The Sweet Desert

And sometimes, Lord
it must have been
good to go without
to leave the friends
and streets you knew
to lay your burdens down
and wander in the sweet desert
where nothing makes a sound

Morning in the Desert

All night Satan has offered you
grapes and honey made of air
or opened chasms at your feet
that weren't really there
but then morning breaks
and Satan flies away
and for a moment everything
is as you made it that first day

East of Eden

Lord, I know you were hungry
as I am hungry now
none of it is strange to you:
the desert, or the crowds
and maybe this same wilderness
has been home to us all.
But you know hunger, Lord:
you know the angry ache
you know the horror of the night
when you're the only one awake
I'm lost in this desert: please show me
which way to take.

What Did You See In Your Dreams, Son of Man?

What did you see in your dreams, Son of Man?
For man you were, and man must eat, or dream.
Was that small desert filled with all your fears,
or did it turn to palms, and reeds, and streams?
Or did the rocks and bushes lose their strength
so you could see beyond to other things?
Did you see Satan flit across the sky?
Could you hear the angels whispering?
Did time bend in your dreams, as in my own
so that things past and things to come collapsed
and up that hill you wore the starry crown
even as the cross dug into your back?
Or did you dream the shape of a new world:
the world your suffering would one day build?

The Children of Israel

Forty years--
the men are gone,
the children men
and the desert seems like our oldest friend
as we stand on this edge of this strange land
our God has brought us to
with his strange hand

Jonah, On The Second Day

I would take a desert
I would take a rock
or just a bit of metal that would cut
into the walls of this black, living cage
not to even to escape,
but let light in
enough to see my own hands again
Two days!
God, you are every fool I thought
tormentor of your friends,
friend of your foes
a king who cannot bring himself to kill
overthrown by mercy, drunk with love

Ash Wednesday

Your first night in the desert, Son of God
the stars trembled at every glance
recognizing as no man had
the heart you had disguised as man
but man you were as well, and glad
for silence, for every step
your father showed you by the starlight
you had commanded in heaven
A rock, some even ground
was all you found
following the Spirit where it led
and you lay down, and shut your eyes
as the stars wondered overhead