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                              HEALING IN EIGHTS:

 

                     Early 1992

 

                     New beginnings as figured in a dream.

 

                     A...

                     A CERTAIN GLORY EXISTS IN ALL THAT IS

                     ALTURNATIVES

                     ANOTHER MESSAGE TO POETS:

                          LET THE POETRY FLOW OUT OF GOD

                     A POET WISHES FOR HIS VOICE

                     A SHORT CELEBRATION CONCERNING POETIC FARMERS

                     A SIMPLE SONG

                     A TABERNACLE PERSON

                     A THEOLOGY OF BLESSING

 

                     B...

                     BECAUSE GOD'S JOY WEEPS TO SAVE US

                     BELOW THE LAND OF THE SHADOWLESS LORD 

                     BUT HE WHO SEEKS THE GLORY

                               OF HIM WHO SENT HIM IS TRUE

                     BEYOND PLURALISMS

                         (A comment also upon Hebrews 11:3)

 

                     C...

                     CHRIST'S BRIDE AT A SLANT

 

                     F...

                     FIRST, DEATH OF THE SIN NATURE

                     FROM LUKE 14

 

                                         

                     G....

                     GOOD MORNING MR. SUN

                     GREGORIAN CHANTS

                                         

                     H...

                     HALF FOOTED AND DANCING LIKE GOD'S FOOL

                     HAS ANY SEEN OLD HEPBURN DIE?

                     HEALING IN EIGHTS

                     HEAVEN'S JOY IN AN EARTHLY PLACE

                     HOT AND COLD

                     HOW PRAISE SPRINGS UP FROM A DULL HUMAN HEART

 

                     I...

                     I MUST FIND THE SINGING VOICE

                     INNOCENCE RESTORED  

                     IN RESPONSE TO KIERKEGAARD

                     I REALLY DON'T REQUIRE MUCH

                     IT IS GOD WHO GIVES US OUR OPEN ENDED IDENTITY

 

                     L...

                     LET MY MIND BECOME SWEET FLAME

                     LOSING FEAR

 

                     M...

                     MEDITATION FROM AN OLD SONG

 

                    

                     NEW CREATION DOOR

 

                     O...

                     ON BEING

                     ON THE LAW OF LIFE

 

                     P...

                     POETRY IS ABOUT THE CORE-LIFE OF MAN

                     PRAYER AND READINGS

 

                     S...

                     SIDETRACKED

                     SOMEBODY WAS CONFUSED

                     SOMETHING ALONG THE LINE OF WHAT EPICURUS MIGHT

                                  HAVE SAID IN THE 3RD CENTURY B.C.

                     SUN CHILDREN, MOON CHILDREN

 

                     T....

                     THE NEARNESS OF GOD

                     THERE ARE SEASONS WHEN WE SUFFER THE WORM

                     THERE IS A FRAGRANT INTEGRATION

                     THE SEVEN SAILING SPIRITS STAND

                     THE WORD SPOKE LIGHT

                     TIME CAN DREAM OF A BIRD

                     TO A HOLY DREAM OF THE WAY THINGS SHOULD BE

                     TO GOD'S HEALERS

                     TO GOD'S SCRIBES

                     TO WM. BLAKE, HOPKINS AND YEATS

                     TURNING THE COMMON BACK UPON ITS REASON

 

                     U...

                     UNDER THE WINGS

                     UPON A BRIGHT RIGHTEOUSNESS SHINING IN GOD

                     UPON A FRANKENSENCE MIND

                     UPON THE AGE-ENDURING MISSION OF THE POET

                     UPON THE ARBITRATION OF THE STONE

                     UPON THE MOUNT OF TRANSFIGURATION

                     UPON THE SENSES OF THE HEART

                     UPON THE SINGING SILENCE

 

                     W...

                     WE LIVE AND MOVE AND HAVE OUR BEING...

                     WE SHOULD DWELL WITH OUR DREAMS

                     WHILE WE ARE LOST IN CLUTTERED LANDS

                     WORDS THROUGH THE POROUS WALL

 

                     Last Poem in file: ON THE LAW OF LIFE

 

                     THE POEMS

                    

 

                     HEALING IN EIGHTS

                     (From a dream)

 

                     I'm healing in eights!

                     The cards are dealt

                     by a mysterious hand.

                     20 eights

                     and a small steel eight,

                     with a little metal clover club

                     on a thin stand.

