At the premier of a new play [in the era of Stalin] “Christ in a Fur”, the hall was overcrowded. The actor Alexander Rostovtsev had to play the main role. He belonged to the high circles of soviet life and was a convinced Marxist.
On the stage was a mockery of an altar. The cross on it was made of bottles of wine and beer. Full glasses surrounded it. Fat “clergymen” said a drunken ”liturgy” consisting of blasphemous formulas. In this sham church, “nuns” played cards, drank, and made ugly jokes while the “religious service” went on.
Then Rostovtsev appeared as Christ, dressed in a robe. He had the New Testament in his hands. He was supposed to read two verses from the Sermon on the Mount, then throw away the book in disgust and shout, “Give me my fur and my hat! I prefer a simple proletarian life.”
But something unexpected happened. The actor read not only two verses, but continued, “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” ( Mat. 5:5), and so on to end of the sermon (Mat. 7:27). It was in vain that the director made desperate signs for him to stop.
When Rostovtsev came to the last words of Jesus, he made the sign of the cross in the Orthodox manner, and said, “Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom” (Luke 23: 42), and left the stage. He was never seen again. The communists disposed of him. Let us like this actor, forget the ugly roles imposed upon us by the world and allow ourselves to be enraptured by the beauties of the Savior’s words.
Richard Wurmbrand, Reaching Toward the Heights, Zondervan 1977
Category / Poetry
If I look out the window
Blonde, sunglasses
Dark suited miniskirt
Large belt
w/tight beige pants
Could be a model..
Standing at an outside table
Of this coffee house
If I look out the window
From drinking my joe
I can’t see anything else but her
Talking through her cell phone device
Clipped in her ear, just barely perceptible
Adamant, using both hands
For expression, articulate
It seems, making points,
Striding around a little round table
& between chairs
As if a stage
& this was performance.
This is all normal now..
Less than twenty years ago
This would have been observed
As psychotic behavior,
Talking to someone who is
Obviously not there & not holding a phone,
Or rehearsing a play
My friends (some of them)
Think the same of me
When I pray…
Guns
Sporadic gunfire
in the distance
of the hills,
& the Fall’s hunt
was always
the Octobered drysmell
of chaparral
& that clean mean click
of manzanita breaking
through the drivers,
coming down & out of
far recessed ravines,
where the large
lone black-tail bucks waited
their solitude
for the coming rut,
only to be flushed
out of almost impassable
hiding, & then the high
powered velocity of the crack
of a modern firearm
would deliver the yearly venison
tabled later
in the fall,
perennially seasoned
w/salt & black peppered
for biscuits & gravy,
the crisp taste of the High Cascade,
I remember how,
our bitch border collie shepherd dog
would cower in her corner,
teeth chattering,uncontrollably and shaking,
shaking, at that near& far rifle fire.
The Final Fax of Chuck Bukowski : Harriet Staff : Harriet the Blog : The Poetry Foundation
Kosmos by Walt Whitman : The Poetry Foundation
OMG!
My God lives, and lives
Eternally, untouched by blemish, & across time between past & present,
My living God outside Creator of time and space
Lord of my life keeps me beside
Still waters of His own breast
Dew dropped sweet smelling
Aroma of the just about to rain summer cloud coming soon like,
& to me always….
He is lifting up my soul amidst all
That will fail, my God and Lord
Of my life lives apart from a back drop
of false certainty, lives brighter than shining
Metal of commerce & moves
Fulcrum of universal sprawl unconcerned
By the mere motor freight..
Of an Atlas rocket, my God’s mighty
Hand is on the back of enemies,
He lifts up my friends, & makes enemies friends, my God lives in
Surety of my own life,
Finally grasped, at the lofty position I fall
On my knees, bowing head, knowing worship
& utter insignificance of self, though juxtaposed to Your love
Lifts back up turns, round & I see..
Here there are riches in poverty, & meanness in prosperity
Thankfully, now this is turned upside down because of our daily bread, on earth as in Heaven & hovering beside an estate of evil in residence, a side show..really
& then turning again to see power in the seemingly
Ineffectual stillness of a quiet dawn,
Love behind the giving way of hate,
Oh, my God, personal.. and there, my Lord, Christ Jesus
Who drug His cross, who heard,
“Where is his God now…why didn’t He…
“Get a home in the Jerusalem suburbs, “or, “build up
his fathers business, so much talent wasted?”
and. “He coulda retired in Capernaum, had a couple of boats,”
or, “Why-didn’t-he-just-take-care-of-his-mother?”
my God sweet loving victorious failure to reach this material world–as it sees itself
Lord, two thousand years of sorrow & faith, pulling
Up the dying , pulling up & hoping the hopeless, straightening crooked paths..
reaching out in Love, & Life & Word to lift us to abundant life.. as
An eternal priceless gift…a secret revealed so simple,
So complex—you must understand I-am-the-richest-of-men-because
this salvation changed all the rules in space and time!
The Forester
He twisted his head
his blond hair and blue eyes
underneath the tin hat with
the rain dripping off the back, then
peered down at me and with a
shovel in his hand I got my answer:
“The clearcutting of Douglas Fir
in this particular coastal range is
better for the trees we plant,
better for the soil we plant them in,
better for the animals that live here..”
I shut him off for it was
a company answer, much like
a telephone company recording
that repeats itself, if you
haven’t anything better to do
but go on listening.
I finished planting a tree,
his answer didn’t bother me,
even when I raised up and saw
off to my left, a mud slide that had
been the side of a mountain and now,
was at the bottom of a ravine,
making good time to the Pacific.
The trees that had been there were
of no consequence either,
for as far as you can see
they had been all cut down.
I know a logger that would give
away his chain saw to be able to
confront a Sierra Cub member
while standing on a stump in that exact spot,
and with a gleam in his eye he’d say:
“Yep, that’s the way to do a
logging operation. You cut ’em all down!
Look man! Now you can see!”
His answer meant full bellies
for three children and land payments,
the company man was answering for
people that shuffled lives and papers,
ate in fine restaurants whenever they want,
drove expensive german cars
and ship whole logs to japan.
I have learned to reconcile all of this,
it’s the way things have been for a long time.
What I could not reconcile was that
later that same day I heard an Elk bugle,
twenty minutes later a cable screamed
dragging a log uphill to a high lead show
and they were in the same key.
Trout live here and fear me.
Evening hatch Sacramento River
Ever climb Mt. Theilsen Ernie?
“Six times,” he wheezed,
from an
abrupt old man
kind of
certainty, and
then held up
one hand with fingers extended
and an upward thumb from the other
to only waist height,
then let them down in
an exhaustion of age,
looking off the precipice
of his front porch,
he said,”Last time I was 79.”
Two voices
Two voices from a campfire
Long ago–or how,
According to Stumbling Bear, the dog
Animal came to run w/man
“Let us go kill this dog
animal/use his fur &
eat of his meat
we can trap him
with snares
for he is greedy
for offal from the kill
his fur is thick &
sticks tight to
the pelt.”
“No! He has keen
eyes of a hunter,
cares for his family
& is loyal to his mate,
he can smell the stag
two mountains away
Let us wait to
talk to him &
his wife, boast of
our kill, for this
year is very full
We will ask them
to run w/us, they
can smell out game,
eat their fill of gut
& then stay close
In the winter
when the herds are gone, then we can use their fur
& eat their tender children.”
St. John One: One 