How Lord

      HOW LORD

How have we come to this?
Some of the best souls of my generation
Swept  off the main streets into back alleys to get lost
In the name of.....
And in the meantime our sons and daughters
Worth their weight in gold
Wander those same streets fatherless.
Yes, I know something had to be done
But how did we come to this?

As I have looked on helplessly
I sometimes think this has broken me beyond repair:
I wish there was something in me,
That could take my anger and grief
And lead them in a protest against
All
This
But I am  too docile,
Maybe it is the silence of the Lamb
Holy and meek,
Maybe it is the battered sadness of a victim
A victim of this clean up job
Which has made more victims
As it purges out the 'sinners' from the Friend of sinners' church
All in the name....Yes all in that Name

I wish I could cry like Jeremiah did
He had a tender heart.
Mine is tender too because it is bruised
Dear God heal me
Do not leave me too numb to cry
For this church I love.

                              Wilf Mar 2017

Thickening

  THICKENING

Combing the  twilight air
Then,
A thread of hair from nowhere
Somewhere in the air
Leading to a face
And a mind whispering,

This and thats of what consequence?
Then
Threads of thought lace and
The rope of  poetry
Thickens.

                      WILF Mar 2017

The First Time

             The First Time
The first time ever I felt God near
He was a ball of darkness
Darker than the blackness of my room
Impenetrable and alien
It took away my will to breathe
As I sat in my bed, terrified and thrilled

Days later He came as a gathering storm
Wanting to take my heart and blow through me

There have been so many times since
Not always the terror but
Always that familiar first time feeling,
Something virgin being experienced, and experiencing

Tonight,
Lying here alone in my bed 
Whispering, 'I love You, I Love You I.....
And joy rising up and up and up
Into the the warm night.

This is the first time again,
And the closer you come the more I wonder Who You are.
I always have the same prayer
" Hello I love You tell me Your name"
You always give the same answer.
It is always a surprise.

                            WILF FEB 2017