The 60-Second Sabbath

night

  • Mary Magdalene at the Local Bar

    Imagine my surprisewhen my server that winter evening,is none other than Mary Magdalene–the Mary Magadalene.  She brings me my next cup of wine–red, thick, the color of blood.Candlelight swims through. I resist the temptationto ask the obvious questions;celebrities are people,… Continue reading

  • Descend, Night

    Descend, night,and still our troubled spirits.Dream us to your meadowwhere suffering ceasesand misaligned souls reconcile. Descend night,and heal us. Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.  Continue reading

  • Rest, My Love

    Rest, my love.The clouds that now confound your spiritwill drift on by midnight,and the moon's cool light shall soothe  you. Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.  Continue reading

  • The Train at Night

    Listen for me.I wail and warn:"Out of my way."I'm barreling through your town,shaking the beds of your drowsing children,filling their dreams with images of escapethrough black, mysterious fields to unfamiliar towns.My Doppler siren invites them to risk themselveson the rails… Continue reading

  • I Lay on My Back

    I lay on my back in bedand reach one arm upward,holding my hand open:"Take it," I whisper to God,"Just this once,grasp mine in yours;then I will be certain." My hand hangs suspended,waiting. It's easy to do this–try it some night–for… 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

  • The Hoop

    Last night, sitting alone on my patio, a gigantic white hoop rolled through my back yard. It glowed with phosphorecence, like ocean breakers, and hissed faintly, like satin sliding on satin, then passed, like a ghost–through a wooden fence, a… Continue reading

  • Riding Home

    I am a child.I am in the backseat of my parent's pale-blue Plymouth.I am rocked asleep    with the drum of rain on the roof,    with the rythmic slap of the wipers,    with the certainty that fills warm spaces        as they hurtle along night's wet highways.… Continue reading

  • Mind Grinding

    "Get out of my way!"I say to my mind."Stop bleating and blaring and blocking mewith endless analysis,with relentless reasoning." It does that.It can grind perfectly lovely creativity right into the pavement. Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All… Continue reading

  • Dark Water at Night

    Since childhood, I've had this approach/avoidance thing with large bodies of water at night. What is clear, refreshing and welcoming in daylight becomes inky, impenetrable and mysterious after dark. Lake Michigan, the Pacific, the Atlantic, even little Green Lake in… Continue reading