To freedom for us all proclaim–
     Restore His Eden’s health.

For sin and death infected earth
     When we in Adam fell,
And all creation needs re-birth
     To save all from death’s knell.

Now Jesus rises from the dead
     In grave Old Eden leaves;
And He is now exalted head—
     New Eden His breath breathes.

His Spirit creates new again
     And Paradise re-born;
A world forever free of sin,–
     No longer we’re forlorn. 





Tree of Life

A gnarled old tree in our backyard
Reminds us of our elder years
When we our dying leaves discard,
And we God’s voice can better hear.

We see the world is meant to be
A place where we’re for heaven formed,
And we learn here to bend our knee
To Jesus–saves from Satan’s harm.

And we like tree will someday fall
To disappear into the ground;
Yet we are to our Father called
Where new life grown from old is found–

Then we will rise in garden new
In Paradise where we are saved,
Where Tree of Life grows ever new:
With family, friends we Jesus praise! 

An Open Door to Dawn

Lord, let me be an open door
That You may enter others’ lives
Through me to come to spirits poor
Who need You for their living guide.

In providence You touched my life,
Gave faith for me to understand
The truth that pierces with Your light
Our darkness, covers all our land.

Lord, may I not distracted be
By clamor of this world’s demands;
May I hold fast to truth I see,
As You hold me in guiding hand.

May I point others to Your dawn,
Breaks at the point where You meet earth;
With heaven’s beams You bring Your song–
At last we find our longed-for birth. 

You take us in the light that shines
From Bethlehem through Calvary’s hill
To empty tomb where You unbind
The death that all our graves had filled.

We taste Your truth in bread and wine
Transformed to give us You, His Son;
In Body, Blood for all earth’s time
We rise with You who vict’ry won.

Light in the Darkness

My darkness Jesus scatters wide
     So I can see His face;
In His light see those at my side,
     And each is full of grace.

For each one from His Cross receives
     His love that knows no bounds,
That calls each one to Him believe
     Who scatters mercy round.

His voice calls each one to repent,
    Receive forgiveness now,
For each He has His own life spent–
     To each with grace endows.

Forgiveness flows from risen life
     In Body and His Blood;
He lives forever–brings His light
     In all to darkness flood. 

Master Weaver

You take the tattered threads of our own lives
When we surrender to Your nail-scarred hands
And weave a picture of new life You give
As You in us redeem Your eastern lands.

You all creation weave in tapestry
To make anew what we in Adam tore,
For we tried hard without You to be free
And found the Devil’s garment we then wore.

In pretense we try in ourselves to rip
The Devil’s cloak from ‘round our sin-soiled hearts,
And find our hands in nail-scarred hands have slipped
As You pick up our threads in brand new start.

Your nail-scarred hands through us creation weave
And all made new through hearts in You believe. 

With Your Angels

Your Angels paint Your sunrise ‘cross the sky–
Reminds us of the heaven that’s to come;
Forever in death’s darkness we’ll not lie
For heaven will be always for us home.

When sunset comes and night knocks on our door,
We know You will stand ready to come in
To warm our hearts when we have spirits poor
And we repent of all our Adam’s sin.

With You we will await the coming dawn
As You within us cleanse our waiting hearts
With Your forgiveness, for which we have longed,
And You come to our world to take our part.

With Angels we will You forever know
As sunrise colors Your life-giving bow. 

Wrestling with the Past

I am like Jacob wrestling with my past
And with the Lord, who’s there in future too:
A past, like sin, will not forever last
Yet lives again, cleansed by His Blood-Red dew.

For past and future both are one in Him–
Are present and eternal in His heart
As empty tomb and crib in Bethlehem
With Cross are present in our brand-new start.

For we can’t of ourselves be born again,
But He with us will wrestle in rebirth,
And with His Cross He kills our mortal sin
As new creation rises from His death.

With Jacob we will breathe His heaven’s air;
All fam’lies see He’s come down Jacob’s stair. 





Gospel Ship

Lord, let us be on your ship’s prow
     In Holy Spirit’s wind,
And daily we’ll renew our vows
   As us to world you send.

Upon the Church’s cutting edge
     We catch the Spirit’s breeze,
As in the world we drive a wedge
     And plant New Eden’s Tree–

That new Tree in the shape of Cross
     On hill named Golgotha–
Tree planted in that dung and dross
     Is where Maranatha

Transforms all earth from Hell’s cesspool
     To Heaven’s waterfall–
A place where virtue now will rule:
     Be baptized, all are called.

We’re called by One baptizes us
     With Holy Spirit’s fire;
New life He gives to Eden’s dust
     That dampens Satan’s ire.

Then all climb on that Gospel Ship,
     The Holy Spirit’s Ark.
Off that same ship we never slip;
We’re saved from our grave’s dark.

We sail on in to Heaven’s light
     To Jesus’ mercy seat.
We bask in glow of Mary’s sight;
Our King and Queen we meet.

We all now see that good Ship’s port
Is place where Father dwells–
By Mary welcomed to His court
With our Emmanuel.,