When Grace Happens

Windrows

2012-01-14T02:28:00.000-06:00

Windrows

Bold autumn colors cover

Brush hogged lawns

Along windrows of country homes

Keeping alive rural charm

Of small towns and their vision

Country lots divided by

Barbed wire, imported stone

Whitewashed rail and holly hedges

Alternate with variety of barriers

Reinvigorates communities

From friend to neighbor the fence

Keeps cows out and with

Observing eye and mom’s shout

Keeps children in

Depending on stew or soup fitting for

the season or days attitude

of sunshine or rain,

Or when the north wind bears

Its arctic soul and snow hides

All fences giving scant resistance

To evening’s winter score we will invite

With a wish for warmer weather world inside via satellite dish

01132012

Come Home September

2011-08-30T05:59:00.000-05:00

September amuses in little ways

Shorter nights, cooler days

Summer dragged on longer than it should

But September is good

Gives ample space for games of true romance

Never thought I would dance

But here I am pressed, dressed ready to go

Oh you may never know

How many ways you bless and refresh me

We fit beautifully

In September’s extraordinary grace

bounce

2011-07-31T08:45:00.001-05:00

Bounce

Small ball bounces off patio onto lawn

I had been warned by Daddy twice to hold

Or to put away or go play beyond

gathered guests who heard me told

not to bounce there that way with that ball

and let grandma rest or they’d all be mad

why is it so hard to throw against a wall

as if a secret power was finally glad

to pass judgement on children and end the fun

in favor of running in street or violent video game

so I sadly set aside my ball, what’s done is done

and moped wishing i had a different last name

with grown ups who knew kids need balls to throw

if there is any hope they have to grow

Holding at 35

2011-06-19T06:36:00.000-05:00

Holding at 35

Country drive incomplete without black top
For some miles we drove and stayed alive
Some smell roses, others will never stop
Class of seventy-six marks thirty-five,
Remembers life was best if we didn’t get caught
In hormonal tsunamis slamming us
Our concerned folks kept saying we ought
Not talk of such things on the morning bus
each one feared we’d feel the temperature climb
heating our unprotected dignity
On a hill five miles away back in time
Wanting to build a grown up community
Yellow school bus shifting on black top still
A Bragg Morris memory from the hill

Before Church

2011-06-09T01:18:00.000-05:00

God and I met when I dropped in to eat

every week for a few years then came changes

I know aren’t always bad sit stand sing pray repeat then we go

Pass organist past his prime, casually loud guitar band can’t keep time

They never sing the old hymns I love or play anything fresh

What’s a reformed traditional boomer supposed to do?

Own Girl Scout Cookie and Boy Scout popcorn accounts

Behind budget, memorials low, disaster relief is where dollars go

Roof fund, youth fund, arm the nursery workers with pistols fund

I drop a fiver for the Gideon mission to casino running Indian

fish fry tickets, bake sale boxes, car wash critics

Coming to church is like having postage due.

THUMP

2011-06-05T01:46:00.000-05:00

Hearts
pounding,
an audible
rhythm
pulsing, pulsing
blood pumping,
food, oxygen
to every cell
how lives
maintain mind
from today
to tomorrow
to next week
to year before last
souls soaring
for peace and
more thanks
a generic pat
on the shoulder
answer me
answer me
I am still inside
After Kevorkian died
Self-served or
An easy glide
To the otherside
I am happily
living unbound
dying to be freed
no more lost for me
forever found

Memorial Day/Joplin

2011-05-26T12:02:00.000-05:00

Memorial Day 2011

Flags And Flowers A Cemetery Blooms

Gestures From Homes With Enshrined Rooms

Recalling Sons And Daughters Who Marched Precise

But Today We Remember Sacrifice

Once Brave Now Rest In Their Saluted Grave

On The Day A Cemetery Bloom

Joplin

We held our breath

Hiding from death

in basements under blankets

arms wrapped around

whatever is nailed down

and the wind blew

as the cyclone came through

then the calm

and first look at our town

blown away

2011-05-18T08:28:00.001-05:00

ART

Do We Fail To Encourage Young Monet
Or Send Picasso, With His Early Work, Away
Or Not Let Da Vinci Paint Something New
Because We Lack A Child’s Point Of View ?

Some Art Has Meaning, Cannot Be Described
Adults Seeking Truth Have Certainly Tried
Attaching Worth To An Ability To Pay
No Art Sold Unless It Goes Home Today

Crayons Or Clay, Pipe Cleaners, Confetti
Children’s Creative Minds Always Ready
Make A House, Cat And Mouse, Water Colored
Second Grade Masterpiece Completed

Parents Altered Reality Of Our Hood
When Outdoor Art Program Was Not So Good
They Spun The Color Wheel Considered Them All
Painted An Abstract Over Graffiti Wall

Kristi

2011-05-11T05:19:00.000-05:00

Kristi, Kristi you brought laughter
light into my darkest day
I was blessed beyond good measure,
my last worry thrown away
Held me close while I was grieving,
hand in hand you comfort me
Let us see a double rainbow,
heal our wounds then set us free

2010-10-03T19:41:00.001-05:00

Thanksgiving Day table set, time to share

Turkey, corn bread dressing, giblet gravy

Cranberry relish, buttered rolls, plus some

Fluffy salad, pumpkin pie all served on

Wedding china, with gold folded napkins

Tradition is never the same old thing

Keeps us focused, many years in a line

My wife is great, makes special each detail

Sliced apples with caramel dipping sauce

Crackers, cheese for who loves to nosh

Our family tells stories of past year

Success, disappointment, roses and thorns

Our grown children are last to speak

Tell of this year’s significant others

Proudly they say thanks for our compliments

Our place is perfect holiday venue

Old recipes make kitchen smell like home

Laughter turns to conversational grace

Introverts join claustrophobics for a walk

Dinner’s nearly ready we stand at table

We pause and remember most recent loss

An empty chair marks Dad’s favorite seat

Table extends for cloud of witnesses

All tell memory from Thanksgivings past

Prayer is offered then each one says thanks

If potatoes are ready, turkey carved

We’ll enjoy our meal then onto football

rabbs crossing

2010-09-30T10:41:00.009-05:00

Lost In An October Afternoon Blue

Color Changes in the Evening Display
When God Takes His Sunset Palate
Paints An Ending For Our Near Perfect Day

Crossing Rabbs Bayou Bridge Near Our Home

Sacred Moments Of Unhurried Wonder

Autumn Moon, Rising Star, Cool Crisp Air

Blessed To Hold Hands In Midst Of Splendor

Long ago here did men hunt, women gather?

Who recorded the early history?

Did children play under the autumn moon?

At sunset did they ponder mystery?

Moonlight Shimmers On The Bayou Water

We Hear Endangered Mosquito Fly By

Autumn Moon Rises Silently Above

Horizon To Honored Place In The Sky

Guardian Of Many Dark Lonely Nights

Soft Light Is A Present Of Loveliness

Shows Forgotten Places Sol Abandoned

Opens Possibility For Hopefulness

Some fear moon as source of insanity.

