time out of mind

we count our seconds

add them up to minutes

mix them in an hour and

cook them into days.

disregard the signs that

point to yes. assess your

need for more days and weeks.

mind your own business and

find your blessings in months

and years. dis-enroll me from

your plan. you have tied

the hands on all my watches.

you are out of time. you have

bound the hands on all the clocks.

you are out of your mind.

we are not made of days…

our souls find their fair share

in the essence of forever and ever.

it is only our bodies that

mark the passage of time, you have

replaced the peace of eternity

with a restless intensity…

an insensitivity to the times:

you have no time,

you have no time left for me.

Instead of understanding, or

even listening, you have elected

to construct your own hell, and

it will be too late to find me,

when I am nothing but your

missed opportunity, a victim

of your malicious matrimony.                                  

ringing


mind-numbing, body tingling

my whole system is still singing,

stinging

with the sudden vicious visit

of the Holy Spirit.

i am trembling and shaking, skin

sending shocks along tender limbs

bowing low

under the weight of ornaments…

church walls all vibrate

with memories

of the echoes of bells.

shoes shuffle slow through white powder

piled high on the sidewalk.

legs e x t e n d as we step past puddles…

as we increase the distance

from the place of peace,

the whispers,

the wisdom,

the freedom,

can still be felt

if we are hoping to hear it

if we are willing to listen.

 

jbh

12

13

2012

Undark

In the dark
In this deep blue
of me and you,
We can see
a spark of life
if we are willing.

When the weight
of the firmament
surrenders to a singularity,
a slender filament:
Heaven filed down
to a sharp
impartation
of the Spirit.

Yet there are promises
that come true
if we are willing
to hear it.

This line that pierces the night
goes by many names.
Call it Truth.
Call it Hope.
Call it Light.


11.25.2012
jbh

Rip

Punished by the waves

the pushing the pulling…

the surfer is a bulb

burned out on the neon sign

that says “Jesus Saves.”

The only shelter is a shelf

of rock covered by a thin

layer of sand near the shore.

He slams faith-first into

the unseen unyielding floor.

Hard to tell the difference

between hell and his story;

unconsciousness is not

unfamiliar territory.

Another crest sends shards

from his board across

the damp empty beach

splinters from a cross:

salvation slightly

out of reach.

Like saltwater

in dry lungs,

the truth seems clean and cool

before it fills and kills.

A crab taps Braille

on the sand right by his head…

a sad, slight epitaph.

This broken bridge

that spans the space

between land and sea

is the last thing

he will never understand

and the truth

has finally

set him free.

jbh 10.22.2012

the end

Reality is fragile and unravels

in loose strands

of human understanding,

in strings of theory.

All we can do is ask why…

Pulling at pieces of skin

are the pins

that fix us to a flat black plate

next to the effects

of the butterfly.

We are bending and blending

and bleeding.

Speed is no longer needed

at the end.

The argument has never been settled

the tensions never cease.

So tempting to believe

just what we see,

when the truth has never been so easy.

Even bereft of emotion

sin stains, still colors my perception:

just a pigment of my imagination.

A creative chaos is calling:

a figment of fiction

all velocity and no veracity

just fragments and friction…

jbh

8.22.2012

The Low Lands

in this valley there is only the sound of nothing.

breathing, slow and steady belies the desperation he feels,

the desperation that is all too real.

caught in the middle of should he leave this place,

(how much more punishment can he take?)

and should he stay and fight for them

(for “me and you”?)

instead of standing at the foot of a mountain,

he is at the foot of two.

in this season of deprivation

sleep seeps away from him like blood from a wound that just won’t close

(and may never heal?)

even the birds don’t sing anymore,

their colorful kind has faded from the forest floor.

where once the noise of animals rustled in the brush

there are now only empty habitats where even hunger is hushed.

the sun has crushed this land

with withering heat

even though it is long past noon

he knows he must decide something

he must decide soon.

Time is his enemy.

for all his power

he is still mortal

and the humanity that he clings to brings him to this…

this barren

somewhere between bitterness and bliss.

The only thing alive in this place

is the light in his eyes.

They are like all other eyes:

a maelstrom of magic,

twin black holes that hold the soul.

His is a mad mix of the violent blue of summer storms

and the gentle green of the calm between.

(those fleeting moments seldom felt yet so serene).

His unsteady circumstances are

a challenge to his balance.

he is on the edge and could fall so easily

has fallen before…

(the dis-ease is called “Always Wanting More”).

He is suspended on the fulcrum

on one end is fullness and

on the other end… less.

He feels so weak

but he knows there is no going back.

in this windless land

limbs never creak

and branches never crack.

He uses the dying light

from another short day

to measure the distance, and make his choice.

He treasures this feeling of spiritual intensity…

and the prayer that is his silent voice.

In sweat-soaked, blood-stained clothes

he pushes aching joints and bruised muscles

toward the head of the trail.

As he begins this next journey

he realizes that it has never been about

peace of mind,

or what rest he might find.

He knows how to climb this mountain.

One step at a time.

jbh

6.21.2012

Go-Letting

Pain comes and goes.
We should let it come;
We should let it go
And not try to hold it.
There is so much hatred in this world.
We hold it close, hold it almost sacred.
Why?
These bad intentions, this bitterness
Bear so much weight.
We should let it go.
The human heart was never meant to hold hate.

jbh

6.20.2012