Tag: Faith

I Cannot Dream For You

~ Elizabeth W. Marshall ~ 4 Comments

 the prodigal fescoI Cannot Dream For You

Without weeping
While I do,
I do love you
My body wracked by pain
Releases heaves and sighs of grieving
Distributes tears instead of blood
Pushing pulsating  crimson through my veins
Salt soaked
Sacks of weeping
Burst open as they hit the
Hard wood floor
Boards by board you’ve laid your life
Down
In a pattern
Of your own design, it seems
But
Nail by nail
I
Gaze skyward
Searching for the rough-hewn cross

I cannot dream of you without weeping
I see you
Through the eyes of Christ
Who plans for wholeness
Restoration
Desires for healing in every life

So I will dream that joy shall visit
Come in the morning, return to you
Fill  you  up with songs of singing
That you will be  made whole and new
And I will hope you into wellness
Formed from molded clay by Christ

That you would dream of new beginnings
And see the world as it sees you
Born to this world with songs of gladness
Wrapped , loved and swaddled from your birth

And I  will dream until my life ends
That all that’s noble,right and good
Godly,Holy, true and pure
Will come by way of
And  then rest with you
That dreams of joy and new beginnings
We be your dreams and not just mine
For  worlds you’ve never lived to open
And take you mercifully  into glory days

Yes I will dream like Sarah
Release all trembling and human fear
Put it down
Shout out a deafening chorus
Of loud, yet
Broken hallelujah’s
For Always
ad infinitum
precious one, you child of God

Today will end your days of  weeping
Today begins anew
For I will dream always of you.

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Joining Laura Boggess for Playdates at The Wellspring

and Jennifer for #tellhisstory

The Vigil

~ Elizabeth W. Marshall ~ 7 Comments

come unto me

She swears the color yellow soothes a soul
So you will  find her staring at the garden
Fixed gaze on the yellowest flower there
In the yard
She guards
Her heart
Holding vigil over one who gives her labor pains
Though eighteen years have passed since birth
Holding hope for one
Who birthed her too
Traumatized by screams of pain
She is ripped in two
She finds the field of yellow calms her nerves
Between her shifting gaze she lays it down
And takes it up again, her sinful self desires to stir the pot
She rakes the coals, red hot
Searing
Bloody
Mad when stirred
Hotter when  she pokes the fire
Fear finds fuel in oxygen of snuffed out hope
So she’ll return to yellow on her color wheel
Where quiet and calm soothe her aching soul
Now she knows how He must feel
Father of a million times a million times a million, no more
And lover of as many souls
She will pick a single yellow stem
And give it all to Him
The Perfecter of Her Faith
The One Who Never Sleeps Nor Rests
She lays the flower down
She’ll rest
Reciting: Goldfinch, Monarch, Black-eyed Susans
Over in her dreams
Calmed by yellow memories and hum
It is well with my soul
For He has got her back, cradled in His arms
She wears the title
Mother, Daughter, but
No longer
Tender of a  flame that burns
Her heart consumed by fear.

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Joining Jennifer Dukes Lee for #tellhisstory

Did You Ever Dream

~ Elizabeth W. Marshall ~ Leave a comment

Spencer and the dolphin

Did you every dream of
Strapping on your custom-made wings
Made of gathered and lovely found things
Buckling a harness
Of hope
Tightening the tether to the sky
And soaring away for a very short stay
Sent off by the caw caw caw
Of  an army of annoying black crows

Into the cloud covered day
As you glide down the bend in the arcs
Where the earth melds with blue hued sky
While you whisper a million whys

Landing, a soft crash landing
Mercy breaking your fall
You stand to face the day

This little part of your dream
Occurrs

Right after you toss Adam and Eve under the bus
For causing all of the pain
In the first place
For all of us
They started this cycle of pain
And it is so easy to blame
Eve and Adam
For all the sadness
Jesus I am so glad You came

Here
To a world of hurt
Where sin covers us up like
Dirt

And you reach for the plank in your eye
And ask why oh God oh why

Well neither have I.

I Was Just Wondering – Because I Am Weird That Way

~ Elizabeth W. Marshall ~ 1 Comment

 ame churchI Was Just Wondering – Because I Am Weird That Way

If every church, every where, literally not figuratively
Speaking
Of church
Do you think every pew in every town everywhere
Has the quiet griever in its midst
The stranger suffering in our midst
We are too busy singing from the old blue hymnal
Traditional words could, no
Would help the one who has the quiet thoughts
I really miss my wife who died last month
Everyone is facing forward looking straight ahead
Of me
And behind me too
well, and to my right to be exact is one
Who has the silent prayer trapped inside
I hope my friend with cancer doesn’t die


But we watch our watch and wonder, tea or diet coke
At lunch when will this sermon end
Is it too much
To ask
The lady hunched over in her chair if she knows how lovely
She looks today
Barely hanging by a thread
Beside the man sitting worried in the pew
His insides churning
It’s hell, this recent divorce
Keeps him up at night
If you’d just ask he’d be happy to tell you
And if you even spoke in church
He might ask you to pray
I was just wondering because I am weird that way
Maybe the church
Could close the hymnal every now and then
I love music more than most
But let’s
Seek the hurting, silent ones in our midst
Faith without works is dead

We
Could pray and say and love
I don’t know anymore but somehow I don’t want to miss the boat

Perhaps a  little more love would
Cover a multitude of sins
And I was just wondering

Maybe we should love our neighbor
Literally

Speaking
Mine wept in church today

Quiet never saying a word until he was spoken to
And then he cried
And so did I
Strangers we until he voiced his pain
I am weird that way
I was just wondering.