Others see a marvelous creation

When I see moon I remember phone calls

watching moon, we found, eased separation

Moon is a gift of memories to keep

When Our Future Life Came Too Soon

Our Eyes Were Drawn To Beauty, Simply Said;

Nothing Can Compare With An Autumn Moon

J. Scott McKay

2010-08-01T17:21:00.001-05:00

SUMMER TRAVEL

Was viewing an abandoned railroad bed

Tracks removed years ago when trains were dead

Considered who might have passed where I stood

Football teams, soldiers, stars from Hollywood

Imagined sound of steel on steel friction

Sparks fly, horn blares at each intersection

For passengers, trains have become dinosaurs

Reserved for chairs and old dresser drawers

Most travelers prefer car ride to train

For a very long way may take a plane

Some say trip's purpose to safely arrive

But it's not a trip if you hate the drive

When traveling this always matters most

You're always the guest and never the host

If your journey takes you to see a friend

Use best behavior so to be invited again

When traveling remember if going far

You can't leave, where you go is where you are

Yesterday's Child

2010-07-10T13:27:00.002-05:00

I am

Yesterday's child tying my laces

Sojourner passing through varieties of places

Individual among many in search of faces

I am

Tomorrow's creature home in creation

Searching long for affirmation

In a changing generation

I am

Today's witness to beauty on a starry night

awestruck in wonder when evening's quilt

unrolled fills summer sky

spread across God's front lawn

has a million eyes

watching

I am

Part of beauty seldom seen

Part of mystery never understood

Part of silence finding voice.

I am

Humanity trying to get it right

wanting

2010-06-27T00:47:00.001-05:00

Wanting is how news of great loss finds us

We want more moments like the ones wasted

cold shoulders, silent treatment games

We want more birthdays with cake icing

On fingers and napkins, soda in paper cups

Gifts come nicely wrapped, some in bags

We want more good mornings and good nights

Snores climbing out of bed float down hallway

Coffee cups, pastry crumbs for cat

We want perfection in siblings and mates

Little frustrations keep eating me alive

Issues come, solve or we ignore

We want to see children turn silver, grow old

Establish and raise families, learn we were right

And bury us not for duty but respect

We want time in an endless supply ticking

Off chains of moments linking day to day

Enlivening how we love.

We knew but wanted to be proven wrong

Never seen perfection and now you are gone

God knows I miss you completely

J. Scott McKay

612010

FIVE YEARS OUT

2010-06-08T04:11:00.003-05:00

I was able, not long ago
To move easily through each day
Now I'm not so strong or steady
Rigid frozen limbs
Symptoms of my disease
Ending much work or play
Patience required for there is
No hurry anymore
Meds help me stand, hold my hand
From dawn until after dusk\
Enable me to move in cold or heat
It looks like my life,
But I am not present
I was humbled by a young man
Who offered me his seat on a bus?
I'll sit inside until friends arrive
Days shuffling time, steal from dawn
Rob dusk a little time for idleness
All of life is couched in play
It is my feet that barely slide
Me to my chair and a narcoleptic nap
s

Sabbath

2010-05-27T05:54:00.001-05:00

Watermelon with shade tree afternoon

Best days of summer pass by too soon

Keep Sabbath on Sunday is dedication

Put aside our week old aggravation

Say a prayer, sing a Psalm with abandonment

Who is God to make the fourth commandment?

Expecting us to work six rest on seven

Eight straight no break not taste of heaven

Freed people rest, we're not slaves anymore

Every week we re-create ourselves

With Sabbath's holy idleness again

J, Scott McKay

May 23, 2010

Small Group

2010-05-16T18:53:00.001-05:00

Jesus had power to cast out a demon

He would heal the dying, raise dead men,

Speak wisdom, calm a storm, charm a villain

Crash hell's gates and open doors of heaven

Exciting, but power frightens us

We have resisted the glorious

For we're preferring safe, mundane,

Unforgiving, and comfortably insane

Imagining we are alive not dead

Choose to beat up each other instead

anchor

2010-05-13T03:16:00.011-05:00

Anchors do their job underwater and stuck
overwhelmed is much better than quitting
succeeding is work more than it is luck
Anchors do their job underwater and stuck
gold egg laid by goose beware jealous duck
love requires effort more than just sitting
Anchors do their job underwater and stuck
overwhelmed is much better than quitting

Anchored together through life's storm
Content riding waves and not keeping score
Life goes better if it's played in good form
Anchored together through life's storm
Never settle for sub standard as norm
Or do your worst and expect getting more
Anchored together through life's storm
Content riding waves and not keeping score

love is an anchor two people can share
holds them steady when their lives are crazy
in an empty day reminds love is there
Love is an anchor two people can share
love matters not if there is no one to care
love makes us strong, eager, but never lazy
love is an anchor two people can share
holds them steady when their lives are crazy

CATS

2010-05-02T20:09:00.001-05:00

CATS

Amazing to watch are our beloved feline pets

Cats, cats, cats as wild as a domestic pet gets

Cats don't trampoline and lose cool composure

Or risk reputations with too much exposure

Cats despise falling onto lawn or driveway

Hate motorcycle rides despite what neighbors say

Steal Purina then deny when caught

Disrupt marble games where tiger eyes are shot

Cats burglar baubles demand high ransom

Catch mice and fowl without fingers or thumb

Rarely entertain, more catcher of prey than host

Invite guests for meal of young rat on toast

Sixeen years ago a tom, looking for a meal

stayed until we made a deal

We agreed "Marvin" fit our new cat best

a limp set him apart from the rest

Marvin a talker was not improbable

His long stories were beyond remarkable

He moved from alley to master bedroom

He is with St. Francis where our roses bloom

Marvin and we become companions on his terms

He would sleep warm with a dog if dog learns

He loved it when some one petted his fur

Gently awakened would stretch and purr.

paranoia

2010-04-21T13:37:00.001-05:00

Paranoia

On a dare we walked the line

Between hardwoods and knotty pine

Birds of prey and nocturnal beast

Watched our steps, planned their feast

Danger lurks where light's not been

Stranger's remains buried deep within

Time passes for foolish, exceedingly wise

Under dark clouds or beneath clear skies

Unprepared for losses we wept'

life was taken while we slept

No hurt stings as much as this'

hatred disguised in a traitor's kiss.

BROTHERS

2010-04-10T06:33:00.002-05:00

Brothers will play ball in proper season

Hide toad in mom's empty apron pocket

Tell wildest stories for no good reason

Save pennies to buy a bottle rocket

Talk to those creepy girls is high treason

Hunt for items to stick in light socket

Brothers ride bikes until they can't pedal

Build a fort for themselves and no other

Fight over old junk and never settle

Set fire to neighbor's cat, no one tells mother

The elder tells bully not to meddle

Back off Jack, that boy is my kid brother

Talks of death and dying are forbidden

Alternate sleeping in hospital chair

May cry some, but alone and kept hidden

Feel lost in life but will never once share

Sees true legacy as love for children

Won't confess lonely or why we are there

Best friends maybe others

But until the end forever brothers.

J. Scott McKay

April 5, 2010

2010-04-04T05:57:00.001-05:00

Stones

stones,

ancient masses

molten stuff passes

eons of history to earth's

surface, compressed, formed

in elemental core,

often flung at brother

start riot or rant.

slung at Goliath

with shepherd boy power

thrown at prophet

to silence his words

or secure corner of tower

built to see God's face

groan when rolled into place

by ambitious men defining space

or builders erecting a coliseum

or soldiers sealing tomb

of another messiah.

