You can’t graduate
from schools where you learn to cheat
like video games

A joke drifts benign
if it is about yourself
otherwise just listen

Sit on the green earth
bow your head and close your eyes
hear your soft green soul

Count all of the stars
mutely giving night some light
now count your soul words

Gods of selfish men
will melt in their own fortunes
lonely then forgotten

Moss lives in shadows
absorbing northern moisture
cool vapors of faith

Astounding always
how our unforgiving spites
welds our prison bars

Venoms of the tongue
gossips brewing wicked cliques
piercing fangs in flesh

Values in health—like
coins tossed in fountains of hope
rust in governments

Conspiracy drips
like sweats on the face of doubt
a nuisance to truth

I’m like the mushrooms
confined in deep, dank darkness
fed man’s manure

My starry expanse
engulfs the forests of trees
nursing my spirit

Texting with fat thumbs
and no proof before sending
could birth world wars

Social media
windpipes of society
choke up coughs of phlegm

Gasps in pollution
tears of browning greenery
suffocate reason

Stenches of power
cloud horizon’s invention
urgently needed

We become far stronger
when we listen to one other’s
once forgotten story

They become one with us
when we answer one other’s
prayer through our story

Who will wash the graves?
tarnished names searching for life
those who seek their life

When hearts weld into pasts
time turns thin as glass mirrors
ancestors view freedom

The year 2020
time’s hope of some wanted insight
became a vision lost

His eyes, ears, and spirit
work through us as we become
His hands, voice, and heart

Pure lovingkindness
pours from alabaster hearts
shaped by a friend’s hand

The purest scents of green
are not essences shaped in cash
but divine mists of earth

Wind carries us about
into dark strange lands we once feared
but His spirit gives peace

Rock is our steady strength
until we carve out our statures
and find real salvation

Some call me a sheep
not so bad when I ponder—
who’s the Lamb of God!

I pray all my kid’s pains
will all be transferred to me
as I learned from Jesus

Obfuscation is
our lazy means to avoid
real obligation

Kindness is the balm
to mend all our broken hearts
crushed by 2020

Our spirits radiate
warm flames of hope—born within
lights of Jesus Christ

Water is our life
till we unearth our own wells
finding Living Water

Why do so many
imperfect people demand
perfection in us?

Why do so many
unhappy people demand
a smile from us?

Volume never shapes
an untruth into a truth
it only diverts

Anger never heals
a painful wound or spirit
it only divides

Our impatient actions
crush a wilderness of splendor
wrecks of rusting iron

The deepest darkest mine
protects the most valuable gem
buried within us all

The greatest black cloud
electrifies skies with water
pumping through us all

Limitless spending
molds an endless election
into living hell

Angels warble loud
as clouds of red-winged blackbirds
expecting her death

All of our kept sorrows
vanish in His of mists of mercy
tears we shed together

All pains of earthly wars
will melt in earth’s dark rot of soil
entombed in rocks of truth

God’s patient response
floats gently as a thousand
butterfly kisses

Full moon’s silver light
skips on waves of mountain lakes
dancing strings on tent walls

Darkened sapphire skies
absorb all your climbing sweats
in thin airs of respect

Water, air, light, and life
travel or transform with seasons
rocks stand indifferent

Waves of rolling time
wash across fresh sands of life
breathe free forever

Impossibility—
snapping a grandchild’s photo
before morphing despair

Songs of a soft night
carry me away in dreams
which come alive in time

Birds like endless stars
nest inside God’s loving branches
sheltered from sun and storm

Echoes in canyon walls
mock deep your shallow voices
from lost—forlorn spirits

Christ’s mission in courage
justifies tears of countless souls
looking for a homeland

Lucifer’s cowardice
opens the vault to his minions
seeking only friendship

Why did our news retreat—
into deep combative quarrels?
When we stopped believing?

Description goes hereWhy did our ears retreat
into sealed vaults of inattention
When we stopped learning?

Fossils leave entombed
death’s final acts of good or bad
how will death sculpt you?

Stories leave inscribed
life’s enduring acts of courage
how will life author you?

Before I can become
the firm and unmovable rock
I must flow like water

Rivers can only carve
with beauty and curves of grace
in bedrock’s stubborn stone

Defending a free land
while ignoring poor and hungry
defines our bondage

Strength’s not armed power
it’s the hand’s strong ability
to care, feed, and heal

The sky is our passion
exploring unknown mysteries
if only in a dream

Do we ever know
where charms of hummingbirds
sleep upon weary nights?

Who would have ever thought—
I would live when talk show hosts
are revered as prophets

Ancient red rock slabs
torn from times fraying cliff face
now pay reverence to home

Never doubt your powers
reflecting good light in darkness
a full moon never doubts

Good light is shadowed when
blocked by amassing ignorance
a new moon understands

Live like authentic rocks
Don’t dwell upon rolling sand dunes—
voices drifting in winds

Yellow daffodils
rise faithfully every spring
born again sprouts of hope

River’s edge cuts forest
greens in two—feeding each side
peace flows between friends

We are only starting
to learn the malicious powers
lurking within one tweet

At times I fall homesick—
oft for a place I’ve never been
always with my one love

Deception, distraction
division, and discouragement—
our defeats of darkness

An ultra-fine crossing
when your mouth's controlled by masses
and not your inner self

Consider the lilies…
no toil, spin, pride, God’s glory!
Why do men wear neckties?

Lies become adornments
swanky attired ignorance
wrapping weak—fearful minds

Winds of our future
can level weakly built designs
or lift you like a kite

Teach children a future
in faith, truth, kindness, and courage—
because you will need it!

Learn from your children
tolerance and diversity—
because they will need that!

Half of all I say:
is brilliance—or malarkey
you figure out which half…

Half of all I do:
is genius—or shenanigans
you figure out which half…

Half of the people
feel they deserve entitlement
the rest bless every gift

Ends are like beginnings
but the very final end—
is the best beginning!

Earth bleeds in hot crimson
lava flows—not in pain but joy
recycled finale

Nature can reclaim
anything—given enough time
we must make more time

I was once a goat
mountain goats thrive on lone peaks
above all the bears

How can we improve?
Perfection’s impossible—
progression’s easy!

The final eagle song
fills steep canyon walls of purple
with dusk’s last embrace

The tallest trees on earth
outlast masses of other trees
because of nests they embrace

Nature cries out in palls
for one more young courageous voice
to harmonize with her

Lightning’s silver forks
impale skies with needful fume
nurturing greener life

Oceans rage in dark storm
but life buried deep—silently
sway in life’s giving flows

Stars fall from the sky
elegant streams of divine lights
but night remains full

The maps which we follow
shape life’s course, guiding us to draw
nobler maps we can share

As mountains embrace age
their beauty flows more graceful
variety shares splendor

Veils of our mind
shroud a deep inner wisdom
born in boundless pasts

Voles turn my meadows
to knotted paths of twisted chaos
not unlike politics

Trails lead us to
a deeper understanding
of our secret self

Waterfalls cast our eyes
upward into bright bowed skies
not down in rocky pools