On the Path to Jericho

Then on the path to Jericho,
I’m plagued by uncertainty,

“Is the man wearing a top coat
my neighbor?” A girl nudges me,

startles me with gentleness. We dance.
And the way she tells the story:

No one dances alone. “Include
is a verb,” she explains.

“Am I wearing the clothing of a liar?”
I ask. Thankfully, she does not answer.

**

first published in In the Arms of Words: Poems for Tsunami Relief, limited edition, FootHills Publishing, (June 2005), and companion volume In the Arms of Words: Poems For Disaster Relief, Sherman Asher Publishing (October 2005), and later in my chapbook Paper Snowflakes, available from Southern Hum Press (Scroll down)

From Thomas Merton

The message of God’s mercy to man must be preached. The word of truth must be proclaimed. No one can deny this. But there are not a few who are beginning to feel the futility of adding more words to the constant flood of language that pours meaninglessly over everybody, everywhere, from morning to night. For language to have meaning there must be intervals of silence somewhere, to divide word from word and utterance from utterance. He who retires into silence does not necessarily hate language. Perhaps it is love and respect for language which imposes silence upon him. For the mercy of God is not heard in words unless it is heard, both before and after the words are spoken, in silence.

Thomas Merton. Disputed Questions (New York: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 1965): 195.

The Source of All Love by Henri Nouwen

Without the love of our parents, sisters, brothers, spouses, lovers, and friends, we cannot live. Without love we die. Still, for many people this love comes in a very broken and limited way. It can be tainted by power plays, jealousy, resentment, vindictiveness, and even abuse. No human love is the perfect love our hearts desire, and sometimes human love is so imperfect that we can hardly recognise it as love.

In order not to be destroyed by the wounds inflicted by that imperfect human love, we must trust that the source of all love is God’s unlimited, unconditional, perfect love, and that this love is not far away from us but is the gift of God’s Spirit dwelling within us.