Hashed Browns Holiness I love the crusty potatoes Along the sides and bottom of the pan. The concentrated heat changes them From, what you might call, their old nature. Mama says, they are good enough for heaven Made that way. And what is the alternative? Even State fair blue [...]

  My Worry I worry about high blood sugar You can just pass out, you know And I get real dizzy It might be my heart pumping too fast I checked, it was. And there’s this tingling And tinnitus, that’s ringing in the ears My legs go weak And I [...]

  Standing Stones My books are my standing stones. Like an old druid I come To meditate before them. Not to worship, no . . . But to see how the light bends Around and through their masses. To see how they frame the stars And focus the sun. Shoulder [...]

  Sunday Shirt Salvation Mama kept my Sunday shirt Wrinkle free She’d take it off the line Lean it up against the pole Starched stiff as rebellion. But mama would anoint it Baptize it, she would say, To soften it . . . make it pliable, Holy Spirit water, she [...]

  Wendell Berry Oh how my whole being loves your Sabbath, Wendell An act of worship to walk those forest trails How close you seem to the God of creation Immersed in what He made But I have a question: Does God require the absence of humanity Before He will [...]

Autumn Was Falling Autumn was falling And I was determined To watch one single leaf Fall all the way from its branch To the ground It would be A leaf with significance By my noticing it A leaf unlike all others By my choosing it A leaf that followed its [...]

Dirty Saints Oh come ye sinner kneel in sackcloth, sad, Down on your face and bite the glorious dust. Divert your thoughts that dirt is loathsome, bad. You’re made of it, your brain and body must Return again. Repent and now convert To loving and admiring virgin soil. This earth [...]

A Future Day You wondered if you had talked too much The other day, As if words were a summer thunder storm. A too heavy rain running off the saturated soil Somehow eroding the mental landscape. But I saw a potential future, spending a day Weeping, wishing for your repented [...]

The blood of Cain The blood the Spartans spilt The blood of Nero and Caligula The blood of Herod’s babies The blood of the martyred church The blood of those the church martyred Blood from Barbarian swords American Indian blood Guillotine blood from French justice Jewish blood from the camps [...]

Can’t Not You can’t not be rude by saying, “I don’t mean to be rude but . . .” You don’t not be bad by saying, “Not bad but . . .” You can’t be excused. . . after, By saying “excuse me but . . .” before And you [...]