The 60-Second Sabbath

hope

  • Starting

    I begin a new journey.I travel a new road.     Smell the air,        washed by the night rains.    Feel the morning sun        warming our hoping skin.    Taste the raspberries,        sweet and popping,        growing outside the… Continue reading

  • Good Friday, 2013

    Train mein the fine and necessary grace    of dying. Teach meto paint the watercolor wash    of my own decay,to draw in delicate detail    my inevitable deterioration,to compose my private melody    of loneliness and loss. Then I shall be ready    for resurrection,to be the me    imagined at the… Continue reading

  • On to Celebration

    Now is the time for celebration–yes, we have experienced loss,but we are not diminished. We have joined unsteady handsand pulled each other through. If not stronger, we are wiser,having found life in death,hope in sadness,God in one another. Yes,now it… Continue reading

  • Yes or No?

    Start with "no,"and you'll never get to "yes";doors slam the length of the corridor,blocking entrance to all possiblities. Start with "yes,"and sunlight filtersthrough a thousand, trembling leaves. Text and image © 2013 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. Continue reading

  • The Womb

    I'm in the marketfor a new womb;I'm ready to begin again.  They aren't sold on Amazon;I checked. One can a rent a wombif you're looking to have a babybut can't do it yourself…or opt not to. But I seek a… Continue reading

  • Hiking with Death

    Climbing the trail,I'm joined by a young woman. We chat,observing the shift toward winter,the changing colors,the increasing coolness,how this path of gravelwill soon be packed with snow,rutted by cross-country skis,pocked with snow-shoe tracks. "Your name?" I ask. "My friends call… Continue reading

  • What Waits Within

    The blooming roselives within the bud,the blood-red tulipwithin the dormant bulb,the canopy of sheltering leaveswithin the bare branch braced    against the raw winter wind. What then waitswithin you? Text and image © 2013 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. Continue reading

  • Christmas, Day 10

    I am a string of Christmas lightswith many burned-out bulbs. It must be someone's jobto keep me merry and bright. Someone?Anyone? Text and image © 2013 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.   Continue reading

  • Christmas, Day 9

    Hold my hand,for I am frightened:what if, just this once,Christmas doesn't come? We draw toward midnight;our candles burn low.How do we continueif Christmas doesn't come? The clock strikes the hour,the earth sighs beneath us–a sigh of sweet relief.Christmas has come.… Continue reading

  • Christmas, Day 4

    Longing speaks of God,leans into the Divine,lurches heavenward. Let yearning yield to the Holy. Text and image © 2012 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. Continue reading