Snow covered sidewalk,

hedge,  even patio chair -

      a marshmallow world!

 

(Sorry about the screen interference - I'm not stepping out in that in my pajamas!)

 

 

And what's this about "in like a lion, out like a lamb"?  Check Mar 5 post!

 

Heavenly Father/Mother -

The manna ceased

  and for many of our brother and sisters,

  and maybe even ourselves,

  the fruits are the land were not, are not, available

    and our bodies waste away,

Having squandered our wealth,

  and worn out our fields, 

  and logged or burned our forests,

  and depleted or polluted the fresh and salt water seas,

  and filled the sky with heat-trapping gas,

  and turned our back on friend and neighbor -

    we face the prospect of severe famine,

    even as many of our brothers and sisters are facing today.

Heavenly Mother/Father -

We will arise and come to you.

       (Hopefully before it is too late!)

 

 

 

 The longer I live -

Paper(1), sermon(2), message(3), prayer(4) - 

     the shorter I write.

 And now I'm 75 days into this haiku project!  We should try a couple of weeks where each day we cut out one syllable, until for the last day we are down to a one, one syllable, word!    "Ouch!"

(1) in college-seminary, 20 pages?

(2) 3-4 pages?

(3) like for a newsletter - 3-4 paragraphs

(4) 40-50 words (according to Brian Wren!)

 

Or (for the middle line)you could choose from "announcements", "liturgy", "stories", "poems"....(pick any that add up to 7 syllables!

Or you could stick with the tried and true "Poems and prayers and promises" thanks to John Denver!

 

 

 

 Leftover pizza,

microwaved, hot and greasy -

      yeah, I'll have a slice!  (or two or three!)

 Over the roof tops

through evening's bare branches comes

        sunshine in my eyes.

Green tinge on brown fields,

blue sky patch on "low spot lake" -

       Tomorrow?  Next week?

 

So we were driving through Wisconsin and past a field that was damp dark brown with just the green tinge of new spikes coming up.  In the lower spots, water still lay, reflecting the sky.  Then riffing off the "you never step in the same river twice" line, what if I passed the field tomorrow, or next week, what would I see?   (And yes, I know it's pretty lame when you have to explain a poem, but that's what I got for today.)

 Then bonus content -

   One person's treasure

   is another person's crap!

        Which person are you?

(Explaining again - Margie is reading a book The Art Thief, and commented that the stuff they were stealing, she wouldn't want in her home.....)

 

 Old cabin by road

Uninhabited for years

      slowly falling down.

 I AM HERE TODAY

IF WE HOLD HEARTS TOGETHER

TOMORROW MAY COME 

At a diversity reader conversation about the book As We Have Always Done.

Ok - I don't know what this is about, but it's how it came to me -

 

Amazing God -

Your loving kindness is better than life.

Around us people perish -

 in war,

 from hunger,

 in poverty,

 from oppression and violence,

 through accidents and disasters,

   natural or of our own making.

And we cling to our lives 

  for another year.

Your loving kindness is better than life.

Amazing God.

 Second day of spring!

Crocus? Robin? No!  Snow, cold -

      where did that come from? 

Second "full" day of spring. Eighteen degrees!

 Read/write a book, or

plant  seed, or walk a mile -

      what to start today?

 

March is such a good month for starting things.  First off, spring arrives opening up new opportunities, and early in the month there is "March Fourth" - a good day to set off on an adventure.  Then if you still haven't gotten to it, today is "3,2,1 day."  I'm making frozen yogurt, but that doesn't really qualify as "starting something", so I don't know......

 In evening sunlight (7:30)

waves splash bright white and sparkle -

       first walk of springtime. 

which actually began at 5:01 am. I slept through it.  Seems like that ought to be the haiku for the day.

 

Five-o-one a.m.

turn over, pull up cover -

       outside it's springtime!

 Grapevine right, then left,

step back, tap,...six, seven, eight.....

       The Electric Slide!

