The 60-Second Sabbath

Loss

  • The Bigger the Doubter

    The bigger the doubter,the harder (and farther)the fall into faith. Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.  Continue reading

  • Perfection

    After month upon month in ICUmy sister reached perfectionand said,"Enough."The word came from a puffy, pale face,beneath what had been a crown of thick, cascading hair,but was now only scattered brown tufts. "Be ye perfect,"Jesus had said to her.Hers was… Continue reading

  • The Common Hearse

    It's time to write a simple versein honor of the common hearse,sleekly polished, darkened glass,slowly taking one last pass down the tree-lined avenues,past long-assumed, familiar views–street lamps, fences, kids at play,neighbor's gardens, Miss Delay, whose laundry flaps despite the rainfrom… Continue reading

  • Whose Heart

    Whose heart is thisbattered, shattered,scattered in pieces on my bedroom floor? Ah, it's mine. Unspoken, broken,I block the entrance,shoulder the bureau to barricade the door;I quote the raven: "Nevermore!" Text, image and audio © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights… Continue reading

  • Job II

    And what would you have said?"Life sucks"?"There is no answer"?"God is capricious and uncaring"?"God? What God?""Try meth instead"? I would have sat beside himand wept. Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.        Continue reading

  • Job I

    So Job asked(quite reasonably),"What the hell?" And God answered(equally reasonably),"Who the hell are you to ask?" And in the impasseboth realizedthe equal needone of the other.  So go ahead and ask,"What the hell?" And don't be surprisedwhen God responds,"I don't… Continue reading

  • I Could Have Used You Today

    I could have used you today. I needed you:     a stillpoint,    a saner pivot,    a rock to cling to while the currents pushed and pulled,    someone to click download,    arms to cry in,    acceptance of the mess I am. I needed another perspective,    a… Continue reading

  • Dinner in Eden

    The fruitnewly, neatly peeled and sliced,fanned across the plate,waits for them. "Why not?" she asks."What possible difference could it make?" Silence. "That's the crux, isn't it?We don't know–We can't know until we know." She inhales:"It smells heavenly–both sharp and sweet–like… Continue reading

  • Life Is Not Fair

    1My father would halt meby looking over his half-glassesand precisely intoning:"Life is not fair,"a statement falling somewherebetween actuality and pathological avoidance. 2Already aware of the unfairnness of life,I wasn't looking for him to repair it,simply to acknowledge it–not the lack… Continue reading

  • Poor Moses and Miriam

    Poor Moses and Miriam–their entirely original vision of freedom,justice,equality,mystery,dancing,groaning,the dis-ease that leads us into the wilderness that is God, co-opted by the order,oppression,consumption,satiation,and certainty of Solomon. It is the death of faith. Is this our destiny as well? Text and image… Continue reading