CHRISTMAS SONATA

I pray the arms of God encircle you
In love. The better world you're waiting for
Began the day He gave His Son, who healed
The lame and blind, the barren wife, the cold,
The fallen earth, the fool, the insecure,
The man alone. It's not too late for grace
To crown your home with joy. It is a gift
To hear you witness of him when you lift
Your hands and heart in praise that can erase
The pain, resolve mistakes, sustain, endure,
Ordain, cheer, entertain. You are not old
When loving kindness lights your face and seals
A blessing in your words. Forever more
Rejoice – because of Christ, all life is new.

(Salt Lake City, Utah, December 1983)

GARDENS ARE FOREVER

Steve woke in the petitioned Eden morning, drove
The truck to Riverton, returned with the tiller,
Pitched the plot with dung, alarmed the machine,
And for three hours toiled the earth to garden
While we spaded out parables of stone.

After lunch, he wished his own golden height into
Four rows of corn, as Katrina leaned tomatoes
In shady craters, and the rest of us set squash
In hills, lettuce in lines, and sowed pinks – to adorn
Belief that beauty still swells under this May sun.

When it was all done, he turned a smile that bound
The hearts of all his family into one.
A sprinkler began the patient watering.
A righteous man is a tree by a river.

(Provo, Utah, May 1982)

MELODIOUS SONNET

While waters sleep and thirst in cold mirage
After the months of cricket-summer streams,
The northern tribes return in calumet
To flicker snow in vertigo designs.
Deliberately refining paths, the flakes
Forgive bold footprints, line the evergreens,
And risk awakening the fasting birds.
Then wind and wingtips murmur foreign words
With tongues of flame because the sky-line leans
And melts the hexahedron stars. Light breaks
Shivering in the world that glints and shines
As spirits sing who turn to bless the day
In frost with grace: “Forget the blizzard dreams;
Love re-creates us in His own image.”

(Provo, Utah, 1981)