 

Ok - it's a line dance - we learned it at the UNITED conference NMU on Monday. "Grapevine" is when you step right and then swing your left foot behind your right!

 

Bonus content for today -

Last sign of winter -

Ice and water in the pond.

     Or first sign of spring?

 Going for Reubens,

 ending with pasta, pizza -

     St Patrick's Day fail!

Margie and I were looking for some kind of not too heavy St Patrick's Day meal after the United Conference at NMU.  Toss Christopher (vegetarian, noise sensitive, time limited) into the mix and a couple of restaurants that we thought would fit the bill were closed on Monday or after 6pm, and we ended up at Third Coast Pizza.  A good time together, but not a St Pat's Day meal.  Maybe today or tomorrow.

 Lunar eclipse on

March fourteen - Pm? Am!

      Wait - Happened? Missed it?

 

I had it on my calendar for March 14, but assumed that meant  Friday night, not early Friday morning.  By the time I was getting ready for it, there were already pictures online!

 

Lord God,

we turn our eyes to the heavens

  and there against the “black-drop” of space

  are the stars which you have established

  telling us of your dream

  that life/creation would just go on and multiply world without end.

Unfortunately we have understood that to mean

  that “we” should go on and multiply

  until we have outgrown both our place and our role

  and brought harm to your creation along the way.

Draw us under "thy holy wings, Dear Savior"

  (if necessary “make us willing to be so drawn”);

  save us from our adversaries and from ourselves.

I believe that I/we shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

My heart takes courage; I wait for you.

 

 

 Bonus  -  A Reading from Joel and a collect for St Urho’s Day!

Listen, you leaders and everyone else in the land.
Has anything like this ever happened before?
Tell our children!
Let it be told to our grandchildren and their children too.

Swarm after swarm of locusts has attacked our crops,

eating everything in sight.
Sober up, you drunkards!
Cry long and loud; your wine supply is gone.
A powerful nation with countless troops has invaded our land.
They have the teeth and jaws of powerful lions.
Our grapevines and fig trees are stripped bare; only naked branches remain.

Grieve like a young woman mourning for the man she was to marry.
Offerings of grain and wine are no longer brought to the Lord's temple.
His servants, the priests, are deep in sorrow.
Barren fields mourn; 

grain, grapes, and olives are scorched and shriveled.

Mourn for our farms and our vineyards!
There's no wheat or barley growing in our fields.
Grapevines have dried up and so has every tree—

figs and pomegranates, date palms and apples.
All happiness has faded away.
 

Then the Lord said:
It isn't too late.  You can still return to me with all your heart.
Start crying and mourning! Go without eating.
Don't rip your clothes to show your sorrow.
Instead, turn back to me with broken hearts.
I am merciful, kind, and caring.
I don't easily lose my temper, and I don't like to punish.

I am the Lord your God.
Perhaps I will change my mind and treat you with mercy.
Then you will be blessed with enough grain and wine for offering sacrifices to me.

Later, I will give my Spirit to everyone.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
Your old men will have dreams,
and your young men will see visions.
In those days I will even give
my Spirit to my servants, both men and women.

                                                                                     - Joel 1,2  selected verses

 

A Prayer for St Urho's Day -

 God of us all, and of all creatures great and small;
Thank you for grain from the field,
  milled and baked into loaves it shall be for us “bread,
  blessed by the Lord, broken and shared, life for the world.”
Thank you for grapes from the vine,
  crushed and aged they shall be for us “wine,
  love freely poured, all of us one in the Lord.”
And this day of all days,
thank you for those who watch over the harvest and keep it safe
  from fire and frost,
  from drought and flood,
  and hoppers!
Grant that we may never forget that our common life depends upon each other’s toil
Uffda.  Amen.

 

 

                                          Sculpture of St. Urho in Menahga, Minnesota

 

“How are you doing?”

“Good. You? How is the family?”

         A sidewalk meeting.

 Skies gray, thunder rolls,

a light spring rain gently falls -

      car wash of the world.

