Backward Mutters

  • King of Peace

    King of Peace

    This sonnet is a bit reworked. (Is any poem ever finished?) It is based on Hebrews 7:1-8:1 in which the author of Hebrews explains the priestly ministry of Jesus Christ in light of the priest and king, Melchizedek, who appears in Genesis 14 blessing Abraham and giving him bread and…

  • Thanksgiving

    Thanksgiving

    A sonnet for Thanksgiving Day. For the blue sky sun, who showers warmth and light Though it runs fast on this short autumn day, For afternoon dusk, the long winter’s night, I give You thanks on this Thanksgiving Day. For this big beaver moon whose brighter ray Sends me inside,…

  • A Friend

    A Friend

    The psalms introduce “the princes” of the Old Testament who are the middle-managers of ancient Israel. Traditionally the role of a leader but not the king, the prince is a person who had some authority, but is not the king. Jeremiah speaks of them in chapters 37 and 38 as…

  • Words Alone

    Words Alone

    Eugene Peterson quotes Abraham Heschel in his chapter on Jehoiakim in the book Run with Horses. Heschel, speaking of the word and the scriptures, writes, “Some people may wonder: why was the light of God given in the form of language? How is it conceivable that the divine should be…

  • Persistently

    Persistently

    This is a meditation on Jeremiah 25:1-7 and 35:14b-16. Each morning I wake from night’s sleeping death Through a resurrection from where I lay Last eve mourning, sad, life a labored breath, Enshrouded in the stuff of yesterday. And yesterday, having died already to the King, I face the world…