Praise

All day long,
my mouth is filled with your praise. -Psalm 73


Praise the cliff behind our house,
the rappelling rope to Holland Creek,
the agility remaining in these aging knees;

praise these eyes that follow the stream,
still widen at the water’s glinting;

praise the wisp of haze
rising above the weir;

praise this skin that drinks the mist,
frissons, still, at the billion bursting bubbles;

praise these tears that dissolve the damage
of my dogged gloom;

praise the friend whose presence is shade,
whose words are salve;

praise the poet who pokes my sluggish soul,
the painter who awakens the heart;

praise the joy of a child at play,
weep at the idleness of our highly busy lives;

praise the truly content,
for they are commercially useless;

praise the attentive,
for they are the resistance;

praise the peace-filled protesters—
genuine rebels, original mystics;

praise the mocked and maligned,
those dissident dancers;

praise you, darlings of the Spirit,
howlers in wilderness, desert coyotes,
restless residents of a dark and violent time,
who still chose to love, and live, as though guests
of a free and mercy-forested world;

opposed by unavoidable conflicts,
condemned to countless failures,
still journeying, still yearning,
for the coming community
of vision;

praise my walking companion, my partner, my beloved,
God’s ingenious gift.

12 Comments

  1. Thank you Stephen – great expansion on or, application on
    I looked at the pictures on Google maps of Holland Creek Trail
    Psalm 71:v8
    I’m sure this is the verse you meant
    “My mouth is filled with your praise,
    declaring your splendour all day long”. NIV)
    Paul

  2. You’ve written Psalm 151.
    The line that caught me: “weep at the idleness of our highly busy lives;”
    Guilty as charged!

  3. Your poetry. Always manna in the wilderness. Today’s especially fed my wandering soul. Thank you.

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