Strange Schism

Strange Schism

by Tim Reed

Strange, how one idea can 

estrange two people

Strange, how two people can

split a whole family

Strange, how two families can

divide a nation

Strange, how two nations can

destroy a world

Strange, how two worlds change

existence forever

Strange, how easily it is

to divide

All for one idea

And

All for the lack of one idea

All Ends Well That Ends

All Ends Well That Ends

by Tim Reed

No one can predict the outcome of a gilded tongue

That spoken in deceit

- if planted in a field of virtue - 

may reap truth

That spoken in hatred

- if met by a heart ablaze -

may forge riches of love

That spoken to enslave

- if told to an unbound soul -

may inaugurate liberty

A shell of darkness and filth

may conceive the richest of jewels

No man curses the inglorious scythe

but they rather praise the harvest

Please

Please

by Tim Reed

Undefinable

Unstoppable

Ineffaceable

That moment when a man was reduced to one word

"Please."

How Could I Have Known?

How Could I Have Known?

by Tim Reed

How could I have known? 

Call it ignorance.

I took a step.

I said yes.

How could I have known?

Call it naïvety.

I didn't expect roses,

nor did I expect dungeons.

How could I have known?

Call it blindness.

I turned my face.

I turned my feet.

How could I have known?

My eyes saw the swells

my feet faltered

I lost your voice in the wind.

How could I have known?

when my castles fell

when my banks burned

when my advisers fled

How could I have known?

the Loving Hand could crush

the Crushing Foot could build

the Builder's plan would stand

How could I have known?

my path was paved in blood

watered with tears

lead through desolate places

How could I have known?

...but this I know.

That you love me.

That you lead me.

That you shield me.

How could I have known?

I couldn't.

I can't.

But...

I know you.

And that's enough.  

True Theology

"True theology makes its bed in the house of human need.

 

Pain drives the most profound questions of God – and God is found by the afflicted.

 

 Alienation creates the desire for reconciliation – and God reconciles the prodigal. 

 

Oppression leads mankind to question the relationship between God’s character and their practical situation – and God reveals himself to the dehumanized. "

~Tim Reed

Dreadful Privilege

Dreadful Privilege

by Tim Reed

My life drips with dreadful privilege

Hastily scrawled elegant solutions

Scars of mind from all this forward motion

Theseus' deaf ear to silent, shouting revolutions





 

Good Friday - Lady Julian's 4th Showing

     

Good Friday - Lady Julian's 4th Showing 

II Corinthians 2:14-16
 But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task?

     Although I usually like to share my own work, I should like today to share an excerpt from an author that has been incredibly influential in my thinking and Christian life. Lady Julian was a 15th century English mystic, most famous for her work "Revelations of Divine Love" and a proponent of unity of will and affection with God. 

     As we enter Good Friday and the time of Christ's passion, it seems only appropriate to share this, her 4th revelation of divine love, where she sees an image of Christ on the cross and writes a humble theology about the blood of Christ. I hope that your heart takes hold of the truth presented here, though it be in somewhat archaic language. 

The Twelfth Chapter:

   After this I saw beholding the body plenteously bleeding, in seeming of the scourging, just as thus : the fair skin was broken full deep into the tender flesh, with sharp smitings, all about the sweet body : the hot blood ran out so plenteously, that there was neither seen skin, n[or] wound, but as it were all blood. And when it came where it should have fallen down, there it vanished : notwithstanding the bleeding continued a while, till it might be seen with advisement. And this was so plenteous to my sight, that me thought if it had been so in kind and in substance for that time, it should have made the bed all on blood, and have passed over all about.

    Then came to my mind, that God hath made waters plenteous in earth to our service, and to our bodily ease, for tender love that he hath to us. But yet liketh him better, that we take full [w]holsomely his blessed blood to wash us from sin, for there is no [liquid] that is made that liketh him so well to give us : for it is most plenteous, as it is most precious, and that, by the vertue of the blessed Godhead; and it is our own kind, and blessedfully overfloweth us by the vertue of his precious love.

