Poems

"My words fly up, my thoughts  remain below. Words without thoughts never to heaven go.

What do you do when things get tough And you have suffered quite enough From evil's claims, its fear and pain? You've prayed and worked and prayed again— What can you do? Just listen as a child would do And let God's love envelop you. JUNE McCLENEGHAN FOWLER.

Unless I recognize that which lies beyond what mortal eyes would see, I am not praising Thee. Unless I listen well to hear Thine angels speak when mortal voices shriek their claims of sin and hell, I am not praising Thee.

New recruit : If Christ is the victor over sin and death, why, then, do I have to battle with them? Seasoned soldier : Because, though Christ Jesus proved that evil is a lie, the lie still thinks itself the truth; and you, too, must share the exhilaration of the proof. Don't be afraid! You are clothed as all God's warriors are, in righteousness, truth, receptivity to Christ's good news, faith, knowledge of salvation, and you've been issued a sharp effective sword: the Word of God.

Rejoice! There is no other voice for you Or me than that of God, the only Mind. No anathema or Adam curse, No hypnotic shove that can reverse Or nullify the power of perfect Love.

The sky lightens and the morning star grows bright, grows dim. Bird songs begin exuberantly.

Our dear, good, faithful— Our Father— may everyone find himself coming home carefully on roads brimming with tenderness, layered with light. May all, however hungry or raw, reach Your ultimate address past a world gone dizzy with drifting.

Martha tasks loom mountain-high, thought-wearying at the outset. A choice? Mary chose a quiet path of listening and heard his word.

Oh, how I suffer with righteous indignation, feeling so correct in the face of others' wrongs! (Yet sensing clearly I'm the one who's smarting!) Until, in humility, I see another's self-assertion can't intimidate or offend me. It's only my reaction that calls for being squelched! And so I hold in thought the true idea—man— in place of error's farce until no pushy mortal's left to elicit indignation and self-righteousness dissolves in the joy of knowing God.

You, you, you. I see you in the center of God's heart, The apple of His eye, In the hollow of His omnipotent hand.