2016, Selected Poems & Psalms

  

           GÖBEKLI PSALM

 

The double-rounds of Domarring –

The sculpted tow’rs of ordinance –

The ancient Temple turns the minds

Of scholars to new origins.

 

They thought that cities made the gods –

Instead – religion built the walls –

And worship carved the standing stones –

Believers decked the buried halls.

 

(15 January 2016, Provo, Utah)

 

 

            HAPPY NEW YEAR

 

He blesses with Peace, with Patience, with Pow’r.

He comforts with Love, with Lis’ning, with Life

That lengthens joy, and bends the prismed Hour

Into a Dream, a Vision that ends Strife.

 

(Provo, Utah, 9 February 2016)

 

 

            SABBATH DAY NOTE

 

The Lord’s House is a Door –

The Pure Heart is a Home.

The Warm Hearth is a Port –

The Full Earth is a Throne.

 

(12 March 2016, Springville, Utah)

 

 

 

            FAMILY SEALING PSALM

 

It only takes a moment to

Enact eternity –

A few steps down a corridor

As we come unto Thee –

 

Reunion in a Holy Place

Where we can feel and see

The gravitas of clasping hands

In golden brevity.

 

(22 March 2016, Provo, Utah)

 

 

            SPRINGING PSALM

 

Some times the Deer would graze here –

Some days the Robins chime –

Some nights the Moon would gaze there –

Some Noons decipher rhyme.

 

At times the Past would linger –

At first the Dead reside

At Home and roam no longer –

And then recover stride.

 

(30 March 2016, Provo, Utah)

 

 

            TO my most Sweet and Noble Word-Crafters:

 

I thank you all for psalms redacted well
And choral readings worthy. Special swell
Of thanks to Pam for pleasing props, and praise
To Actors bold for courtly wit and gaze,
And to our Audience for much good will,
Attendance, and Attention sitting still.

Attached you'll find the final sonnet roll
In order of the Person you extol
Or fault, a final point sheet much revised,
With power-point and language tools devised,
Exquisite compositions to incite
As you review, create, reveal, think, write.
That this semester may conclude with ease,
Complete your readings and assignments, please.

 

(7 April 2016, Provo, Utah)

 

 

            EARTH-DAY BIRTHDAY NOTE

 

The center of the universe

Can shift to where you are –

The sun can round the marbled earth

Like any other star.

 

(22 April 2016, Springville, Utah)

 

 

            QUICKEN PSALM

 

A Flash of Light begins each Life –

The Truth is radiant –

Our Genesis is visible –

A Prologue luminent.

 

When Seed of Him meets Cell of Her

Illumination arcs –

Conception is a Soulful Flare

Of spirit-body sparks.

 

(26 April 2016, Springville, Utah)

 

 

            JACOB PSALM

 

“A moment of pure light” –

The answer to a prayer –

The hands that blessed and comforted

Are witness – God is there.

 

The Help will always come –

Although we have to wait –

A state of peace and happiness

Will fully compensate.

 

The future’s radiance –

An endless covenant –

A fresh and perfect joy will fill

The earth and firmament.

 

The Leaf shall never fail –

The Tree shall never fall –

A righteous Saint has bid farewell –

He follows Heaven’s call.

 

(3 May 2016, Orem, Utah)

 

 

            WORDS OF MORMON NOTE

 

I keep these records for my Kin –

O, may it profit them!

Preserve these pages for the Lord

To please – remember Him.

 

(4 May 2016, Springville, Utah)

 

 

            MOTHER’S DAY NOTE

 

The Mother of all Living – Eve –

Has given Life to Every One.

We carry remnants of her gaze

We bear her daughters and her sons.

 

(8 May 2016, Springville, Utah)

 

 

            SACRAMENT PSALM

 

He feeds us Word by Word –

Enlivens breath by breath –

Enlightening by daily bread –

He leads us out of death.

 

He nurtures us with Truth –

He fosters us with Trust –

Enriches us with Sustenance –

Transforming mortal Dust.