Restaurant week Marquette

muffaletta smash burger -

      that's all for today!

 

Lunch at Lagniappe's. No need for dinner!

 

 "Hey Charlie, I just....."

Someone who knows who I am?

     Nope - ad from a corp.

 

Sorry to be kind of a downer on a medium nice day (here in Mqt at least);  tired of corporations sending out overly familiar emails. 

 Tape slides by, lights flash,

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band sings -

     For another age.

 

 

Digitizing old cassette tapes at the Memory Lab at The Pete! We gave away our last cassette player. 

 

 Reading the paper

sitting in driveway sunlight -

     First time for this year.

 

 Or

     Spring is almost here.

Almighty God - nope, we thought about that on Monday,

Dear God - ok, but maybe a little familiar,

Close-Companion God -

thank you for all the blessings I enjoy.

  I live in a land flowing with milk and honey (Marquette, MI);

  I eat grain from the ground and fruit from the vine. 

I am not so much tempted from hunger to turn stones into bread

  as I am to eat everything in sight 

  even though it makes me uncomfortable and unhealthy.

I am not so much tempted to worship false gods and celebrities

  as I am to simply drift through life no matter what comes my way.

And I feel no need to put you to the test -

  as I think back, when I wanted/needed someone to be with me,

  in good times or in troubles,

  and there was no one else - you were there.

And I know that in the times to come when I need/want someone to be with me,

  if there is no one else, you will be there. Thank you.

Thank you for staying close to me this week;

next week I will try to stay closer to you.

 Ok - time to wrap up "Who said that?" week.  Turns out it was harder to pick out a line than it was to mold a haiku around it.  So today we are using the converse of yesterday's line ("All that glitters is not gold") - "All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost." - Gandalf/Tolkien.  And this intersects with a line/song I had toyed with earlier - 

   May you run and not be weary, May your heart by filled with song.

   May the love of God continue to give you hope and make you strong.

   May you run and not be weary, may your life be filled with joy.

   And may the road you travel always lead you home. 

Put these together and I come up with

The road you travel,

whether wandering or lost -

     may it lead you home. 

Guess it could be a chance to start thinking about what "home" means and how you get there!

 

Well, kind of a twisted journey on this one. The line that came to mind was “Not all that glitters is gold”, which is apparently Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice. But what I thought I was thinking of was the line from Tolkien, Lord of the Rings, which actually goes “All that is gold does not glitter; Not all those who wander are lost.”  "Glitter" and "gold" being the key terms here -

Setting sun hits ice

on bare branches and glitters -

   but it is not gold.

Ok - for tomorrow we'll do something about gold that does not glitter, or wanderers who are not lost!

 

 Ok - today's "line" is from my youth - Bob Dylan/The Byrds - "Hey Mr Tambourine Man, play a song for me." (My mother achieved sainthood by listening to me play and sing it over and over and over!)  I was doing an MRI (always a little intimidating) in Green Bay (they have BIG magnets there!)  and they asked what kind of music I wanted to listen to, although once the machine gets going you can't hear much anyway.  I said "Folk"?  And the next thing I heard was the opening riff and Roger McGuinn - "Hey, Mr Tambourine Man...."  Yeah, I thought - I got this....

Sky-flower stars and 

 night winds play a song for me -

        Awed, I hum along. 

The "night winds" were last night, the "sky-flower stars" maybe tonight!

 Bonus - it's really snowing and blowing in Mqt today -

 

Fine snow, fiercely blown

blankets branches, shrubs.  Nature -

       gently tucks us in. 

So we might walk to the store - or maybe not!

 

The radical, divine choice is the choice to reveal glory, beauty, truth, peace, joy, and, most of all, love in and through the complete divestment of power. It is very hard – if not impossible – for us to grasp this divine mystery. We keep praying to the “almighty and powerful God.” But all might and power is absent from the one who reveals God to us saying: “When you see me you see the Father.” If we truly want to love God, we have to look at the man of Nazareth, whose life was wrapped in weakness. And his weakness opens for us the way to the heart of God.      - Henri Nouwen

Mighty God, your son,

Whose life was wrapped in weakness,

     shows us your true strength

 

Or morphs into -

Creation shows a

powerful God; Powerless -

     the Son shows true strength.

