THE FARM, THE RANCH
AND THE NEED FOR GOD
Who pray to when the rains don’t come
who forget to thank when they do
Who curse when the John Deere breaks
and the cow jumps over the moon
(by the moon of course I mean
the fence to the alfalfa field)
Who in the long nights pondering
under the stars too cold to be suns
a word big enough for big
MORE GLORY TO YOU
There is something
about a rotting church
in a by-passed prairie town
Pride become humility
spirit shining through the bones
WHERE ARE ALL THE MYSTICS NOW
According to Pir Vilayat Khan
Islam is the cocoon and Sufism is the butterfly
True of Christian mystics too
and all the saints, named and not
that bless each moment of the day
Every cocoon however
does not unfold a butterfly
In every congregation you will find
praying mantis – long may they pray
and wasps that swarm and sting
MISSING LEONARD
Leonard Cohen is gone
He doesn’t call, he doesn’t write
So huddle with me now
fellow worshipers and weepers
Huddle with me now
round the poem and the song
and listen for the breadcrumb
and the hint of old perfume
that speak
of other ways to God
than through the holes
in Jesus and the goddess
STATUES
There is a St. Francis in our garden
with a squirrel at his marble feet
and a small bird on his shoulder
Under the big oak out front
a stone Buddha holds firm
his mudra calling for discourse
equal balance of give and receive
As a Christian in a Christian land
it would be nice to have a Jesus too
If only we could find one of him
holding a fish and a loaf of bread
in each outstretched unpierced hand
PEOPLE OF THE EARTH
People of the earth
kneeling in their gardens
all directions Mecca
SUNDAY AT MARIA’S
(for Patricia Fiske)
The kind of church
you only get in Austin
All the great gospel singing
without the sermon
And when you put your money
in the collection plate
You get back not only blessings
but also, a taco and a beer
THE CANON OF FODDER
And ain’t every fodder
of every cannon
dying for someone else’s sins
Sweet Jesus as their model
CHURCH AND STATE
If religion the opiate
politics the placebo
NINE ELEVEN 2006
You get rid of bad habits
by replacing them with good
It may be the same with pictures
One hundred years ago
on September eleventh 1906
Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi
stood up before 3000 Hindus and Moslems
in the Empire Theater in Johannesburg
With Satyagraha – The Force of Truth
they pledged under God to defy an unjust law
without use of violence, despite consequences
I don’t want, or expect, to forget the lessons
or math and aftermath of September 2001
But I hope peace comes first to my mind
the next time the number comes up