 

(15 May 2016, Phoenix, Arizona)

 

 

            QUEEN ELIZABETH’S SONG

 

A remnant of the ancient times –

A segment of the early lines –

The Queen of Kingdoms’s ninety years

Are days of triumphs, trials, joys, tears.

 

A regent in the royal style –

A figure in the noble forms –

The Monarch of the Emerald Isle

Prevails through showers, sunbeams, storms.

 

(21 May 2016, Springville, Arizona)

 

 

            PASTURE PSALM

 

Splendid foals with spindly legs

Snuffle grass and dip their heads –

Wooly sheep with mewing lambs

Mow the fields and trim the edge.

 

Llamas wearing downy coats

Graze the grass around the springs –

Little kine meets kangeroo –

Pudgy birds have dormant wings.

 

(29 May 2016, Springville, Utah)

 

 

            CONCEPTION PSALM

 

We start with Light – We end the Night –

We leave the Strife – We bend with Life –

 

(29 May 2016, Springville, Utah)

 

 

            MAKER PSALM

 

How didst Thou make cats, and dogs?

How didst Thou make bees?

How didst Thou make bats, and hogs?

How didst Thou make fleas?

 

How didst Thou make time, and bugs?

How didst Thou make moths?

How didst Thou make slime, and slugs?

How didst Thou make sloths?

 

How didst Thou make seeds, and plants?

How didst Thou make trees?

How didst Thou make reeds, and sands?

How didst Thou make seas?

 

How didst Thou make flight, and space?

How didst Thou make birds?

How didst Thou make light, and grace?

How didst Thou make words?

 

How didst Thou make firmaments?

How didst Thou make dust?

How didst Thou make covenants?

How didst Thou make us?

 

(8 June 2016, Provo, Utah)

 

 

            VISAGE PSALM

 

All the faces that we love

Hold the countenance of God –

Who created us to be

In similitude of Thee.

 

(29 June 2016, Provo, Utah)

 

 

            IRISH GAELIC SÉADNA

 

Say something lovely to pandas –

They love bamboo from branches –

So ask about tree-top ambles –

Then mention moonlight dances.

 

(8 July 2016, group poem with ELANG 535 students, BYU, Provo, Utah)

 

 

            QUAIL DAY

 

I thank Thee for the Horses –

I thank Thee for the Corn –

I thank Thee for the Houses –

I thank Thee for the Morn.

 

I thank Thee for the Breezes –

I thank Thee for the Birds –

Please – help me do what pleases –

Please – help me find the Words.

 

(Saturday, 16 July 2016, Springville, Utah)

 

 

            SEVENTH DAY SONNETINA

 

Seven cognitive concepts –

Seven segments of sound sets –

Seven syllable measures –

Seven prosody foot steps.

Seven days of creation –

Seven sacrament sabbaths –

Seven jubilee pathways.

 

Seven seconds of silence –

Seven minutes of reverence –

Seven hours of service –

Seven weeks of devotion.

Seven years of redemption –

Seven new dispensations –

Seven worlds of salvation.

 

(Sunday, 17 July 2016, Springville, Utah)

 

 

            LOAF DAY

 

You left me a zucchini loaf

Of tin-foil packaged bread.

The seeds you planted gave good squash –

And now we can be fed!

 

The Lord gave us the sun and soil –

The water and the land.

His bounty makes the garden grow –

And we just lend a hand.

 

(Monday, 18 July 2016, Springville, Utah)

[to Aspen Cook]

 

 

            SUMMER DAY

 

Art Thou there, Father? Where am I?

Enveloped by a cloudless sky –

Un-circled by a nameless spouse –

Yet sense Thy presence in my house.

 

Thou art here, Father, as am I.

The physical our only veil –

Communion through Thy word and prayer

Sufficient shield for all travail.

 

(Tuesday, 19 July 2016, Springville, Utah)

 

 

            LINDA DAY

 

The life of party times –

The knife of many reams –

The light of kinder deeds –

The sight of merging streams.

 

The view of forest wights –

The weight of parting words –

“My father, mother, came” –

They hovered like quick birds.

