Truth and Beauty

Music, tone of violin
Piano, jazz, can set a mood
Wagner, Bach, and theremin
Are considered very good.

But so is caring for the poor
And trying to be empathetic
Could it be that what is moral
Also is what is aesthetic?

Without conviction our actions are hollow
Art without moral is hard to swallow
For that which makes a thing beautiful
Is also that which makes us whole.

Good is not better
And bad is not worse
By God we must measure
Soul, string, and verse

Good, better; worse worst
Bad, worse; better best
One thing last, one thing first
Some are better than all the rest

In order to compare two things
You need to know that better is
You need to know about your sins
Nothing can be relative.

Faith and virtue, viola and flute
Truth and beauty are both absolute
Both we call good, both we applaud
Because both were created by the very same God.

decem verba

Thoughts.

Thoughts don't.

Thoughts don't make.

Thoughts don't make sense.

Can't.

Can't feel.

Can't feel my.

Can't feel my heart.

Love.

Love is.

Love is always.

Love is always hard.

Time.

Time moves.

Time moves ever.

Time moves ever still.

Hurt.

Hurt can.

Hurt can only.

Hurt can only heal.

God.

God doesn't.

God doesn't ever.

God doesn't ever abandon.

Thought without magic

Have you ever thought without magic?

Words with definitions precise

Seemingly each devoid of all wonder

Logic instead of what's nice.

What's real is what my heart is ever after

My mind to mimic actuality

Maybe this leads to truth without comfort

But bliss less ignorant is reality.

What if this leads me to question my God?

To see what he does that strikes me as odd

And wonder if things that I think that I know

Are error, when removed, will cause me to grow?

Clearly and coldly I'll think as I wonder

For all that's at stake if my heart were to blunder

If perception doesn't match reality

The God I know isn't the God that made me.

To stop here would be a grievous mistake

For love-lacking logic is far worse than fake

The things that I know must cause me to act

Worship and care should follow fact

Is it true that logic leads to love?

Through humble deliberation brings wonder above

To know that my God makes sense and is real

Causes me to majestically feel.

Do you understand that Jesus was logic?

Precisely, was "Logos" as John set forth hence

God's love and his justice were locked in paradox

So Jesus, sent to die, was sent to make sense.

It just so happens what fulfills the law

Also fills my soul with awe

For God so loved logic that He sent us His son

To die our death deserved to make us like one

Grace Rescind

If you, for this, your grace rescind

My heart would shatter, burst in flame

Wish that I had never sinned

Curse my very name

Should I let you see my heart?

Could you watch this sinner-saint

Sanctification in part

Dark tones I would paint

Is your heart so Spirit-led

To forgive my inner sin?

Grace of body, heart, soul, head

From this day à la fin?

My joy will be to see your soul

Take apart, then make it whole

Stare your sin right in its face

And mirror God's grace.

Gravity

Oh gravity, won't you dance with me?
If you say the word, we'll come down.
Gravity, apple from the tree
With velocity on the crown.

If you think you have lost your mind
And the whole world is spinning round
Look again, see what you may find
Like a red apple on the ground.

Oh waltz with me, dance with gravity
Yes, the whole world is spinning round
Fall with ease, turn around, be free
Like that red apple on the ground.

Gravity oft more kind should be
And nicely avoid the head
For it may be finger, toe, or knee,
When hit won't make you dead.

Picture of Grace

Her hands whisper beauty as her feet take their place

The love of movement holds still on her face

All fear that was there is gone with no trace

She is a picture of grace

The music takes form in her fingers and toes

Like a leaf on a river, it ebbs and it flows

Her form likes to follow wherever it goes

Capturing truth in each pose.

Logic meets love in the glow of the lights

Neither one nor the other feeling contrite

Beauty and truth, for a moment, don't fight

For a moment all things seem right

Her pointe is a pen on the audience's soul
Each punctuation soon takes its toll
Cursively writing emotions in scroll
Noting what it means to be whole

The music ends as tears fill their eyes

Even the very most stoic ones cried

They know with the dancer's bow and goodbye

They are left more alive

Boston

Our hearts hang heavy when somebodies die
Even American flags softly cry
Bowing, half standing, silently weep
While over our country a steady watch keep.

Today I saw a sight I thought I'd never see
Freedom's flag was mourning ever less than me
It stood so proudly with its head raised high
While I hung my head, at full mast did fly.

Oh star spangled banner, how could you forget?
At such a time in hist'ry, how could you just let
Things roll off your back? They're completely devastating 
And you just ignore them by quietly levitating?

I stared up with anger and a tear in my eye
And yet for freedom, it continued to fly
It looked down at me with a well weathered face
And whispered of battles, and songs of God's grace

And just at the moment it stood there and waved
I came to see it's by God we are saved
That even through the horrors of man
We're still part of Heaven's good plan.

Past Return

Past the point of no return
Into possibility
Almost in the realm of sane
But also insanity

What if we just cannot tell
When opportunity has come?
It knocks and we just close the door
Though we listen more than some

What if while waiting for the right
We come to find that we've been wrong?

Care and Create

I was made to care and create
To learn and discern, help and relate
I study while also trying to be there
Present in school, and present to care
Time is an angel, and a demon to be sure
When you most need it, whisks off in a blur

In balance always my life must be
For not for my smarts do men look up to me
Not for riches, beauty, or fame
But that I live life with integrity.

