Backward Mutters

  • You Are Dust

    You Are Dust

    This sonnet is for Ash Wednesday. The words usually spoken when the ash is imposed is from the second part of Genesis 3:19 (ESV) which reads, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you…

  • Goodness Reached Out

    Goodness Reached Out

    Luke 6:1-11 contains two passages on the sabbath. In the first (which I’ve commented on in the previous post) the disciples pluck heads of grain while walking with Jesus on the sabbath. In the second passage (Luke 6:6-11), Jesus is teaching in the synagogue and heals a man with a…

  • Fullness II

    Fullness II

    This is a reworking of the previous sonnet which I felt had too much going on in it. I continually try to say everything I can rather than limit to the focus of what is needed. Alas. The sonnet’s form, which is Spenserian is not the Shakespearean I’m more comfortable with,…

  • Fullness

    Fullness

    Note: This turns out to be a first draft. Who says you ever finish a poem? Why isn’t ‘done’? Well, I’m trying to do too much, especially with 14 lines. This sonnet takes its imagining from Luke 6 when the Pharisees’ charge that Jesus and his disciples are doing what…

  • Of Tax Collectors and Whiners

    Of Tax Collectors and Whiners

    At Grace Presbyterian we are in the midst of a series this spring called, “Walking with Jesus” in which we are following Christ to Jerusalem and beyond. Tomorrow’s passage is from Luke 5:27-39 for which I have previously written sonnets and which I include below. The painting is by Jacob…