    The dear worthy blood of our Lord Jesu Christ, also verily as it is most precious, as verily it is most plentuous. Behold and see the vertue of this precious plenty of his dear worthy blood. It descended down into hell, and brake her bonds, and delivered them all that were there which belongeth to the court of heaven.

    The precious plenty of his dear worthy blood overfloweth all earth, and is ready to wash all creatures of sin which be of good-will, have been, or shall be. The precious plenty of his dear worthy blood ascendeth up into heaven in the blessed body of our Lord Jesu Christ: and there is in him bleeding, praying for us to the Father, and is and shall be as long as us needeth. And evermore it floweth in all heaven, enjoying the salvation of all mankind that be there, and shall be fulfilling the number that faileth.

Mr. Problem

Mr. Problem

by Tim Reed

Some people have never seen him at all

Others grew up with him next door

Some people see him only once in a great while

Others seem to have a weekly appointment

Some people see him on the street and speed by

Others bury him in sports-cars, cigarette butts, cheap companionship, and glasses of wine

Some people spend their lives running

Others bury him in the closet or shed

Some people only see him at hotels or hospitals

Others as they pass a cross on the side of the road

Some people pretend he's a benign foe

Others elevate him to the role of Colossus

Some people visit him for a day or a week

Others for a month or a year

...and me? 

I know him very well

"How" you ask? 

He's the landlord

roommate 

and perpetual house-guest of whom I will never be free

27 Days of Poetry - Day XXVII

27 Days of Encounter

by Tim Reed

I: I will not be cliche

II: I am fused with those winged machines I love

III: Sincerity is something to fight for

IV: The present slips quickly to the past

V: Isolation and Adventure are often ambiguous

VI: I am too busy

VII: I desire a heart that seeks - even that which is already attained

VIII: I will not be a slave to the fear of the unknown

IX: I will embrace change in my life

X: In the twilight, many things are unclear

XI: I am in love with jazz and the universal language of music

XII: Many words do not imply wisdom

XIII: Adulthood is a complicating force in life

XIV: We are too focused on categorizing and mastering life

XV: Our hope for redemption from shame and fear is Christ

XVI: There is only one living truth

XVII: Exclusivity is a sticking point of my worldview - and I embrace it

XVIII: Communication is so often empty - why? 

XIX: There is more to life than self-image - true meaning is found in the other

XX: It is challenging to see "betterness" applied to diversity of culture - we complete a mosaic

XXI: Duty, responsibility, loyalty - all of these are at the core of who we are

XXII: I repent to God and my fellow man for not affirming their true personhood

XXIII: So much of life is made of what isn't

XXIV: Perhaps Ike would still be with us if he'd read this

XXV: No day is purposeless, regardless of how mundane it seems

XXVI: I will not be a slave to the tyranny of the urgent, nor paralyzed by the papers that try to rule over me

XXVII: There is true learning, beauty, pain, and wisdom in every day - no exceptions

27 Days of Poetry - Day XXVI

melt away

by Tim Reed

melt, melt away

snows upon the mountain

shabby lines and ink

drifts of notices and obligations

all your lifeless leaves - they leave me cold as ice

melt, melt away

snows upon the plain

your icy kiss of word and phrase

arctic floes of concept and response

I do not marvel at your tawdry appeal

melt, melt away

snows upon my life

endless blizzard of tickertape and bills

mountains of paper

who can survive your cold specificity?

melt, melt away

27 Days of Poetry - Day XXV

The Long Game

by Tim Reed

Repetition

Biding my time

Monotonous Rhyme

each day repeats

Each Day Repeats

EACH DAY REPEATS

The screaming whisper of the everyday deafens me

each day repeats

If life is a vapor, why am I in a fog-bank?

Each Day Repeats

The blazing dullness blinds my eyes

EACH DAY REPEATS

and yet...

This is the truth:

The Long Game

There is fire in every moment

There is purpose in every raindrop

 The multitude of now is the next step

Each Day Beautiful

27 Days of Poetry - Day XXIV

It's the Leeches!

by Tim Reed

Beware, my friends, the lachrymose leeches

Wait one hour, as Aunt Josephine preaches

If your hunger you cannot control, please avoid the beaches.

