The 60-Second Sabbath

Peace

  • 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

  • Bast

    As my cat twists to groom himselfhe's backlit by the setting rays of Ra,the aura of his black fur turned to bronze–Bast bathing on a carpet of golden thread. Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.  Continue reading

  • Image or Word?

    At this momentI'm torn betweengrabbing my cameraand taking up my pen. Something before me–and equally within–demands representation,conscripts me as its agent. Image or word?Today the pen wins. Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.  Continue reading

  • Take Me with You

    When was the last timeyou spent an hourin sacred bliss?When and where and how? Next time,take me with you. Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.  Continue reading

  • The Lord’s Prayer, Stanza 5

    Let forgiveness flow,sweet and sticky like honey,oozing over us,spilling onto otherssmeared and gooey,forever gunking upthe machinery of resentment. Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.   Continue reading

  • The Lord’s Prayer, Stanza 3

    We yearn for your vision of wholenessto become our reality.Erase our pretended perimetersbetween this life and the next. We embrace the creation of Paradise–here, now–as our Greatest Commission. Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. Continue reading

  • Night Prayer

    I loved your still world tonight.I walked it gently.I saw cold, silent moonlight    shining off the faces of polished tombstones.I passed drifts of fallen leaves resting in their hollows.I looked up through unmoving branches,    bare and black against the sky.I saw a… Continue reading

  • With No Offense

    With no offense meantto theologians or accountants: A theologiantrying to explain Godis like an accountanttrying to explain poetry. Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. (Concept suggested by Wm. J. O'Malley.) Continue reading

  • Rain

    I will sleep well tonight,with the rush of rain around me,with the woosh of water as cars pass in the street,the drum of drops from the roof to the porch,the hiss of mist whispering through blades of grass,earth greening herself… Continue reading

  • First Snow

    In advance of first snowthe chill winter windcombs the hares from the fieldsand shepherds them safelyto thickets and hedgerows. Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. Continue reading