Tag Archives: Religion

A HOLY ERROR

Making a scarecrow
in the image of Francis
the monk lost his crop

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 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

Zen Cowboy Poet & Freelance Philosopher