If you doubt their sense of smell

Regard the lighthouse warning-bell

Never try to outwit a leech - it never goes so well

Six rows of teeth and one razor-sharp nose

One is trapped, regardless of how fast he or she rows

Here's hoping you didn't need your fingers and toes

Murky, teeming violet waters beneath

Innumerable frenzied rows of waiting teeth

Is your last will ready to bequeath?

Beware, my friends, the lachrymose leeches

Wait one hour, as Aunt Josephine preaches

If your hunger you cannot control, please avoid the beaches.

Beware, my friends, the lachrymose leeches.

27 Days of Poetry - Day XXIII

Nots, Naughts, and Knots

by Tim Reed

It came to me that life is composed of

Nots, Naughts, and Knots.

Not enough time

Not enough Talent

Naught but trust

Naught but Love

Knots of the stomach

Knots of the Mind

Nots, Naughts, and Knots

27 Days of Poetry - Day XXII

The Formula

by Tim Reed

How I wish You were only a math problem

2 + 2 is much simpler to comprehend than a person

3 - 1 requires of me no change

5 X 5 removes all doubt and tension

But you never could, would, or will be

And I wouldn't love you if you were

 You wouldn't challenge me to change and grow

Forgive me for my subtractions, additions, divisions, and multiplications

You are not a formula

27 Days of Poetry - Day XXI

Fate

by Tim Reed

Fate is the gift.

Responsibility, the beautiful.

Duty is the privilege

Fealty, immutable.

27 Days of Poetry - Day XX

Inter Mundos

by Tim Reed

Reaching

Grasping

Touching

two worlds

One hand here

One hand there

One foot here 

One foot there

Joining

Fusing

Melding

two worlds

Beauty is here

Beauty is there

Life is here

Life is there

Bickering

Fighting

Killing

two worlds

The sea is not greater than the sky

The man is not greater than the woman

The dark is not greater than the light

The woman is not greater than the man

Learning

Growing

Maturing

two worlds

Each in its own kind

two worlds of exquisite otherness

two worlds ripped asunder

two worlds groaning for reunion

Striving

Straining

Stretching

two worlds

Ego sum inter mundos

27 Days of Poetry - Day XIX

ƨɿoɿɿiM & Windows

by Tim Reed

ƨɿoɿɿiM
ƨɘyɘ ɿuo ɘɿɒ ƨɿoɿɿiM
ƨɘvil ɿuo ɘɿɒ ƨɿoɿɿiM
ƨɘil ɘʜƚ ɘɿɒ ƨɿoɿɿiM
ymɘnɘ ɘʜƚ ɘɿɒ ƨɿoɿɿiM

Windows

Windows cleanse our eyes

Windows shape our lives

Windows show the truth

Windows are the light

27 Days of Poetry - Day XVIII

Mptnss

by Tim Reed

mptnss

why s thr sch fscntn wth tlkng?

ll th wrds r nly mptnss t my hrng

mpty lke blnk pges

mpty lke dstryd cty

mptnss

empty like so many hearts and minds

27 Days of Poetry - Day XVII

One

by Tim Reed

One

I am the only one

I am the only

I am the lonely one

I am the l(one)ly

Two are the one

They are greater than one

Three are one

Three in one

One

One unites us

One is the origin

One is the result

One is the controversy

Many things have I pondered, but none as schismatic as one

One truth (one real plan)

One me (not another)

One flesh (no 1-night stands)

One God (but 3 in number)

One Body (not many brands)

One life (will soon be over)

O      N     E

1

27 Days of Poetry - Day XVI

Verdad Que Vive

por Tim Reed

Verdad que Vive

Palabra que Dice

Luz que Brilla

Paso que Guía

En Vida, Bajado

En Muerto, Levantado

En Ascensión, Gozar

En Regreso, Ganar

Eres La Verdad que Vive