Communion

In a cave here, on a mountaintop thereKorea lives in me by bits and piecesBite-sized chunks I can drink inMelts … More

Jogyesa Temple, Insadong, Seoul 10.22.24

Before breakfast, I cross the street outside my hotelTo visit the Jogyesa Buddhist Temple People of all ages and economic … More

Sunday Service

On the morning of the righteous and the savedThose born once more entitled by being born beforeOnly this time knowing … More

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Every Sunday my post-church treatIs a jumbo dill pickle from Wally’s SuperetteI can hear them calling to meFloating in their … More

So I’m Guessing Earth Day’s Kind of Like

Happy Birthday to youHappy Birthday to youHappy Birthday Dear Ear-rthHappy Birthday to you If the Earth could speakI’d ask it … More

Nighthawks

As a child he dreamedOf being a knight in shining armorSlaying dragons and winningThe fairest maiden in the landBenighted by … More

What the child sees

And wraith-like rollsSome marble maybeSmiles at nothing visibleAs far as I can seePlays some internal gameKnown only to herWith the … More

Was Light Is Will Be

His was the hand of light isWherever it wavedIn his wave we saw intoWithout end will see beyond darkness All … More

All Out

He stares expectantlyI knocked, I sayThe dealer’s gaze remains the sameI say, I’m knocking nowEyes on me, he still waitsHis … More

Opening Wounds

One of the deals with the Lutheran Church was that after you slogged your way through Catechism and Confirmation, you … More

Of course you know that golf

Is not God’s gift to manIn order to avoid Sunday worship He did not sayLet there be a vast and … More

Down and Gone

The first step out of thereFailing to memorize ten Bible versesOn every bus ride to confirmation classHumming rock songs in … More

Lesson

Someone far away speaks somethingClutching the eagle-taloned lecternBird of prey perched upon ball of earthMinistering to us down hereLooking downMy … More

Pursuit

The only way to get in there, she believed without question, was throughperforming good deeds, the living by and through … More

Tradition

His body was given for me, he thought, kept hearing it overand over while he watched the walk along the … More

Never Give a Inch

After One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest came out as a movie, Jim was madder than a wet poultry dentist. … More

Congregation

Congregation I was one of them, gathering together to ask the Lord’s blessing, every Sunday singing with the rest, how … More

What I’ve Unlearned

It was up there somewhere, that ideal place where the dead waited for me.I learned about afterlife and angels long … More

Church Service

When I was young I was dragged to Sunday service, sat unhappily brooding in a middling distance pew, wedged in … More

No Survivors

I’m guessing someone’s died out here tonight.             He’d been brought up in the Lutheran Church, his Grandmother and then his … More