Putting on my outer coat, with sleeves – woolen and rough,
I open up the world and step into it once more.
The fray, the angst, the hatred, the love…it rushes at me
almost knocking me off my feet.
Taking away my balance,
my compass,
My light…
Exhaling another breath,
it gets caught in winter’s embrace
lifts off,
takes flight in wisps of cloud…soft, white, feathery;
And sometimes,
if I am brutally honest,
I wish I too could take flight,
could rise up,
on the wings of morning
and embrace the frigid breeze.
I wish that I too could
top the bowing trees, heavy with fallen snow
and be eye to eye with the sun…
Longing to feel its radiance
its warmth
breathing into me a song
as old as the groanings of the earth
as these bones pine for its alluring kiss
and sighing one last time,
I close the door
engage the engine
and head out into the thick of it
while I bid the rising dreams goodbye
for but a moment.
Finding Freedom…stop the madness!
What are you
Enslaved to?
So many victims…
so many chains.
Enslaved to the things we own…
or is it the things which own us?
what is it that is clasped to your life
threatening to drown you? 
How the pressure builds and builds
and
builds.
What holds us back, keeps us chained
refrained and sometimes
Insane?

Wouldn’t you rather be
set free?
To find relief.
from the grief,
the chaos
this burden?
I don’t want to lug this anymore…
To push and pull
and never improve this lot…
Why would we EVER
be satisfied with this?
When there is real Peace
real Hope
real Life
real Freedom
…
BUT…
The burning question is…
Why do we still live like we are still enslaved
still imprisoned
still chained…?
Something to ponder today…and find freedom, live freedom, be freedom for others still blind and chained.
Perspectives Day 5.2 “Poetry” – Featuring Marlene Chase (Lt. Colonel) “A Tale of two Fathers”
A Tale of Two Fathers
“Then God said, ‘Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love…” (Gen. 22:2)
Two fathers–one of the earth,
the other of the spheres.
Each with patriarchal love
bearing the earth’s inconsolable secret
climb the rugged mountain
leading the child of innocence.
Two righteous hearts aggrieved,
two hearts torn by love.
One in obedience raises the knife;
the other halts it with a cry,
“Not your son, but Mine shall die,
Not on Moriah but Calvary’s hill.”
The two descend the mountain,
arms entwined, souls on fire,
bearing their burden of love
for a world of sons.
By Marlene Chase.
My Rescue (a poem or sorts)
I cried out “my foot is slipping”
as I clung horrified to the rock.
Deep below my fall would kill
jagged and deadly…deep below.
In panic and pain strength, it waned
I knew I could not go on.
And just when it seemed I would fall
and my body, broken would fail
His hand reached me at last.
Within His grasp, my breath I gasped
My life had faced death’s cold stare
Yet there He stood, Jesus my Lord
and I knew that I was saved!
From death’s fearful grave
to life – rays of light warm my soul.
For He walks beside me all this way
and I know I have been gloriously saved!
Prayer for Intimacy (Poem & Prayer)
Lord, you know how distracted I can be.
How I can hide my heart from you.
Break down these walls in which I hide.
Make me vulnerable and pliable to You.
I do not desire a divided heart…
and yet I often find myself there.
I thirst for You, Dear Lord;
I long for Your holy presence.
Create in me this clean heart
so that I can love and serve You sincerely,
clearly…
articulated
authentic and pure…
complete…and whole.
Lord you know how distracted I can be…
become my full focus…
become my everything…
Consume my heart and mind,
make me wholly Yours.
-Amen.
A Blessing and Bane (A poem)
this slurping, soupy arrangement
stays my amused satisfaction.
cars skidding and skirting
orbiting each other
a cacophony of incompetent
unorganized Ice Skaters.
It spills out, splashes down
drowning sashes of sorrow
in the middle of my selfish parade…
after all this circus act
cut from blistering fingers
ripe with sweat and hardened calloused hands
this stampede of interruptance
has caused ME to suppress my de-testment of
these frosted inconvenient deposits underfoot.
I will trample them
trump their self worth into the soles of my
black leather shoes…
Howling madly at their existence
here on the eve of smiling spring
on the prowl
like a careful cat at the door
I store my response,
predator ready,
fist clenched and half raised
yet frozen in traction
taking aim to wandering eyes
peering back at me.
my son, snow suited and
prepared
joyfully standing at the ready
for me to take him out into it
and catch a glimpse of
my childhood again.
Dear Lord, this heart…
2 Timothy 1:6-14 (NIV)
6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.
8 So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God,
9 who has saved us and called us to a holy life–not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,
10 but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
11 And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher.
12 That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.
13 What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus.
14 Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you–guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.
Maudlin Days. (A poem)
Today I am feeling quite maudlin.
It stirs up echos in my life
mere dust clouds, wisps of faces
and places all captured here…
It is below zero outside again today
but all I can think of is how many
miles these feet have carried me
how many footprints I have stepped into
some, not quite big enough
this shadow is far from small
not tall, yet other times lagging, lumbering behind…
while other footprints that have been cast
big foot must have passed this way
and I find this shadow dwarfed and intimidated.
How many miles indeed?!
How fragile and temporal…is there purpose?
Sometimes it’s a Sojourner without mission or aim,
lost out in the cold wandering around as if blind.
These are maudlin days,
yet I sense a Sun rise just on the next horizon.



















