Everett Poetry Nite, August 25, 2025
Sally, Barb, and Moses
Deuteronomy 34:1-12
Sally and Barb died a good death.
It has been a hollowed year since the winter last
that our friends of St. John’s Church passed.
Families were there for one last breath.
These women of faith had the time and the grit
to make their peace with God, settle their affairs,
mend old sorrows, shed wholesome tears,
and accept that certain hopes won’t be met.
It is argued the prophet Moses died
a good death because he was given the time
to pass the torch to Joshua; but when he climbed
to the top of Nebo and saw the promised land
laid out before him and realized he would not
be alive to kiss the soil, Moses wept.
We all have expectations. Why was Moses kept
from this? Did forty years come to naught?
What does it mean to die a good death?
According to legend, Moses was buried by God
and no one knows for sure where he is laid.
God was there for one last breath.
∞
NOTE: I wrote the following poem, “Sacralized Violence,” in the summer of 2022, a few months after Russia invaded Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin and Patriarch Kirill I, the leader of the Moscow-based Russian Orthodox Church, claim they are waging a Christian holy war in Ukraine. Their claim is the very opposite of the teachings of Jesus. War is NOT the answer.
∞
Sacralized Violence
Look down on the Great Plain of Esdraelon
from the hilltop at Nazareth. History is written in blood.
Deborah and Barak routed the kings of Canaan
at Taanach by the waters of Megiddo. The torrent Kishon
purged the Canaanites. Josiah was slain by the forces
of Pharaoh Neco at Megiddo. Saul and his sons
were decapitated after battle with the Philistines.
At Jezreel, Jehu killed Jehoram and Ahaziah
and, following that, he slaughtered all their men
and all the prophets of Baal. Then he turned
to Jezebel. He ordered his men to throw her
to her death from the palace window where she was eaten
by ravenous dogs. But Jehu wasn’t done!
He hunted down and killed all the royal princes
and had their heads displayed at his command.
Jehu invited the worshippers of Baal to come
to a ceremony, then trapped and murdered them all.
He converted the Temple of Baal into a latrine.
Thousands of ordinary men were killed or maimed
because ambitious kings invoked the deity.
The arms of the survivors were weary from all the decapitations.
Kishon is a winding river of entrapment and slaughter.
The Plain of Esdraelon is a place of tragedy and war.
The oldest scriptures record such sacralized violence
by men. To credit God is the brief of the nihilist.
Agency
What does it mean to be the salt of the earth?
Salt is a preservative.
It is used for seasoning and with healing.
Salt is a helping agent.
What does it mean to be the leaven?
Leaven makes the bread rise.
It softens the bread and makes it more digestible.
Leaven is a helping agent.
What does it mean to be the light for the world?
Without the light,
we stumble around in the dark.
Light is a helping agent.
If you are the salt of the earth,
the light for the world, and the leaven,
you are a gift to the earth.
It has nothing to do with heaven.
You are a helping agent
by making the world—this world—a better place.
Everett Poetry Nite, August 11, 2025
Money Man
Leaving the Firm
Unappreciated
Sad Parting
Public and Private Drinking
Everett Poetry Nite, August 4, 2025
Betrayal
As a Rose Unfolds Itself
Looking Out My Office Window
Everett Poetry Nite, July 21, 2025
Hap
Layoffs Coming Next Week
Everett Poetry Nite, July 14, 2025
The Way
Lao Tzu Advises the Board of Directors
2 tanka poems (ref: Buddhist koans)
Looking to the West
Everett Poetry Nite, June 30, 2025
Haiku and Tanka (20 poems)
Mother
Abandoned
Everett Poetry Nite, June 23, 2025
Change
Autism Turns 21
Cigars
Everett Poetry Nite, June 16, 2025
Joy at Daybreak
The Smartest Guy in the Room
Glass Half Empty
My Iranian Gentleman
Dad Critiques the Sermon
Everett Poetry Nite, June 2, 2025
Kathy Fiscus
San Marino
Class of 1960
Everett Poetry Nite, May 26, 2025: Memorial Day
Operations Hastings
Den Mother
Everett Poetry Nite, May 19, 2025
The Grafting of a Nation
Those People
Everett Poetry Nite, May 5, 2025
Skywaves
Bus Poem: Hard Times
St. John’s Art Night, May 2025
Without a Thought
Skywaves
Bus Poem: Hard Times
My Son Keeps Getting Fired
Beyond the Narrowing
Everett Poetry Nite, April 28, 2025
The Alpha and Omega of Gratitude
Camp Loowit Alumni
Everett Poetry Nite, April 21, 2025
Without a Thought
Rejection
Everett Poetry Nite, April 14, 2025
Childhood Memories
Memory
She Loves You
Everett Poetry Nite, April 7, 2025
The Politics of No
The Swans of Skagit Valley
Art Night, April 2025
The Drifters
Love in a Twofer
Owl Love
As a Rose Unfolds Itself
Baldwin Power & Light
Our Love
Everett Poetry Nite, March 31, 2025
My Moment in Time
We All Start at Zero
For the Faces I Will Never See
Owl Love
Art Night, March 2025
The Way
1066
High Jumper
The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard
Art Night, February 2025
Beatitudes (Updated)
Disinformation
The Plumb Line
You Trample on the Needy
Art Night, January 2025
Residents Only
Oberlin College
White Privilege High School
Class of 1960
Art Night, December 2024
Those People
America in Decline
Art Night, November 2024
?
Art Night, October 2024
?
Art Night, September 2024
?
Art Night, August 2025
Morven letters: non fiction
Art Night, July 2024
The Drifters
Summer Romance
As a Rose Unfolds Itself
Looking to the West
Arise, My Love
To His Coy Mistress
Art Night, June 2024
Agency
I Was the Messenger
Lao Tzu Advises the Board of Directors
Our Corporate Wholeness
Into the Winter
Art Night, May 2024
I Want to be Like that Guy
Checkpoint
Feeling Valued
Wedding in the Park
Life Begins at 70
Art Night, March 2024
(haiku and tanka)
Art Night, February 2024
At the Dinner Table
Back Jackknife
Glass Half Empty
Visiting the Oncologist
Art Night, January 2024: Songs
Circle of Love
Ark of the Covenant
The Yoke
He Called a Little Child
Art Night, December 2023
Childhood Memories
Memory
First Date
Cigars
Perfume
On Mount Wilson
Art Night, November 2023
The Swans of Skagit Valley
Camp Loowit Alumni
The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector
The Parable of the Rich Fool
The Alpha and Omega of Gratitude
Art Night, October 2023
My Iranian Gentleman
Rejection
Chapel of the Transfiguration
We All Start at Zero
The Faces I Will Never See
Art Night, August 2023
Kenjiro Nomura, Artist
The Word Jap
The Recovering Racist
The Grafting of a Nation
Imago Dei
The Ideal Starting Lineup
Art Night, July 2023
The Body and Its Desires
The Politics of No
The Big Nothing
Come Together
Owl Love
Art Night, June 2023
(Read by Jim O’Grady)
Parable of the Wineskins
My Moment in Time