The prompt for Day 18’s Poem a Day Challenge hosted by The Poetry Pub, is “harmattan” which the dusty NE wind that blows through West Africa in the winter. The dryness and dustiness can provide a metaphor to a heart condition that I experience when I am especially tired after a day of ministry.

Also, ever since I saw Larry Gatlin talk about Kris Kristofferson’s song “Sunday Morning Comin’ Down” I’ve been fascinated with the lyrics and the story. The last two stanzas are heavily burrowed (copied?) from his song. For a pastor, it isn’t Sunday mornings coming down after a Saturday night that is difficult, it is the coming down on Sunday evening after a full Sunday.

Things are sometimes difficult. I am grateful for the Good Shepherd who says, “Come to me all you who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

You may listen to me read the poem via the player below.

Sunday Morning Comin' Down

When the busy work of blowin’
Through the duties of the day
And tired like weight growin’
From the words I’ve had to say,

Leaves me draggin’ in the hallways
Closing up the sabbath rest
The weary fear like always
Rushes wild in the chest.

I walk the empty church’s hall
The hollow sound of steps
Is all the fresh wind of that call;
Doubt’s all that I’ve got left

I check the doors, I press and lean
Into the, What’s my part?	
A crash bar check of brittle dreams
And the dryness of the heart.

Sometimes the only wonder is
The wonder of the Why?
That leaves you empty handed as
You look up at the sky.

It’s the doubting that’s the burden
The wear that leaves you down
The weight of all the hurting
Of Sunday evening comin down

The drive home is now in darkness
Through my town’s busy roads
Where the contrast's in the starkness
Of the lightness and the loads.

In a Sunday evening driveway
Wishing Lord that I was done
Cause there’s something in a Sunday
Makes a body feel alone.

Ain’t nothing short of cryin’
Half so lonesome as the sound
Of a pastor’s mind a ‘Why?-in’
Sunday evenin’ coming’ down.

© Randall Edwards 2023
#PoPubPAD #NovPad #NovPad2023 @the.poetry.pub
After Kris Kristofferson, “Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down” lyrics © Combine Music Corp.

Poetry Pub’s November Poem a Day Challenge’s prompt for Day four is: Bright/Dark.

Here’s an attempt.

Noon is noon.
It resists our manipulation
In spite of attempts at hour inflation
It comes neither late or too soon.

New is new.
The moon wanes each month does not listen
To songs, waxes full with drips glistens
Just once is a moon very blue

Let it go
Time is relative, is bright and dark
Contrast in value is what makes life’s art
Bright/dark paints chiaroscuro.

©️Randall Edwards 

Poetry Pub’s November 3, Poem a Day Challenge prompt is a “Form Friday” prompt. The form is a Golden Shovel which you may read about HERE.

I’ve borrowed a line from Leslie Bustard’s poem, “Silver Spring Lake” which may be found online at The Poetry Pub in their second chapbook volume, titled, Perspectives. It is a beautiful poem about facing an uncertain future following her cancer diagnosis. Leslie passed away in April of this year. You may visit her website, Poetic Underpinnings for more of her work.

The line from her poem is: “…we come into an open expanse–.” You may listen to me read the poem via the player below.

"We Come to an Open Expanse"

The me and you that becomes we 
Begins in a sanctuary where you and I come 
Together, processing into the church to 
Speak words in covenant, joined in "an 
Honorable estate," "forsaking all others," not open
Nor open-ended, but till death open the expanse.

The me and you which death untied as we
Tangles in moments of memory, when I come
And grief breaks through and into the present to
Retranslate the hoped-for future into an
Age where you come to that lakeside, open-
Handed and release again what is, into the expanse.

One day, the me and you shall in Life become we
When the Spirit and the Bride say, “Come,
Come to the Table prepared for you! Come to
The “AT LAST” when filling fills not merely for an
Hour, but brings us into a spacious, open
Place where He fills us forever with Love’s expanse.

(c) Randall Edwards 2023