J, Scott McKay

4.2.2010

Palm Sunday

2010-03-25T18:18:00.000-05:00

Palm Sunday 2010

The day quiet Jerusalem had a parade

Rome’s oppressed celebrated unafraid

Hosanna they shouted as Jesus passed

tradition keepers griped others gasped

Small town Jesus being proclaimed king

Fragile Jerusalem could lose everything

Pilate and Caiaphas a peace is kept

Rome’s boot is still heavy, Jerusalem wept

Maybe this year Israel’s’ God will act

Send a Messiah take our freedom back

If not God’s will another year we wait

Jesus if it’s you, then please liberate

the faithful, forgotten sinners and lost

May your Kingdom come whatever the cost.

J. Scott McKay

IDOL HANDS

2010-03-23T06:52:00.001-05:00

Idol Hands

We run from problems and say,

We are safe yet

take our trouble

with us from place to place,

making mega boulders

from

angstrom

rubble

We're clinically

bored,

annoyed,

Watching others change the paint

Good works won't make a saint,

We've a right to our complaint

We are what we are,

ain't what we ain't

When the closing bell is rung,

Between our toes they'll find dung

Fresh from troubled places we begun

spending time,

without a dime

introduced to crime

bending lies into an

attractive endeavor

Handing my best good behavior

to our foes.

With a posse mentality

Someone will save us.

If we just hold on.

Four Triolets

2010-03-02T07:19:00.002-06:00

Twenty-first century man thinks

Inside his head, outside the box

Mail fraud hurts but Columbine stinks

Twenty-first century man thinks

While wisdom's busy hatred slinks

Under doors while we're changing locks

Twenty-first century man thinks

Inside his head, outside the box.

Post modernists keep guessing

Trust belief or throw it away

Religion builds castles of resisting

Post modernists keep guessing

No narrative nor philosophically assessing

Does life have meaning with touches of gray?

Post modernists keep guessing

Trust belief or throw it away

Found my voice in a local haberdashery

It was cold; I'd stopped to buy a hat

Was asked inside how can we be truly free?

Found my voice in a local haberdashery

"Isms don't kill people", I said with industry

"What zaps freedom is to grow lazy and fat"

Found my voice in a local haberdashery

It was cold I'd stopped to buy a hat

Colds do better with camphor on your chest

At least that's what granddaddy said

If it was about suffering he knew best

Colds do better with camphor on your chest

Today a sneeze or sniffle we are on a quest

Meds that stop sludge backing up our head

Colds do better with camphor on your chest

At least that's what granddaddy said

2010-02-17T10:56:00.001-06:00

Ash Wednesday 2010

A somber line center aisle single file

It has been a long year of definition

I am bowed low with shame, for awhile

Thought I'd bested the human condition

O what a farce confession and pardon

Shy sinners don't look for recognition

But once I felt the ash cross go on

And remembered my dusty creation

Sin's real again, but God's forgiveness won

So why this annual self flagellation

Is not behavior out, self-esteem in?

Nature competes with sanctification

Ancient worldviews include personal sin

Name for personal, corporate failure

God has ultimate plan, his fight is within

Ashes are symbolic, a helpful signature

From tradition taking Sin seriously

Humans are God's forgiven creature

2010-02-13T02:21:00.001-06:00

Next time we will travel for fun

Tour a new pastoral scene, forget our trouble

Not to see any relative whose time has come

Or borrow problems from those on bubble

Risking or going under bull dozer blade.

Or buried beneath reams of post data rubble

Scraps of paper each with insufficient aid

Craftily hidden from snoopers and passer bys

Until message is dead or contact made

Yes we will have fun with a twinkle in our eyes

Blue bonnets, wild flowers wait

Creation opens wide under hill country skies

For the Torched Churches of East Texas

2010-02-07T07:43:00.002-06:00

Gathered for worship Sunday after

Arsons match made disaster scene

Sadness, sorrow, lost is laughter

We walked burned spaces again

Stench follows where evil has been

Phonebooks still smoldering

Forever gone little reminders

who brought baby Jesus diapers

Level makes it fair, sets it right

From the butcher's meat market scale

To rival nations prone to fight

Hatred keeps us in unleveled hell.

Adversity is nothing new.

Since Adam and Eve shared the fruit

Have existed problems between two

is painful to see Sin lives in our root

We have been carrying rocks uphill

Hoping God would say how unfair

We continue to clean the spill

It only hurts because we care

Wonder and whisper

2010-01-30T15:38:00.001-06:00

Wonder and whisper someone touched my heart

Opened eyes see God's earth set apart

Blessed wonder when creation comes forth

God our Father everlasting support

Wonder and whisper someone called my name

Listen for whispers in the wind they came

One ear to heaven and one to the air

News I have gathered now waiting to share

Wonder and whisper someone watched me step

Help my gait and balance I fear life inept

One foot then follows my walks resume

Swept out bad habits when God loaned his broom

Wonder and whisper someone showed me love

Caught in my sorrow, why me they thought of

God's love and patience wipes away tears

And he made promise to join in our years.

2010-01-27T17:33:00.001-06:00

The living remain to ask why

People they loved had to die

Life is hello, good-by then grieving

Short ride in funeral coach they're leaving

Until we follow the dying in resurrection

We have no adequate explanation

for crippling emotional pain,

but life is what it is sunshine or rain

Consuming us day and night

Stress builds with no flight or fight

Reason is suspended, when we dare

Expect quantities of loving care

In my grief what clung to me

Was nothing from what we shared

Tears release powerfully when

Lone call of whippoorwill drifted in

Mountain men

2010-01-21T08:46:00.002-06:00

Old mountain men drink black boiled coffee

From wooden cups to count livestock lost

Overnight to suspect neighbor, Russell

Two dozen gone before market day dawned

Sheep taken quick as an eagle nabs prey

Anger gnaws then flares but no proof today

Knowing whispers at dusk lack evidence

Wise are wary of clever criminals

Crafty Russell's thieves are cautious braggers

Greet theft victims in daylight as old friends

Wooly hands no excuses posed as searchers

Don't love wooden cups or old mountain men

They love a dollar crisply creased and stolen

Hidden until old mountain men pass away

White doves sing silent songs of hopeful peace

More than war peace includes oldmen and sheep

DAD

2010-01-21T07:18:00.004-06:00

In Memory of

JESSE SPEED MCKAY 1932-2010

We all shared the memories we had kept

And I saw a pick up truck and football game

With misty eyes I turned and wept

When one life ends none are the same.

Decent men with values are a rare commodity

They bless, grace, and encourage us together

When the world peeked to view this oddity

a good soul, lover of family and weather

When our loved ones suffer, we stop to pray

For healing, end of pain, strength in grieving

Loss of health is not vision for the new day

Grace for hard times finds comfort in believing

Death lives with us as a life companion

Found in the shadows of every town

Is friend or foe to beggar or champion.

We may delay, but death lays us all down

Days dissolve into disappearing years

Like autumn grass cut and then wind blown

Scattered lives are battered by fears

Discover the truth of reaping what's sown

we may pass as a ship to another shore

Or wait in a line to cross a pearly gate

we're in God's hands, dare we expect more?

Christ and us will not separate

Maker is never far away, near as our next breath

With love and hope sustaining us we stand

Firmly planted in life we are able to face our death

Praise God the everlasting Lord. Amen and Amen.