 

(Wednesday, 20 July 2016, Provo, Utah)

 

 

            YOUNG WOMEN’S DAY

 

I am a daughter of

My Father who loves me,

And I love Him,

So I will stand

For Him eternally:

 

Knowledge, Good Works, Virtue, Choice,

Accountability,

Worth of one’s Divine Nature,

Faith, true Integrity.

 

(Thursday, 21 July 2016, Springville, Utah)

[To the tune of “I am a Child of God]

 

 

            PIONEERS DAY

 

Some are born for another time –

A present sent for future days –

Precocious acts in prescient prime –

A latent voice for later praise.

 

Truth, Thanksgiving, Testimony –

A mission – a vision – a dream –

Some wend forth without overt signs –

Forlorn but foreordained to gleam.

 

(Sunday, 24 July 2016, Springville, Utah)

 

 

            EDITOR’S DAY

 

Comma, not coma, she said.

Period. Not pyramid.

Dash –  not dish; colon: not cold.

Question? Exclamation! Bold.

Italics, not underlines.

Space# not spice; faith, not designs.

(Spare me the parentheses.)

Bring me some antitheses.

[Brackets] not brashness, she meant.

Never, or rarely, fragments.

Garamond, not garish font.

His will done is what we wont.

 

(Monday, 25 July 2016, Springville, Utah)

 

 

            EGRET DAY

 

Death is finite – Atonement infinite –

Death is ephemeral – Christ eternal –

Death is temporary – Christ is timeless –

Death is mortal – Atonement immortal.

 

(1 August 2016, Springville, Utah)

 

 

            YOUTH CENTER DAY

 

Our mothers give us breath of life –

The heritage is maternal –

The organelles of energy

Majestic mitochondrial.

 

And gastrulation’s inside out –

The ecto-, meso-, endo-derm –

The epithelia organized

By triple-layered holy germ.

 

(6 August 2016, Springville, Utah)

 

 

            TOTAL DAY

 

Our soul resides in all our cells –

Not solely brain or mind –

Existence is holistic self –

The comprehensive kind.

 

The spirit and the body mesh –

They knit, they seal, they bind –

The matter and the breath refresh –

Cohesion is refined.

 

Material is evident

So essence is defined –

Intelligence is credible

Though physically declined.

 

Our dust contains a testament –

An ark that is designed

To represent a covenant

That only Light can find.

 

(Wednesday, 10 August 2016, Provo, Utah)

 

 

            CHANGE DAY

 

Is – selfishness – “my need be met”?

Self-righteous – “my will be done –

Not Thine”? “My wants be filled – not Their”?

Forget my neighbor – and Thy Son?

 

Forgive my dun hypocrisy –

As I exact my gratitude

In tithing – offering – charity.

Please teach me joyful servitude –

 

To put Thee first – to do Thy will –

Obey Thy counsel instantly –

To choose Thy right – walk in Thy light –

To seek Thy Spirit constantly –

 

To don the altar of my life

With lace of hand-worked hymnody –

To elevate sweet incense prayer

Any find Thy face in all I see.

 

(21 August 2016, Sunday, Springville)

 

 

            SAMUEL PRAYER

 

Here am I - Lord, Lord - I am here -

Thy will be done in mine -

Thy Life - Thy Truth - Thy Way be clear -

And all the glory Thine.

 

(24 August 2016, Springville, Utah)

 

 

            ERA PSALM

 

The Earth is growing older, too.

Her mountain muscles ache.

The World is turning slowly now

As brittle techtons break.

 

Sometimes the Deer come out to graze

In spite of entropy,

And vibrant Birds still sing God’s praise

Instead of irony.

 

(29 August 2016, Springville, Utah)

 

 

            LABOR DAY

 

To make a Verse of Time,

Place Minutes into Rhyme,

Set Seconds into Scheme,

Move Eons into Dream.

 

We measure Words with Sounds,

Ring Judgment into Rounds,

Bring Figures into Play,

Sing Nocturne into Day.

 

(5 September 2016, Springville)

 

 

            SAMUEL PSALM

 

Here I am, Lord – Here am I –

Father – Deity of Sky –

Now I wake me up to write –

Help me hear Thy Words of Light.

 

I can hear the hum of lines

That through the heaven intertwines –

I can sense the whirr of wheels

That teleology reveals.

