Backward Mutters

Category: poetry

  • Treasure

    Treasure

    This sonnet is based on Matthew 13:45-46, and is an example of how a question I heard in another context, “Would you sell everything you had to buy just one thing?” set my imagination running. I heard a story of a man traveling by boat, and the boat began to…

  • Grow Where You Are Planted

    Grow Where You Are Planted

    This poem is based on Jeremiah 29 in which are recorded a word from the Lord for those in exile in Babylon which Jeremiah sent to them as a letter. I have more often heard this passage preached as a strategy for church planting. Granted,it can be helpful. But to…

  • Arriving after a Long Obedience

    Arriving after a Long Obedience

    Eugene Peterson arrived at his destination yesterday morning. His book, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, as well as The Contemplative Pastor, Under the Unpredictable Plant, Answering God, Run with Horses, and Practice Resurrection have all played their part in my life and ministry. There are portions of Peterson’s…

  • I Am Not What I Was

    I Am Not What I Was

    This is a roundel based on Jeremiah 18:1-12. In the poem I make use of two Bible illustrations: Jeremiah at the potter’s house and Jesus raising Lazarus. In the same manner that God formed man from the dust, Jesus announces the coming of new creation by raising one given over…

  • The Years the Locusts

    The Years the Locusts

    This a sonnet about the anxiety and resentment. Generally speaking, anxiety is living in future — a reality about which you may have desires, but ultimately have no power to ensure. Resentment, on the other hand, is living in the past where wounds and regrets have occurred, and they gain…