2010-01-15T05:26:00.001-06:00

Jesus, I have learned to trust you

When grief is real, life overwhelming

Steps are frozen, emotions blue

Jesus I have learned to trust you

Death won the day, then we withdrew

to pray and plan next begining

Jesus, I have learned to trust you

When grief is real, life overwhelming

Death can't stop soul's search for freedom

We breathe eternity's mystery

God's in charge ignore the medium

Death can't stop soul's search for freedom

Quick and dead wait for new kingdom

we hope God restarts earth's history.

Death can't stop soul's search for freedom

We breathe eternity's mystery

T-I-M-E

2010-01-14T08:04:00.004-06:00

Father time you're ordered and recorded
Never bothered by our quest forward
Successes for who learn to use you well
Balancing work and play with obligations

dangers found when fun is front loading
failure follows procrastination
adults discover after years of goading
life affirmation in delayed gratification

your motion is incessant, never urgent
keeping each increment in its segment
without hurry or variation a constant
unveiling of truth and running tangent

we each leave behind history and legacy
their beauty and texture is not yet seen
in the mean time we're not any less crazy
as we drift off into a fresh day dream

questions

2010-01-12T05:32:00.005-06:00

My question is why is life so puzzling
behind doors of uncertainty
Harsh words shatter the silence revealing
pursuit of a new reality
questions will come amidst many demands
healing hurt and broken hearted
Handle with grace the reprimand
Without sincerity it’s token

Loud is public and private static
could be shared need not be aired
Strained glass voices recalling poor choices
history soaking my best friends
Whose lives got too sticky when not picky
overt aims played in covert games
Used too often to persuade and soften
versions of my puzzling question.

Does grief have a home when it goes away
Or does it stay buried soul deep forever
hiding on the fair weather cloudless day
and returning when awakened by thunder?

J. Scott McKay

Class of 1976

2010-01-07T15:31:00.008-06:00

At dusk, crank ice cream on a Comet cone
Brought back memories of parties thrown
By parents of friends keeping tabs
Forgetting anything done that risked our undoing
Was done before curfew on the way home

Thirty years past pomp and circumstance
Same crank ice cream and performance
By parents who had grandkids at thirty-nine
Soon stories from our youth started flowing
Memories of every ballgame party and dance

I am always ready to play with cynics
Or supply dozens of sandalwood incense sticks
To light at night just to watch them glow
Saturday night was our major concern
To many, Sunday work is mostly politics

Today our collective wisdom is more substantial
Stepped over two children to read some financials
A wonderful evening of conversations
Of brutal after school sand lot football games
Or how to watch counter culture go commercial

And we picked up our last draft of legislation
Attempted to polish words for easy legalization
For an alternative country in North Smith county
Where we made the rules, passed out punishment
Sign says "Welcome to Free Bird Nation"

*****
We all shared the memories we had kept
and I saw a pick up truck and football game
with misty eyes I turned and wept
when one life ends none are the same.

Decent men with values are a rare commodity
when the world peeked to view this oddity
it found a good soul with a generous heart
a lover of life, family and the weather
one whose performance surpassed ability

When our loved ones suffer, we stop to pray
for healing, end of pain, strength in grieving
loss of health is not Maker's vision for the new day
grace for hard times finds comfort in believing

Death lives with us as a life companion
found in the shadows of every town
is friend or foe to beggar or champion
we may delay, but death lays us all down

Days dissolve into disappearing years
like autumn grass cut and then wind blown
scattered lives are battered by fears
discover the truth of reaping what's sown

Maker is never far away, near is our next breath
with love and hope sustaining us we stand
firmly planted in life we are able to face our death
Praise God the everlasting Lord. Amen and Amen.

walkers

2010-01-06T11:08:00.001-06:00

Our walks at dusk are treasured

Sometimes distance measured

As if today's pretend competitors

Were copywriting big city editors

Taking us for drinks afterwards

JANUARY

2010-01-06T03:01:00.003-06:00

January

First day of a new calendar is appropriately

Birthed into a great celebration

Crowded Times Square rocks

While millions watch their frosty breath

Think about New Year resolving,

Changes attempted is serious business

lying to self about improvement

waters seeds of doubt already planted

No solution to the ill formed resolution

Focus on problems real and sincere

After party hat January is flat

But you can't predict exactly that

No one person knows answer to this

Where will two faced Janu take us?

2009-12-31T14:15:00.009-06:00

ADAM

O God in Genesis it's deja vu
not one creation but there's two

From elegantly written grand poetry
To talking snake in an apple tree

You designed both genders in your image
Didn't foresee the coming scrimmage

they're cocky in the Garden of Eden
humans eat what was forbidden

Naked, ashamed they could not hide
you stared at the pair then replied

this was to be my grand experiment
will humans always be hell bent?

the demon snake you cursed was first to leave
Adam and Eve have cause to grieve

No more dining on utopian fruit
Bible's first couple gets the boot!

HAPPY NEW YEAR

2009-12-31T04:15:00.002-06:00

With

Second

Hand

Tick

What

Was

Now

Here

See

2009-12-28T11:42:00.002-06:00

Diagnosis

On days, and there have been many,

Good news just impossible to find,

I tip my head and listen for any

Bird chirp or baby cry to ease my mind

When faced with the miracles we celebrate

Threats to life shrink when we are overjoyed

What's old becomes new, what's new will wait

Until life is good and death is destroyed

12.28.2009

NEW YEAR’S DAY

2009-12-27T17:18:00.001-06:00

New Years Day comes brings out the old

sophomoric stunts and more things change,

Saying goes and we are prompted

yet forget that faith story has personality

Our minds listen, what's sold as wisdom

We hold our coins still in cashmere purses

Until mission is heard in local woods

And our own tick-tocks fall from clocks

Masquerading as housework sounds

Poverty needs us, but whose us are we

Faced off in another's wealthy holiday

With a single beat a clock's tick is ticked off

and is not catching up with the moments

slipped past before too soon, too late

still an excellent time

for world clock to be ignored and

years past are passed then put away

in stacks thin and cold as panhandle air

disappearing like so many snow birds

in an Oklahoma September

Heading for the Texas valley

Falling lost, silent with no one there

steady sound of clocks ticking

calendar pages turning again

say hello to 2010.

J. Scott McKay

12.27.2009

Young Woman in Hat

2009-12-26T15:41:00.001-06:00

Young Woman in a Hat

She is a beauty, the one in the hat

Across the fresh clipped lawn she strolls

Invested in the moment recording

How grown up fifteen can be

She watches the camera eye

Watch each move she makes

A face to launch a thousand ships

A thousand secrets behind her lips

A million tears stored for days ahead

With brokeness in every pore

She has had enough already

Some she chose, worst got chosen for her

I too admire this cache from history

It is peculiar joy to be, thankful each day

She still has me paying attention.

J. Scott McKay

12.26.2009

Wisdom

2009-12-23T14:34:00.000-06:00

Wisdom

Wisdom sees vast complexities,

In clumps of dirt and galaxies

nourished in deep contemplation

Wisdom loves Maker’s creation

Wisdom, mistaken for knowledge

One from failure, one from college

Wisdom carefully makes her friends

Knowing that’s where good life begins.

Wisdom, prays for peace among nations

rejects foolish simplifications

One in ten thousand may be wise

half a dozen have open eyes

Wisdom shuns all deceitfulness,

Speaks only truth without finesse

Lies and half truths avoid debate

Wisdom checks facts then tells it straight

Wisdom wants once to understand,

All the issues corrupting man

Evil plans a careful attack,

Knows its security we lack.

