Sacrament Poetry

I've been accused of being cynical. Or maybe the word was "jaded." Either way, I didn't take it personally and I wouldn't refute it. (In fact, I'm usually impressed when people have the candor to be so honest with me.)

So I am jaded. It's true. But it's not the whole truth.

Sometimes I can be humane and vulnerable and cuddly and down-right, boyishly naive. I'm complex. But these poems aren't.

I wrote them all in LDS Sacrament meetings, and I didn't write them because I was bored. (Which is something a jaded person would do.) But because I was touched and wanted to give in to things that I didn't understand. (Which is something a person who is only sometimes jaded can do.)

Orderville

________Shuffling boots
____and cowboy-cut suits,
_________row after row
_of heads seldom combed

_________Still-wet parts
brave boys battling callicks
________Contrite hearts
_____worn by earth's grit.

_________Humble men,
_____taller than steeples.

Warts and All

He...
He came down, born in a manger.
And the Child
grew and waxed and filled with wisdom.
He knew man,
in all points tempted as we are,
yet without sin.

He knelt in that garden and pled,
Let this cup pass...
Nevertheless, He drank the cup
to the bottom.
And now He really knew mankind--
warts and all.

It was a miracle
that He died
and rose up on the third day.
It's a miracle
that He suffered for my sins
in The Garden
and suffered all over again
on The Cross.

But it's no less a miracle
that knowing me
and that knowing you--
warts and all--
He still wanted to take us
Home with Him
Because He really does know us
and still loves
Us.

Red Checkmarks

Josephus B. Waters,

Check.

Everette Cain,

Check.

James G. Bennet,
Hyrum L. Pizor,
William Blakeslee,

Check.
Check.
Check.

One by one,
all together.

Gone for now,
but not forever.

Check.

Drop by Drop, aka The Sunbeam

Drop by drop,
blue, green, orange, and brown,
M&Ms fall
into the empty sacrament cup.
I don't think
Jesus would be displeased.
After all,
He wants this little boy
for a sunbeam.