Backward Mutters

  • The World

    The World

    I’ve spent a couple of days walking around my small town. I’ve had opportunity to explore a bit and move at a pace which has allowed me to notice more. What has struck me is the amount of roadside trash that accumulates especially over the winter and the lack of…

  • The Seed

    The Seed

    Like seed broadcast by a sower’s throw Are the words which poets scatter around, And those words, now dormant, will only grow When received by ears which hear and re-sound Their meaning, the wonder, through turn of phrase, By rhyme and cadence, the incantation Which breaks through as one freed…

  • Legion

    Legion

    This sonnet is based on the following passages which tell of the healing of the Gerasene demoniac from Mark 5:1-20, Luke 8:26-39, and Matthew 8:28-34. Jesus, having delivered the disciples from the terror of the night storm, arrives on the other side of the Sea of Galilee and is confronted…

  • Waking to Our Fear

    Waking to Our Fear

    This sonnet is based on Mark 4:35-41 when the disciples and Jesus cross the Sea of Galilee and are caught in a storm. What I imagine confounds the disciples, is that even though he delivers the disciples from the storm he seems indifferent to the threat (these sorts of storms happened…

  • Suddenly He Comes

    Suddenly He Comes

    Rise and shine, campers, the Lord has suddenly come to his Temple! February 2 is Candlemas and is the fortieth day after the church celebrates the birth of Jesus. The event is recorded in Luke 2:22-38, and recounts when Jesus was presented at the Temple in Jerusalem and his parents…