Wisdom knows what’s free is not cheap

Freedom’s price is painfully steep

Wisdom grieves every young life lost

Bows head and ponders war’s high cost

Wisdom nurtures husband and wife

Good love strengthens lengthens life

Contentment is love buried deep

love we share is the love we keep.

September, 15, 2009

2009-12-11T00:14:00.002-06:00

Color's brilliance unseen while low light.

Vision serves the nocturnal creatures

Leaving man in cautious fright

Pleases shadow in her dwelling

Souls hungering for less clutter will

Mutter about lousy living conditions

Braggers, whose mantra "it could be worse"

Curse loose morality when the future's in doubt

Without song, feasting or laughter

Pleasure measures us for tomorrow's guilt

We're all to blame same game only faces change

What's right is to empty self completely

Revolutionary practices knocks world off axis

Happiness is treating well your sister, brother

Mother, father all deserve love and concern

blessings to ones who hurt with sharp jabs

Scabs may form on our wounded venues

Spirit keeps us attached and attractive

Mates may get you trophies while phonies

Always let you fall toward the center

More preparation won't help at all

Until we can sit back, throw up our arms

And call for grace to fill our voids with

Rewards for good behavior are a start.

If only I was beauty blind

J. Scott McKay

10.11.2009

11162009

2009-11-16T19:45:00.001-06:00

Porcelain Jars

Today your joy

comes in porcelain jars,

blue and silver,

with intricate detail

made to keep separate

the private hell

of painful embittered past

too many days walked alone

tender still the traveled places

littered with circumstances

some chosen,

others frozen in my mind

from

fragile futures

frail and flavored

moments sweetened

thoughtfully woven

with memories

we love to share

and goals we won't know

until we get there

J. Scott McKay

11.16.2009

Two Poems

2009-11-12T23:59:00.003-06:00

LESSER LIGHT

Moon breaks
every horizon
never stops to say
apology or excuse me
moving toward
its place of honor
to see and be seen.

Lesser light to
Sol's fire ball
the calmer
moon light soothes
sneaks in my
bedroom window
caresses night
as lovers do

BAILEY'S WOODS

Pitched our tent in Bailey's Woods
before clouds moved in,
Rain or no rain we
pondered all we saw
Not thunder but a sputter for an hour
the rain fell

We poked our head through the flap
Of the tent that kept us dry
trees still dripped
from the sudden shower.

It’s True

2009-10-28T09:57:00.002-05:00

Wider than the widest horizon

Painted against a desert sky.

Is a happy child's fertile imagination,

Deeper than the rolling ocean

Filled with monsters never seen

Is a loving father's quiet devotion.

Older than an ancient mountain

Spanning all histories of man

Is the poet's superfluous hyperbole.

Trip

2009-10-26T10:58:00.001-05:00

Earth spins as she always has

Billions of years with

Only slight variation

A magic carpet ride

Around our sun

One of many cruising

Pinwheels of Milky Way galaxy

A majestic vessel

Sustaining as she sails

The world another matter

Not mud, water, gravity but

People, culture, history defining

Ripples and waves and tsunamis

Affecting our speed of our journey

Changes fast then slow

Mistake to get comfortable or settled

Our Earth rides are never long

No one has the roller coaster as their

Permanent address

One day earth and world history

Will collide, coincide, end of ride

Ultimate end of humanity's story

Then we'll know whose side

We're on for eternity.

J. Scott McKay

10.26.2009

Burn Pile

2009-10-21T16:15:00.007-05:00

Burn Pile

At First and Alexander
under a great oak
planted for this corner
at least a century ago
there I catch my breath
today,while resting
I checked my watch, and
noticed a young child and mother,
a club of wonder for two,
count the last curls of smoke,
slipping the fingers of the child's hand
from a smoldering pile of oak tree droppings.
Lesson time concludes with wind and flame,
smoke and fire, children who play alone here
are children who get burned
Smoke rose, thinned, and broke apart
A casual wind caught fading smoke in wisps
from a street filled with yard burnings
across the many lawns in view at
the corner of First and Alexander.
Continued to burn contributions
The corner is watched today
a century stoic oak observes
At the corner there is awe and wonder
Young child meets mighty oak drama
a hundred years in the making.

J. Scott McKay

October 21, 2009

Ignorance is a Mess

2009-10-19T13:04:00.002-05:00

With an ample warning
I begin my day
Sunlight fills my window,
pushes dark away
Earth's steady rotation
is my ready metaphor.
Earth is a toy top spinning
across the floor.
Earth is my good intentions
breathing tainted air
Georgia's peaches when peaking,
are politicians seeking,
they are everywhere
Pay attention, if apathy strikes,
it's like we won't care to know it.

If my best efforts could
change me perfectly
I'd have no fear or lack of logic,
I could live rationally
No more right brain poetry,
my left brain rocks!
(my left brain is rocks?)
Ignorance is a mess
But Life is often emptiness,
dark and sometimes, odd
If we contain fear, master logic. Perfect compassion completely,
have we become like God?
Only One wore
the humanity and divinity
combination well

Life has much to offer us;
it's not hard to see
despite being fearfully illogical.
We are loved graciously
our world has many pleasures
we are wiser to beware.
For many it is friendship
that gives us life's best.
Others say marriage, child rearing
beats the rest.
I've found the first move of the fulfilled
is to trust forgiveness.
Hold on to hope
Love with all you got
Make a difference somewhere
.
J. Scott McKay
10.18.2009

Thanks

2009-10-18T18:57:00.003-05:00

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Distraction

2009-10-15T17:25:00.002-05:00

Distraction

Slowly stacks gentle sounds until

Rhythm of language is felt

Syllables in a line,

Inflection rises and falls

Unfocused words appear

Deliver message before deadline

Haphazardly at best we use time

From seconds to centuries

Time passes until we do

Who is worth my time to listen?

Others to be ignored

New moon nights, low celestial lights

I'll take a walk, the stars and I will talk

Stars listen to me babble, like running creek water.

Lifetime of unpacking

Emotional boxes is ahead of me

Stars have no power to guide

They don't really listen

Or comment contraire'

There is a voice that fills the skies

With birds, and clouds, sweet smells

In spring Heaven is abundant,

Beauty redundant

And everything pretty is a

Distraction...

J. Scott McKay

October 13, 2009

Not Hopeless Today

2009-10-15T08:51:00.002-05:00

A ready church is twice prepared,

They have had named storms before

Packed away for disaster day,

Food, water, candles and more

A ready church is twice prepared

the world is their neighborhood

hunger is unacceptable

Lead us Lord to always do good

A ready church is twice prepared,

Come wind and then high water

It is never if but only when,

We meet next son of Carla

A ready church is twice prepared,

Care for self then another

Like a cobra, disaster strikes

Bringing the world together

A ready church is twice prepared,

To offer amazing grace

So much suffering can be healed,

Help us Lord finish our race.

Get ready church disaster comes

It's worse when confusion's aired

Vigilance is our best response

And then church be twice prepared

J. Scott McKay

10.15.2009

HAPPY BIRTHDAY..