 

 

                     GOOD MORNING MR. SUN

 

                     Good morning Mr. Sun:

                     you who shine joyfully each morning

                     to awaken the birds and rabbits in the fields;

                     you who make the deer start their browsing.

                     God has made you Mr. Sun:

                     He who is so great

                     as to sustain you with the power of His choosingÑ

                     choosing you to be like Him,

                     beaming light and warming creation.

 

                     Good morning brother and sister birds,

                     who greet Mr. Sun and all the world with song;

                     who cleave the air of mountain places with your wings

                     and bustle together busily in the tops of trees.

                     It is God who made you

                     to delight the heart of man with the day's songs

                     and show God's children

                     the way of pure thought and imagination.

 

                     Good morning my companions the trees,,

                     great growing green fingers which point towards

                     the sky and its light:

                     unspeaking speakers of truth, purifiers of air,

                     home to flyers and leapers and spinners.

                     God has made you, my silent, slow friends,

                     choosing to make you like HimselfÑ

                     our quiet purifier, our patient God:

                     He who is home to the flyers of prayer,

                     the leapers of faith,

                     the spinners of poems, stories and songs.

 

                        

 

 

 

                                                   

                    TO WM. BLAKE, HOPKINS AND YEATS

 

                    There is a singing life!

                    The curious wonder of the trees

                    silently sings out mysteries.

                    Through weaving branches and twisted bark

                    they sing their light amidst the dark.

                    If modern man should cut them down

                    their music pulsates on the ground.

                    If man should mill them by the foot

                    within is hidden yet, the flute.

                    For though sweet singers cease to sing,

                    poetry still floods everything.

 

 

 

 

               THE SEVEN SAILING SPIRITS STAND

 

               Seven sailing spirits stand

               around the innocence of God's lamb,

               and each one issues from his head

               like horns of light, or words He's said.

               Like trumpets of flame they brandish and blare

               beautiful music about in the air.

               Such beautiful music comprises their cloaks,

               that they're sheathed in glory from foot to throat

               and hover above near the roof of the world...

               To tuck under their cloaks, a soul is hurled

               up from its rootsÑonce bound in the groundÑ

               with a pull and the tear of a terrible sound.

 

               And then those souls cry, "We're woven of sky,

               so love's beautiful music can brilliantly fly

               out and along the whirlwind of time

               in paintings, or song, or spiritual rhyme:

               for this is Christ's Kingdom, creative and good,

               filled with the fires of God's fixed mood!

               So let us flyÑit is best!Ñto that hand

               where the seven sailing spirits stand,

               that we might stream from God's own head

               like horns of light or words He's said.

 

 

 

 

                     UNDER THE WINGS

 

                     I tuck up under the wings of God

                     like a little bird of thought and prayer,

                     too weak to keep myself warm.

                     Under the feathered breast of white holiness

                     lies the little bird of my soul:

                     under the heat,

                     hearing the slow heartbeat;

                     feeling the wild power;

                     brooding for a silent hour.

 

 

   

 

                     WE SHOULD DWELL WITH OUR DREAMS

 

                     We should dwell with our dreams

                     which were clear visions as children,

                     when the world was new

                     and secret gates and burrows

                     were always found...

                     and starlight was the path

                     to paradise,

                     and a common stick

                     could become Excalibur;

                     when wax-encased sugar-water

                     exploded color in your mouth

                     and snowfall was white magic

                     and ecstasy;

                     when every tree was a ladder

                     from earth to a sky that was all

                     essences of gold and blue;

                     when clouds were soft messages

                     and big people were gods;

                     when every child was awe

                     and adventure, and royalty.

                               *

                     If we are to be blessed

                     we must find our first dreams

                     (past the weariness),

                     in the mystical movements

                     of emerging rest.

                    

 

 

 

 

                         SUN CHILDREN, MOON CHILDREN

 

                         There are children of the day

                         and children of the night:

                         sun children and moon children.

                         And there are children

                         of the cycles of day and night:

                         sun and moonÑendless blue

                         and stars in the deep dark.

                         In these children, the glories

                         of sunrise and sunset

                         paint their most beautiful colors.

 

 

 

              

                     UPON THE ARBITRATION OF THE STONE

 

                     Moses and a Druid priest

                     had carved my stains in stone;

                     sacrifice of beast or fowl

                     could not my sin atone,

                     till to that rock the Savior came,

                     inscribing it with holy name.

                     He brushed it with His spotless cloak:

                     the stone first quavered, fell and broke.

                     Jesus shouted, "I atone!"

                     Then I