For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Hebrews 4:12 I was named accidentally for a sorceress king. My first name was the last name Of my ancestors — a Welsh people Who produced the most ruthless Capitalist who ever lived, who is thus Also my ancestor. My middle name was a Mississippi doctor... Read more
Hey teachers, first of all thank you so much. You have the most unappreciated job in the history of the world. You are the reason that our civilization survives. And most of you still get paid in the thirty thousands annually which is completed outrageous. I was a teacher. I know the pressure that you’re under or at least the pressure that I felt. I remember the way that my heart would stop every time I saw the assistant principal... Read more
What’s supposed to happen now Is the government gives a billion more dollars To the billionaires who are feeling angsty So that they’ll stop selling their stocks. Because when billionaires are nervous, It’s bad for everybody and they Get nervous a lot; their anxiety Must be appeased, because their greed Is good for everyone; without them, Nobody would have any jobs Or any purpose; Capital is the only real object In the universe; everything else Is just potential Because if... Read more
The Ringbearers [For John Guyton] The ringbearers are the saviors of humanity; There was one who fit the ring perfectly And he took it straight to the fires of hell So that the remnant could be fitted for our rings. His people are the pueblo crucificado, The despised ones, those the world Considered refuse, the stones that the Builders refused. There was nothing in our appearance That anyone should notice us; We were sometimes pitied, more often mocked, Sometimes beaten,... Read more
Having been trained in attachment-based, psychodynamic counseling, I often have a bit of an inferiority complex because our approach doesn’t feel as technical and “evidence-based” as some other approaches seem. But there are two concepts we learned that I’ve realized I use every day with my marriage and family which actually might be very helpful to people in marriages or family systems that might not survive the apocalypse we’re in. And I think they’re simple enough to explain in a... Read more
For a long time, I have dreamed of making music together with my best friend Mitchener Howell, who is a trained opera singer. This is our first collaboration. Mitchener shared a recording he did of the spiritual “By and By” and I added a drum and bass track and spoken word poem to it. Below are the Soundcloud link to the song and the lyrics to the spoken word poem. You never promised that the road wouldn’t be long; You... Read more
Last year, I experienced one of the best things that’s happened to me in ministry. A dream that I’ve had since 2003 of a dance worship experience came into fruition as the result of a conversation with a Labyrinth worker named Julia and her friend Jen. It’s called Release. I wrote a blog post explaining the rationale last year. It happened on Wednesday nights. This year Release went dormant for a season but now it’s relaunching this week on Thursday... Read more
#Meh: A Poem About #Twitter I see your meh #Twitter And it mostly amuses me. Some people tape record their farts And get a thousand retweets. I write poetry and it just slides Down in the tweet ocean Like it never existed, Becoming part of the plastic dead zone. Is it because I don’t have a blue check? You stopped giving out blue checks Long before I came into my stride. I missed the window, just like middle school dating.... Read more
Ashes stick around forever; Whenever I use them to mark The not-quite-churched, I get them smeared on my hands And every door handle, And everything in my pocket, And a little bit of bathroom wall, And even the pavement where I drip. I hate it when Ash Wednesday says Dumb things about death Like “contemplate your mortality” — Do I use the lotus position for that? What I know about death is it’s messy; The papers stay in boxes Until... Read more
Morgan the unicorn: The book My mother read to me Before anything happened. Are unicorns real, Mommy? Of course they are, sweetie, For any boy with imagination As vast as yours. So I invented entire galaxies And inhabited them; Drew their maps And wrote their histories; Whenever jokes didn’t make sense; Whenever I couldn’t catch balls; Whenever there was laughing and pointing; Whenever my hands had no place to go. One morning I woke up early; The backyard had a... Read more
Mercy Not Sacrifice
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