2009-10-12T08:50:00.012-05:00

My Aunt Ruth, Me, My Dad

A Poem for Aunt Ruth on her birthday

CONTENT OF OUR DAYS

Stacks of yesterdays

get away too quickly

with our greatest yesterdays

not yet behind us

will evaporate

into hope's future imagination.

So sad to see what was once carefully

Preserved faces on photographic paper

Forgotten images of ancestors recent

and long past. Oh the ecstasy of rediscovery!

Old black and white photographs,

visual autographs what once triggered tears

after many years encourages laughter,

Lost drugstore envelopes,

Shoe boxes or three ring binders

Others are kept in albums,

Books of life containing

Treasured images of great joy and

celebrations join the days

Of personal loss

As a nation, we traveled together

long empty days of grieving.

Memory relives history

Do we conjure or choose to launder,

Idolize or demonize,

civilize, or revolutionize

Our choice may well

Determine the content of our days

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNT RUTH

Isn't fun? Today you complete your

87^th trip around the sun.

J. Scott McKay

10.12.2009

HUM 2

2009-10-10T00:11:00.002-05:00

It's odd to listen face to ground

I 'm not a prairie dog, or a hound

Ears to listen, nose for scent

I am listening fully intent

Earth is no speaker, she hums

As steady as marching drums

Earth hums while pressing paces

For new life she is creating spaces

Whale calves first see ocean floor

Toddlers dash for open door

Geese fly south then north again

Mothers teach rule of the pedestrian

When we hum our soul is lifted

Our time with Earth is gifted

Used well our hum may right some wrong

But if nothing else come hum humming along

Earth is happily humming lullabies

Even songs generations sung with cries

Of "it all sounds alike" from mom and dad

Later sung by same to make children mad

At seven I was aware of a change we'd found

The whole world was humming with a new sound

No longer was it Andy, Bing and Perry

But the folk trio of Peter, Paul and Mary

Johnny Paper was controversial

Believing he smoked Puff was not universal

Folk singers were edgy and gentle, but also tough

Dylan was their poet, but purists got rough

To cheers and boos he did a non-acoustic set

Newport, 1965 ' plugged in, Bob's not done yet

To keep it fresh someone had to drive

Dylan's, upstream daring, helped music thrive

Dylan tested, adjusted, fired it up, strummed

He rocked and beneath the seats the Village hummed

Folk singers sang about hammers

And what they would do if they had one.

I had a shovel more a spade

and with the shovel blade

I would break West Texas ground

And if after an hour no treasure was found

I would dress for molten iron

Then dig for China

J. Scott McKay

October 8, 2009

I Believe

2009-10-04T02:42:00.003-05:00

God, I believe

I believe in you

From childhood days,

In childish ways

I knew before I was told

You were you, not somewhere

But near as breath,

At my birth,

At my death

God I believe,

I believe in you.

Hardest part never was

"How great thou art" or

"Raising my Ebenezer",

But where to start,

With a broken heart

In a church whose

Sacrament is pull a part

God I believe,

I believe in you.

Muscles

2009-09-27T08:44:00.004-05:00

Little boys not yet four

Will insist they have your attention

Strike a pose then with a single flex

Rip a Charles Atlas bicep

To impress grandma.

Or new kids next door

Before work is taught parent to child

It is learned muscles are for show

Muscles nurtured with bench presses

Stretches, protein shakes

And sophisticated calisthenics

Executed in air conditioned comfort

Can't match

The strength of the man who

Worked fields all his life

Never an intentional muscle builder

Is without a flinch or grunt

Throwing square bale hay

Over his head onto a truck

How often do we circumvent the natural

Can't eat it raw we have to cook it

Can't forgive we have to punish it

Cant' play without keeping score.

Can't speak and avoid complaining.

To strengthen body and mind

Is not an herculean odyssey

To achieve our potential

Be intentional to work your growth edges

Not release your wealth to

"too good to be true" pledges

then ignore your health.

The only shortcut that I trust

Circumvent making life a bust

DO THE WORK!

J. Scott McKay

ADELE - MAKE YOU FEEL MY LOVE FULL LENGTH + LYRICS

2009-09-18T23:48:00.001-05:00

splash

2009-09-14T13:31:00.003-05:00

After rain

Little boys

Splash

New shoes, bare feet

Ditches, potholes

Where puddles settle

No matter when

Day is not done

If even one puddle

Left idle

Mom reacts

Turns her back

Splash splash

David Crowder - All Creatures

2009-09-05T08:16:00.001-05:00

Poem for Labor Day

2009-09-04T00:29:00.001-05:00

Siren wailing in the night, what is the emergency?

Restful sleep becomes concern, now I am praying earnestly.

Give thanks for first responders, trained to help those in danger.

Strength and courage are their tools, rescue friend and stranger.

Favorite pastime bookstore browsing, looking for perfect reads.

Love the stories from centuries past, history plants tomorrow's seeds.

Give thanks for teachers, who, with love and wisdom, shape young minds

Strength and courage are their tools, it is our future the teacher finds.

Don't enjoy being sick, feeling lousy, stuck in bed, life on pause.

Doctors, nurses intervene, easing symptoms, attack the cause.

Give thanks for healthcare magicians who skillfully end my pain

Strength and courage are their tools, get me on my feet again..

Sweetest words that I know, "Come and get it. Time to eat!".

Food doesn't grow in stores, farmers, ranchers, summer heat

Give thanks for food providers, without them we'd not be fed.

Strength and courage are their tools, corn is tasseled, apples red.

When it's important to look right, I seek out clothing clerks

Fashion and common sense, they know my taste, respect my quirks.

Give thanks for those who dress us, without them shabby we'd be.

Strength and courage are their tools, after alterations I can't wait to see.

Hurricane logic

2009-08-31T10:43:00.002-05:00

When gulf waters boil, and store the heat

When low and high tide have too many feet

When squalls then gales begin to scream

Clouds swirling southeast turning green

Watching barometric pressure fall

Storm hunters, city leaders make the call

Carla vets count risks then calculate

Neighbors board up house and evacuate

Facing storm surge is dangerous not fun

Makes sense not to hunker down but to run

SUNDAY

2009-08-31T03:05:00.001-05:00

Sunday

Maker wakes the morning

Touches sky and dawn blushes

Rose then red.

Morning lovers turn in bed

Embrace with love and share

Affection.

Window gazer in sun's direction

Breathe life into colors soon

Fading as sun moves toward noon.

Blessed, caressed is sacred day's

Breaking.

J. Scott McKay

August 30, 2009

Class of 2013 gathers as a whole for the first time - News

2009-08-31T02:57:00.000-05:00

Class of 2013 gathers as a whole for the first time - News

Anxiety

2009-08-28T01:03:00.005-05:00

Anxiety
Smothers aspirations
Beneath world’s weight
Holding souls restrained
Buried deep on ocean floors
Unprotected souls struck, wounded
By evil manifesting covert schemes
Continue scarred, worried, inhale despair
Exhale tainted scenarios
Cosmic infernos, lost car keys,
Forgotten responsibilities
Nerves shattered, frayed
Crashing, dissolving into primordial silence
Beneath our epidermal surfaces.
Surrender sweet and bitter
Images drawn captures
Experiences
Generated by untrustworthy senses
Grazing on contemporary truth
Twisted, squeezed digested
Interpreted again and again fueling
Sacred gatherings
Venues known to Ignore
Grave warnings
Of humanity’s impending final breath
Hope eagerly persists, underground, mountain top
Reaches to reclaim power
Essential to repairing fragmented
Selves in time and space respecting
Human essence
Freed from institutions
We wait
For history’s conclusion
Yes and yet not yet
Calendar sages, fixed date specialists
Challenge date
Patience born in hope
Affirm those who wait
Heaven and earth's joining
Births last great spiritual awakening.
Death of anxiety

Hold Your Head Up-Argent-1972-(Long Version)

2009-08-20T10:33:00.001-05:00

Over the past year my PD has pulled my head down to where eye contact is virtually impossible. I cannot, for example, lay on my stomach and watch TV. Tomorrow I go in for a new treatment that has excellent results. HOLD YOUR HEAD UP.

