The Trackless Path

There is a kingdom of peace. Its banners waft in the wind. But there is no earthly power That has found the peace within. Their heart is bent on anger. Their will is set to win. And until they forsake winning, They’ll war and war again Until it works a cleansing A change from deep within, And then, Oh then, When men are free  From the need to war, to win, Will the unseen peaceful kingdom Come to E...

I bang the pots. I stir the bushes. Fly away. Fly away. Take to the sky, you little birds. Take to the heavens, you big birds. Don’t stay long! I say, Just long enough to leave your curse upon them, Or in other words, your blessing,  The blessing of the ruin that you took early, The one that they’ll find late which they’ll find out Is the key to their deliverance. But whatever you do, move on. Don...

I love to work with people. And I live my life mostly by my gut And prefer to deal with people who do the same. But it becomes impossible to do that when organizations get too large. And so I have finally stopped shadowing their thresholds. Because if I must fill out papers before we look eye to eye, I am not interested. If you need to ask me a set of questions that you’ve written down, I’m not in...

The Corporation has had its day, has had its day. There comes a great de-centralization through chaos. And in its wake will flourish The private enterprise, And laughter, Sweet, childlike merry-making, As the little ones chant and sing upon its grave. And we will do business with each other once again When the great Leviathan crashes to the earth And the children of the kingdom Feast upon its ashe...

I live and keep on living. I move and keep on moving. And it suits me fine. It suits me fine. I knew an old man who lived by the ocean. And he said that once, years ago, It made its way into his house. And so the old man and his neighbors  Pushed it back. They pushed it back. With rock and sand and a crew of engineers, They pushed the ocean back. Can you imagine that?! And the man lived in a littl...

The sun sets upon the sacred valley. And the clouds light up with color As the cool rolls in off fields of green. The smell of earth. The sound of bees. The mountains looking down  In loving, purple, rocky grey. And I alone with the silence, No outlet, but to write  Here on this page, No pallet, No colors, No music. Just the words, the gratitude, that rolls  Through my brain and down my slippery f...

Sacred little cumulous clouds  And almost stormclouds  Grace the holy valley. And I am lost in the fields. The tractors drive by. And the driver’s wave. But nobody cares That I live here. I do not move Except When absolutely necessary. And the longer I rest here in silence The more I am healed. The more I’m healed.

I close my eyes and see waving fields Of the most golden grain I’ve ever seen, As if the sunlight is caught up and inbetween The stalks of grain, and as if it glows itself.  And through the field runs a telephone line, Post, post post. And I am lost in the bright yellow. 

I came upon a Blue Heron today. It landed in an irrigation ditch And hid behind a clump of grass. I slowly moved up on it and it flew away, But not far. A hundred paces down the ditch. Incredible, a Blue Heron in the irrigation ditch, And he’s staring back at me as if to say, “Hello, old friend.” And I could sware That I remember him from long ago, Long before our names were written down, When the...

It is surprising to me that wherever you go, you can hear birds. And they live their lives without a grocery store. They are wild, and yet, they are among us. And yet we are a world away When it comes to things like faith. Still, they condescend to grace us with the song  Of simple trust. Always. Always. It chirps. It’s there in almost every outside moment And passes through every cracked  And ope...

Why is Christ so compelling? Because nobody is keeping the law. We appeal to the law all the time  When things go really bad. We insist that THOSE people are wrong And that we need to get back to moral absolutes. But that’s not what we really mean Or what we really want. And when we look close enough,  We discover that our choices beguile us. We, each of us, have swallowed the culture’s poison. We...

Be still and wait upon the unheard voice to speak. The world is running to the banner of MORE While the children of Silence  Wait peacefully listening Around the standard Of ENOUGH.

Perhaps forgiveness is the greatest thing.

Value what you have. What does that mean?  I don’t know. But I see that there are  Two spirits that rise up in me. One thinks that something’s lacking And that we must go out and find it. The other, and it is by far the quietest, Says that we have enough. The first would spend our means On nets to catch the two birds in the bush While the last would forsake such dreams For the one we already have.

Say OK to the still small voice. And say no to the loud voices and the rush.

The night is still dark And the generator running And you are there in the darkness Reconsidering, perhaps, the truth that is your life. And miles away, the light is still on as I sit here waiting up for you.

There is a razor's edge between telling the truth and being kind. God help me to walk the razor’s edge.

On the night when the Great Hurricane blew, I came down to the docks to find you wailing inconsolably, And knowing that there was nothing I could do but love you, I grabbed the rope and held you fast As the storm pushed you further out to sea. It pushed and pushed  And I tried with all my might. But the storm was pushing you out of sight. And the wind blew, and the lightning flashed, And the rain...

I used to insist upon only glory stories for my life. But that was when I claimed it for myself. I now realize that there are no unimportant tales In God’s great saga.  Our successes and our failures Each serve up invaluable lessons For those who watch from veiled portals Waiting their turn to play a part.

My mistakes are precious to me now. Thank God they were allowed.

There are ways in which I still have not been tempted. But I do not worry about that. He has seen me through My yesterdays. And I trust him with tomorrow.

I caught a ride on the rail tonight. The sun was setting and I thought To find a place to bed down. I left town headed west Toward the setting sun And within a short time The train track crept up on the side of the road And I looked up to see a train moving alongside, It was keeping time, or I kept time with it. It was unexpected, slightly surprising, comforting, The box cars silhouetted by the ev...

We were born for adversity, And to face this last great tribulation, And to be marred and crushed under the weight of it. But we were not born unto the hell of fear and doubt. And though they cling to us the day-long And would destroy our very souls, We say to our eyes  “Look up, eyes, and see the unseen things That will arise when death has had its way And we come forth in white robes Unto the li...

I am willing to risk heresy For the freedom and liberation That comes from allowing each person To hear the voice of God for him or herself. It is better than the dogma that binds men to dead forms.

Volume will overcome imperfection. In other words, do it more Whatever IT is, And you’ll eventually win, Somehow, someway, somewhere.