Backward Mutters

  • Come Buy

    Come Buy

    This sonnet draws from the episode of the Feeding of the 5,000 from Mark 6:30-44. In service and ministry, Jesus repeatedly asks of his disciples things which they cannot provide or accomplish in themselves. Over and over again, it is not as if they are a cut above the masses…

  • Ash Wednesday

    Ash Wednesday

    Ash Wednesday is today and marks the beginning of the Lenten season which is a season of preparation for the remembrance of passion week and the celebration of the resurrection of Christ. A traditional text often quoted as ashes are imposed on the foreheads of those coming forward at Ash…

  • 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…