Prayer for a New School Year

2009-08-19T19:00:00.003-05:00

I wrote this many years ago to be used the Sunday before school starts. I hope others will find it helpful. J. Scott McKay

God of all learning and wisdom, we pray for our schools,emblems of our faith, that we have a country worth keeping and a heritage worth passing to futire gener

We pray for our public schools: Let them set forth the ideal that no child shall be denied the opportunity to develop his or her full potential.

We offer prayer for our private schools: Let them continue to symbolize freedom of choice and to pursue excellence without arrogance..

We intercede for our church-related schools: let them remain a significant option for our religious communities.

We pray for all families who have created schools in their homes for the education of their children: let them grow in love as they increase in knowledge.

We pray for the men and women who administer our schools and school systems:
May they be educators first, more concerned with human values than with public relations.

We offer prayer for our teachers: May they exhibit a contagious passion for their subjects, grounded in a profound concern for their human subjects.

We thankfully intercede for all others who enable the enterprise and process of education -- for counselors, janitors, nurses, librarians, secretaries.

May they feel at all times that they are a part of not a vast machine, but of a web of meaning.

We pray for the children and young people who attend our schools: May they learn to avoid the pitfalls on their path and to value knowledge as it enables justice..

We offer fervent prayer for the parents, O God, the perplexed, self-conscious, anxious parents: May they stop fretting and blaming and rather join with others in the strengthening of our schools and the saving of our nation.

O God, our Father of wisdom and knowledge, show us the way out of the chaos of these days into a new day of enlightenment, trust and peace that we may praise you for your mercy forever and ever. Amen.

dennis hopper recites "if" by rudyard kipling

2009-08-19T02:17:00.001-05:00

Willie Nelson - Amazing Grace

2009-08-18T04:32:00.001-05:00

Sometimes only Willie will do.

Hymn of Prayer

2009-08-17T11:45:00.005-05:00

When Jesus challenged our self-righteousness

Saved by faith with God's grace did amaze us

Living today our backs to the wall

Pray for the courage to rise when we fall.

Gave into temptation we settled for less

God offers love, mercy and forgiveness.

Our fractured lives we need to lay down

Healing is God's fight not our battleground

Be our companion, Lord, this day and next

With your compassion the lost soul connects

Your heart beats rhythms fresh on my ear

Praising and singing we know you are here

You are Almighty, our Father and friend

In us perfect your purpose then send

Fountains of love, grace that transforms

Breathe deep and relax, we're safe in your arms

I can't imagine my life without prayer

I'd have my quiet moments, you'd not be there

Prayer is a circle we dare not break

You listen to all for Jesus Christ's sake

J. Scott & Kristi McKay

Poets

2009-08-10T16:54:00.001-05:00

There is something

About a poet

which leads us to

Believe that he

Died, in many cases

As long as 20 years

Before his birth.

-James Thurber

Nostalgia

2009-08-04T09:18:00.001-05:00

Gathered people remember,

How life was not long ago

All children loved summer time,

Days ended when Mom told us so.

Nostalgia can take us back,

Will it change our history?

Every evening someone said,

Not heat but humidity.

Cousin's best old ten-speed bike,

Our fun and stupidity

Nostalgia can take us back,

Will it change our destiny?

Today's neighbors know others,

Only if they're family

Reaching upward step forward,

No omnipotent TV

Nostalgia can take us back,

Will it change you and me?

Hallowed weekends to value,

Burgers, hot dogs there's no rush

Let's explore our neighborhoods,

Nostalgia's paint, bring a brush

Nostalgia can take us back,

Will it change our country?

Our strength is in neighborhoods,

Every parent has a child

Blessed we are so celebrate,

But not too late or too wild.

Nostalgia can take us back,

Will it change our history?

J. Scott McKay

August, 3, 2009

early

2009-08-03T03:16:00.001-05:00

Low train tones joining

Steel wheels on steel rails

Rackety rack rack

Pass through window glass

Rumble ever so politely bedroom walls.

Reminds of not long ago, before the plane

Or transport truck when train was king

Anything that traveled did by train

From cattle to fruit filled box cars

Machine parts and delicates

Windows prepare to shake begin to jiggle

It is 3 a.m. silent gives to

Train coming closer and louder

Sound builds,

Surrounds house with curious

Sense of being nearer than she is

When she is rushing through the crossing

I close my eyes to see lights and hear

Cursing of disturbing today's excursions

Early Morning

2009-08-02T16:38:00.002-05:00

TEXAS

2009-07-30T12:52:00.002-05:00

In the founding of our nation

Were the thinkers who defined

We the people are the people,

Stepping forward for mankind

If we all could live in Texas,

How awesome that could be

Let's all move to Texas

Name our sons Tom Landry

We know people in Muskogee,

Red River's due north from here

Not frozen laid bare tundra, but

Freezing, nasty winters appear

If we all could live in Texas,

How about that for a deal

If we all moved to Texas

Guacamole with every meal

Old Texas pride died yesterday

Astrodome and square baled hay

New world orders are arriving

Old worldviews not leaving soon.

Anchored in the South, twist of West

It's the native born loves Texas Best

I married a Kansan, and she's come a way

Knows Friday lights and First Monday

If we all could live in Texas,

Coastal waters we'd watch rise

If we all lived in Texas,

East Texas pines, West Texas skies.

J Scott McKay July 30, 2009

check

2009-07-23T08:10:00.001-05:00

Check

When life is tough it's not enough,

Repeating what got you there.

Time is coming stop your whining,

Start working for your own welfare.

Life's not a pretty carousel,

Circle up around you go.

Life is more like a marching band,

Left to right then heel to toe

When lights are out, this day is done,

Don't succumb to bitterness.

Our strength comes from choosing well

Then will come your happiness.

There is much too much to destroy,

Falling for tempting ruses

Eliminate don't carbon date,

Your list of tired excuses

Are you followed by a shadow?

From dark clouds hanging over you?

You did your best without success,

And still don't know what to do?

Is money tight no job in sight and

Life's making you its fool?

Get a clean slate; it's not too late,

With assistance you'll pull through

J. Scott Mckay

July 23, 2009

4 A.M. and random

2009-07-22T04:27:00.001-05:00

An artist's medium could be extra large

Most likely pen, paint, clay or song

Non static mental flow gives artistic charge

Superlative prepositions never over state or fall beneath

Projects die when we loiter in idleness too long

Jungian cartographers ink offers creative relief

Poets scratch images in our minds

Few or many words can't go wrong

Some poems rhyme and others don't

Stand left of a good preposition

prayers

2009-07-20T08:10:00.001-05:00

Now on the outside looking in,

Wanting it to feel like church again

I obeyed my wishing and went listening

Children's prayers on carpet squares

Simplicity re-stirred the hoiy wonder

Like stormy weather without thunder

the one who listens is the one who cares.