Tuned to Emergency

High on a hill in an elevated cave
Sits a weary man
Sipping a Vanilla Coke
And working on a software plan

He listens to the radio
Tuned to emergency
Music-less he makes his charts
It's not where he wants to be

His health and his utter sanity
Are blurry if you look too fine
That twitch in his eye and the limp in his thigh
Echo his state of mind

Felt loved, felt lonely; cried, didn't die
Finished early, finished late; he even tried.
Both sides of a target ever so wide
But never quite satisfied

He is where he is by a sense of pride
God gave him gifts; that can't be denied
But what if this work makes the weak gifts get fried
And just makes the good ones hide?

Math, science, and objectified C
Matter not much in eternity
What if not smart, but kind he should be
And love and smile and climb trees?

The fridge talks truth
And the code talks beauty
Set your radio tuned
To God's frequency
Live and love
And dance, set free;
Live your life
And do your duty

High on a hill

High on a hill in an ugly fountain
Sits an ugly tree
In mem'ry of a girl that died
Whose name was Emily.

This tree, I said, is quite ugly
If I may be so bold
But the sentiment behind
Is worth its weight in gold.

In absurdity there is
Beauty through and through
Don't laugh; I challenge you to think:
What if it were you?

Our life is like a grave in a fountain
Our faith is dead; can't even move mountains
But we rest on a fountain of love
That pours fourth life from God above

This tree is a monument, testament to all
That God is who gives life
I still shudder; this gravely marker
Marks both joy and strife

Each branch, cone, twig, and needle
Reminds us of the fall
Of life, and death and how on such
A tree God saved us all.

Beacons at Night

Examples and friends, the best you can find
He loves her so dear with his heart, soul, and mind
And she thinks he's perfect; one of a kind
And I say that they're doing fine

Grief visits often, and she has known pain
And sometimes from crying he'll have to refrain
I only have hope they'll live through this rain
And be okay again

The pride on his face would bring you to tears
The joy of their baby her face sweetly mirrors
Love, hope, and faith overshadow all fears
And will continue for years

These three stand out as a beacon at night
Shining God's love like a powerful light
All see their lives in peace and in fight
All see them doing what's right

Dancer

I once met a dancer
Who knew all the answers

I asked for truth in prose
But she responded with a pose

Because there was no band
I couldn't understand.

Birds and Daisies

Oh, what pain a mind can bring
Force upon unwilling soul
Keep a body from finding rest
All for a sense of control

Pressure not real so tangible
Can make you lose your mind
Lose sight of things that mean the most
Like listening and being kind

Be present under loads of stress
For you are in God's hand.
You surely won't die, or maybe you will;
It's all in His good plan.

If birds and daisies worry not
Then why the heck should you?
If God promises to take care
Then trust that it is true.

Angels

I once met a girl with a broken face
Her beauty poured from selfless grace
Now she's gone with hardly a trace
And I will never be the same

I once met a man who talked straight to my soul
His words of wisdom soon took their toll
I felt like I died, but he left me whole
And I never knew his name

Both angels, but less entertained
For I am the one whose life was changed
Now I am no longer estranged
For those have shown me the way.

I once met a child who was six foot-three
Stared at the mirror and a man stared at me
And wondered at the people who've made me be
The man I am today

Leader

Why did God make me a leader

When living passively would do?

I didn't ask Him for this voice

But God sees in His view.

My life and heart, let alone words

Are shaped and crafted by his hands

A passive voice can be made active

When God speaks through a man.

There's freedom in the knowledge of

The fact that God has His own plan.

I have ideas for my life

But His are always greater than.

Being passive's like being dead

(Our state after the ancient fall)

But God made us alive in in Christ

So be intentional.

Give your fellow man the same

Attention God has given you

With strength from Him you're strengthened by

Give daily grace daily renewed.

Beautiful Bridges

Beautiful bridges left unburned
Beautiful hearts not turned
Against me
Against me

They say to always leave
A place like it was found
But when you build a bridge
You shouldn't burn it down
When you go
When you go

I say you're better off
When when you look back at your life
You see a road of beauty there
Not selfishness and strife

Stay kind and humble
Never demanding
The best kinds of bridges are the ones left standing

Friends, be friends

Mind so full
Heart so hurt
Feel the pull
Torn apart

Why have I
Been abandoned here?
Should have been strong
But crippled by tears

Friends so close
Have been so far
My tender wound
Is now a scar

How so now?
Must move ahead
Summer looms
Past final dread

The here and now
I want to be
Happy and healthy,
So take care of me.

Once, just once
Spend time with me
Without me asking,
Just be there for me

Friends, be friends
And do what they do
Be there when I need you
To your word be true

Salvation is now alive

Today's the morning to end all mournings
For on a tree Salvation died
But death had no power over Him
For Salvation is now alive

I realize much more each day
I have no power over who I was,
Am, or will be tomorrow
But I thank God He does

Snowflakes, atoms, rocks and the heavens
The God who crafted these with his hands
Reached into hist'ry to befriend
And save this wretched man

A friend in need

The best of friends is not the one
Who would do whatever you asked
Who knows your entire past
Whom loving is never a chore


This friend, though he cares,
Is no good if he's not there
So the best friend I suggest
Is the one at your door


God cares for roses, thistles, and weeds
Flowers have thorns; flowers know pain
People e'en more are in pain's dark domain
A friend in need needs a friend in deed