 

Tell me – teach me – translate time

Into Revelation’s chime –

Whisper what I need to know –

What to do and what forego.

 

Love me – lead me – let me learn

How to comprehend and turn

Heart and mind and soul to Thee –

Father – show me how to see.

 

Here am I – Lord – I am here –

Let Thy Truth – Thy Way be clear –

May Thy will be done in mine –

May the glory all be Thine.

 

(18 September 2016, Springville, Utah)

 

 

            MATTHEW DAY

 

The earth has reached the autumn stage –

The fright of fire – the fear of flood –

This world is falling into age –

The lightning strike – the slide of mud.

 

The temper’tures are dipping down –

The waters rise – the breakers push –

Barometer is dropping low –

The Eye is there – the heavens hush.

 

The lasting hills have turned to dusk

The maple’s red – the aspen’s gold –

The fields of corn convert to husk –

The pumpkins bronze – the mornings cold.

 

The minions of the summer fly –

The billows swim – the currents stream –

A hurricane goes spinning by –

The Sky is dim – but havens gleam.

 

(6 October 2016, Salt Lake City, Utah)

 

 

            TESS OF THE BIRDIE FIELDS

 

Dopt in Dorset –

Wed in Wessex –

Harmed by Alex –

Spurned by Angel –

 

The Lovely Dove

Of Lady Day –

The Pheasant Wrung –

The Peasant Hung.

 

(7 October 2016, Salt Lake City, Utah)

 

 

            LEXIS LINES

 

More holiness I give to Thee, O Lord –

For Thou hast given me Thy Holy Word –

So I will give more daily prayer and song

And choose Thy Righteous Way instead of wrong.

 

The Word came first and every one a Poem –

Then Pejorator curdled water’s foam.

The Song reverses Falsehood’s clotting scum –

Reduces cloying lies with Wisdom’s hum.

 

(October 2016, Provo, Utah)

 

 

            HAMLET NOTES

 

All works of great literature, Fiction or

Non-fiction, Comedy or Tragedy,

Should have at their core the beautiful news,

The irrefutable, crystalline fact

Of Christ’s pure redemption, sure salvation.

Love-tree lauds, flights of angels, silence, rest,

As Charity up-stages Tragedy.

 

(12 April & 8 November 2016, Provo, Utah)

 

 

            ALWAYS PSALM

 

In all ways Remember Him –

            In every way –

            In each way –

            In each place –

            In each time –

            At all times –

Remember in mind –

Remember by heart –

Remember with might –

Remember with my whole soul –

Remember through strength –

            On all paths –

            In all steps –

            In every breath –

Remember Him –

            In thought –

            In word –

            In deed –

 

(November 2016, Springville, Utah)

 

 

            FATHER, MAY I . . .

 

Actor be – to move – not acted upon –

Healer be – to touch – not hoarding my heart –

Giver be – to share – not seeking my own –

Helper be – to serve – not standing apart –

 

Leader be – to guide – not lagging behind –

Lover be – to trust – believing in Thee –

Learner be – to see – not closing my mind – 

Singer be – to praise – in sure harmony –

 

Speaker be – to spin – in crystal cadence –

Thinker be – to muse – in deep pondering –

Teacher be – to lead – in careful patience –

Worker be – to strive – in strong laboring –

 

Maker be – to build – a pure poetry –

Writer be – to weave – in simplicity –

 

(1 December 2016, Provo, Utah)

 

 

            LIGHTING THE WORLD

 

In ancient times, the heroes met in games

To test their strength with works and words – but first

To bless the earth with Music’s solemn names –

In acts and plays they strove – with verbs and verse.

 

They wove the syntax and the signs – for Crowns –

For Chairs – they stamped and styled their thoughts in lines –

They made a stadium of truth with sounds –

They let the language teach them new designs.

 

They wrote of life – not death – of love – not hate –

Enchanting subjects into sleep or tears

Or mirth – in scriptures that can mediate

The myth of mortal time – the fall of years –

 

Before they ran – they lit the temple flame –

In angel tongues – they found eternal fame.

 

(14 December 2016, Provo, Utah)