Backward Mutters

  • I Go

    I Go

    Based on John 14:1-14 Why all this talk of leaving, betrayal? Where are you going? How could Peter deny? We’ll go where you go. We’ll remain loyal. Tell us true, no matter, even to die. Way? But we don’t know the place you’re going; We’d follow you, but you always…

  • Old People

    Old people are just old. They’ve always been so or so I’ve been told. They turn up the heat, complain of the cold, Complain for the price bread is being sold. Old people are just old Old people have always been Old on the outside as well as within, Have…

  • Hidden, He Hides Us

    Hidden, He Hides Us

    This sonnet is for Ascension Thursday and Ascension Sunday. The sonnet is based on Acts 1:11: “and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into…

  • Had You Not Gone

    Had You Not Gone

    I am reposting this because today is Ascension Thursday, which is the fortieth day after Easter and is the day that Jesus’ ascension, recorded in Luke 24:50-53 and Acts 1:1-14, is remembered. Had you not gone away, ascended on high, You would have remained and still be here; The tale…

  • Do You Want to Be Healed?

    Do You Want to Be Healed?

    This sonnet is based on John 5:1-17. For thirty-eight years I have been bound, lame In this body which failed, gave way, betrayed My dreams to nightmares, my illness a shame; My heart’s hope of wholeness, each year delayed. I lie on my mat ‘side Bethesda’s pool Where I wait…