From The Church of the Heavenly Rest in New York.  They're having a "Plentiful Pancake Supper" tonight -

 Join us for a fun-filled night of crafts, live jazz music, a hot cocoa bar, and a pancake relay in the Nave as we take part in the Christian tradition of feasting on the night before the penitential season of Lent begins. There will also be a parade and burning of palms.  

"a pancake relay in the Nave"!? - I want to go to that church!  

So -

 Live jazz, hot cocoa, 

pancake relays in the Nave   -

    last day of life's start!

Or     last day of first life!

Kind of trying to bounce off the "First day of the rest of your life" thing.  This is the last day of frivolity before a new part of life begins tomorrow. 

Or

 Live jazz, hot cocoa, 

pancake relays in the Nave   -

    last day before dust!       (laissez les bon temps rouler - and flip those pancakes!!!)

 

(If you are looking for just the haiku - scroll down to the bottom.)   

Ok - here it is, we're doing "Who said that?" week.  In which I take a line, from a favorite author or just from the universe, and form a haiku around it.  For today it's a line from Godric, a novel by Frederick Buechner.  Godric is a hermit who remembers his life as kind of a "traveling monk accompanier" I think.  Haven't really read all the book - parts of it in the daily Buechner email. 

 So - ALL THOSE YEARS ago Tom Ball blessed my ears to hear the poor cry out for help, and I still hear them right enough. I hear them when the mouse squeals in the owl's cruel claw. I hear them when the famished wolf howls hunger at the moon. I hear them when old Wear goes rattling past in weariness, and in the keening of the wind, and when the rain beats hollow on my roof. In all such sounds I hear the poor folk's bitter need and in the dimtongued silence too. But when melody wells up in thrushes' throats, and bees buzz honeysong, and rock and river clap like hands in summer sun, then misery's drowned in minstrelsy, and Godric's glad in spite of all.

It's the line "misery's drowned in minstrelsy"  - and you have to say "mis-ery" in 2 syllables!  I love that line - the only other place where I've encountered the word "minstrelsy" is in Gordon Lightfoot's song Minstrel of the Dawn - "If you meet him you must be a victim of his minstrelsy" 

 So here we go -

 

Sorrow's silence, then

misery's drowned in minstrelsy -

     Music of the night   (comes easily to mind)

     Music of nature   (fits more with original text)

    Music of the world

     Music of God's love

     God's musical love.

    The music of grace.

     The music of life.

    Nature's old sweet song.

Yeah - I like that last one best. 

Sorrow's silence, then

misery's drowned in minstrelsy -

    Nature's old sweet song.

 

 

 

    

    

     

 

 

God of prophets and priests, patriarchs and matriarchs, disciples, and us -

we so often drift through the clouds of life

not understanding what we are seeing or saying,

unable (or unwilling or in any case, failing) to cast out the sorrow and suffering we encounter.

Give us the faith to see the light of your love in the face of each person we meet

that may we stop being faithless and perverse,

and might live all the moments of our lives in your goodness and grace together.

 Snug in flannel shirt,

long underware, lined blue-jeans - 

     Geezer looks at 10  (degrees, that is!)

 

This is a re-working of an autumn haiku I wrote a couple of years ago (well, on 11.6.23 to be exact) that went

Temps, leaves start to fall -

 snug in his flannel lined jeans

     Geezer waits on fall.

(and looking at it now, I'm not sure I like the two "fall"s.  Guess I did back then?)   I always used to scoff at old guys wearing long underware for everyday activities, when they weren't out tramping through the snow. You could see the long underware cuffs under their regular shirt.  But flannel lined jeans are really nice!