No apology for mature theology

From six year olds I heard small hearts breaking:

My sister ran away, Please bring her back.

My dad is leaving where is Iraq?

And God please bless my friend who was mean to me.

Puppy concerns, family sunburns,

Prayerful narration of recent vacation

Said more to me than my reams of ecclesiology

I was seeing church being caring community

God bless those prayers from carpet squares.

Nightmare on Market Street July 10, 2009

2009-07-10T08:26:00.003-05:00

I needed a lawyer an hour ago

Before farmers market was a freak show

On the early side of Saturday morning

I had made my purchases, day was warming

By the exit were peaches beautifully displayed

Two in hand I squeezed them before I weighed

Satisfied I put them back and carried on

What evil squeezed peaches can spawn.

Market helpers, with plastic badges swooped on mine

Yelling did I not see the no squeezing sign

They called me "a garden variety farmer's market creep"

I squeezed a few peaches for sport but not to keep.

I confessed, they looked stressed

What happened next should be addressed

One grabbed my wrist with a wicked twist

Refused to let up when I would insist

Behind stacks of artichoke I was taken

Like a 007 martini, they stirred, I was shaken.

Young management called me an illiterate ape

Wondered how sign forbidding squeezing could escape.

We sat for an hour while I was scolded methodically

From childhood rearing to adult insecurity, real and symbolically

Marinated in accusation, grilled to perfection

Market guards live with contradicting reaches

Welcome! you may stay if you don't squeeze our peaches.

America's best folk poet reminds how "the times are a changing".

When you are transgressing don't count on engaging

Words and personality to foster your quick release

Maybe in our future we will see mercy, kindness increase

Thomas

2009-05-02T09:57:00.003-05:00

Thomas

By j. scott mckay May 2, 2009

On the day of resurrection,

There's too much to comprehend.

How could Jesus be alive again?

They watched him die a painful death.

From the cross they took him.

Silently, with no words spoken.

It is said he defeated death,

broke the stone sealed tomb wide open.

Not a ghost or apparition,

it was Jesus who appeared.

First to see him were the women,

it's good news yet they feared

They found and told Simon Peter,

Who ran to see what was true.

Soon all were told.

Every faithful one had heard.

Believers together struggled,

Who would accept what they knew.

On that evening the faithful gathered in

All were present except Thomas

The one called the twin.

When Thomas heard the retelling

Of Jesus' great unveiling

He said he could not believe based just on hearing.

I want to see what you have seen,

Touch what you have touched.

Some call Thomas the Doubter

But he did not ask too much.

He only wanted the same opportunity

To hear, see' and touch.

Thomas stayed with the group

Unwilling to take a chance

That if Jesus appeared

Thomas wanted to be in the loop.

It was one week later Jesus came to them.

To Thomas he said

It is blessed to believe when you are seeing

But greater is the faith

Of the one who believes

without the privilege of sight.

A Look Back/Seeing the End

2009-04-24T04:41:00.002-05:00

Christopher is in the last six weeks of his senior year. I knew these days would come eventually, but they are still hard to comprehend. For being a UMPK he has fared well having attended schools in only four towns. Each school has offered something good. Chris was born in Nacogdoches. He was enrolled in Mother's Day Out and then pre-school at FUMC. We felt the interaction with other children was important. Every Friday we had a "Daddy Day" and the two of us would get lunch. Christopher attended Kindergarten at Christ Episcopal. That was a hard year with Anne's first round with breast cancer. It has been good to watch Kristi and Chris work together on projects. I am grateful for the space they allowed in their lives o let the other in.

The elementary school in Nacogdoches was a good three blocks from our house. Often we would walk him home. I remember especially the excellent PE program they had there. Chris began second grade in Winnie. It was his third grade teacher that made so much difference after Anne died. We enjoyed the programs in the Winnie (East Chambers) schools. Wills Point was Jr. High; He made the adjustment well to a larger school district. In Wills Point he was in an excellent band program. He ran track and cross country. He was also elected student council president. Terry High School was another adjustment to a larger school. It was here he fell in love with Broadcasting. For four years he has learned both sides of the camera for news broadcasts. He has made good friends and received good instruction.

I had a college roommate who said he was not going to let school get in the way of his education. The statement amuses me. It also makes a good point that learning the delicate nature of relationships is an essential part of education. It takes children working together to make a village.

Chris has his eye on Texas A&M. I could not be any prouder. It is a great school, steeped in tradition that values values and education.

Aggie Muster 2009

2009-04-22T05:50:00.001-05:00

Kristi, Christopher and I attended our first Aggie Muster last night. Christopher was one of six high school seniors who received scholarships from the Fort Bend County A&M Club. It was a lovely evening which included good food, a lively auction, and an entertaining speaker. The speaker told us that the secret to being married for 53 years is to go out to eat one a week. He then added that he goes out on Tuesday and his wife goes out on Thursday.

The main purpose of the evening was the roll call of Aggies who had died since last Muster. As the names are read they are accounted for with someone in the audience responding with "here" The one responding is given a lighted candle and takes their place in front of the group. After all the names are called Taps is played. Last night's list included old Aggies, one from the class of 2010, and three who died in military service.

It was an impressive and moving ceremony. I am pleased that Christopher wants to be part of a school with such a deep sense of tradition. Sometimes I feel that all things traditional are suspect and subject to discarding. The power of a group meeting once a year to remember their history and honor their fallen cannot be ignored.

Ten and Twenty Years Ago

2009-04-20T18:50:00.001-05:00

This is a week of memories for me. On Wednesday, April 22, my late wife, Anne, and I would have been married 20 years. We married in my home church with only family present. We then took a couple of days in Dallas before returning to Houston. Anne died about six weeks after we celebrated our 10^th anniversary. Eight of the 10 years we were married were in Nacogdoches where I was the campus minister. The year before that was Houston. After Nacogdoches we moved to Winnie.

Ten years ago this week the news was dominated by the shootings at Columbine. It seemed on our anniversary trip to Dallas that that was all the news being reported. We visited all our favorite places in Dallas, a Mexican restaurant on upper Greenville, some bookstores, and some of the shops at Mockingbird and Preston. Our favorite bookstore was a Borders at Hillcrest and Royal Lane. I clearly remember watching her stack the books she wanted to buy on the counter. I am sure se came close to spending all her gift money on books.

Anne's illness had progressed significantly since her birthday in January. Getting around was a challenge but we had planned the trip since Christmas. The trip to Dallas was about remembering the good times we had had there. There was no talk of her illness or the inevitable conclusion we were facing. Anne tired of wearing wigs. She said they were too hot. She preferred turbans. She had an assortment of colors. The turban became hr badge and her pass into the sisterhood of breast cancer patients. It was her wish to be buried with a turban instead of a wig. Anything else would have been wrong.

I had worked on the first ACS Relay for Life Committee for Chambers County. I was in charge of the luminaries. For several weeks prior to the event we received orders for "in memory" and "in honor". All the time the orders came in I wondered which category Anne would be in come relay time. She died on a Friday a week before the Relay. I was deeply touched by how many luminaries were purchased in her memory.

Vocations

2009-04-17T14:09:00.001-05:00