Status Updates From New Collected Poems

We who prayed and wept
for liberty from kings
and the yoke of liberty
accept the tyranny of things
we do not need.
In plentitude too free,
we have become adept
beneath the yoke of greed.

Those who will not learn
in plenty to keep their place,
must learn it by their need
when they have had their way
and the fields spurn their seed.
We have failed Thy grace.
Lord, I flinch and pray,
send Thy necessity.

To the Holy Spirit

O Thou, far off and here, whole and broken,
Who in necessity and in bounty wait,
Whose truth is light and dark, mute though spoken,
By Thy wide grace showed me Thy narrow gate.

True harvests no mere intent may reap.
Finallywe must lie down to sleep
And leave the world, all we desire
To darkness, malevolence, and fire.
Who wakes and stands his shadow’s mark
Has passed by mercy through the dark.
We save the good, lovely, and bright
By will in part, in part delight,
But they live through the night by grace
That no intention can efface.