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Category: poetry

Dimpled Eye

Dimpled Eye

dimpled eye

I look into your dimpled eye
        and it draws me
out of myself and into a place
        inscrutable and haunting and full of yearning
but for what?

You’re not like your “brother”
        who Tigger-like is everywhere at once
out there, in your face, ring around the rosie
        here’s my duck! here’s my ball!
wanna play?

You are alpha, first, but not last, in our hearts
        Stonington Bear
named for a most favorite place
        cold water and hard stone
                grey granite ledges clung by spruce and cedar and rugosa
        granite boulders, huge beyond imagining
                tossed and tussled on Little McGlathery’s outer shore
        solitary erratic just there, as if it were always there
                as if it will always be there, heedless of tide or my stare
        Lynne captured a harbor porpoise mid-leap
                frozen in her frame, but glistening, pulsating, wild
        once we paddled in mist, water’s surface quiet and uncanny, like glass
                troubled only by the dip of our blades or the rising of a porpoise
it draws me, draws me out, draws me away … and brings me home

I look into your dimpled eye
        and it draws me
is it wistfulness, resignation, distress, just old-body weariness?
        or do you just want to be loved, without seeming too eager
to draw me, draw me away, draw me in … to you?

A Place to Call Home

A Place to Call Home

From one of my favorite poets and good friend, David Walters, a poem written while ministering some years ago to a small New England congregation …

A Place to Call Home
In New Hampshire’s Baker River Valley a small country church
Brims with friendly people who savor common sense,
Neighbors ready to laugh or share a garden’s bounty with another,
Surrounded by big churches preaching hell-fire and damnation.
At Sunday services with the gathering of its faithful people,
He arrives early and waits, rain, shine or bitter snow storm,
Finds his favorite spot as he rests in the center aisle,
Like the church he’s brown and a friendlier dog can’t be found!
Greets those arriving as he wags his busy tail,
Dreams peacefully through sermon and liturgy,
Doesn’t mind if you scratch his ears, demands nothing,
Helps visitors or those hurting know they’re invited!
Furry, breathing parable who lives at the bottom of the hill,
Brings us gentle calm, soothing weary bodies and spirits,
He knows he’s loved and loves right back,
We leave assured of a home in heaven’s mansions.

david walters

David shared this poem with the national office of the United Church of Christ in response to a request for stories about local church life and they made a video of his poem! You may view the video here:

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March for Our Lives

March for Our Lives

A poem I received today from my friend, David Walters …

March for Our Lives

Students lost their childhood! walk with parents and us old codgers,
Won’t wait for official declarations or that lonely bugle’s call,
Side by side they rise up strong celebrating the right to live,
United in country heartlands and busy cities, onward we march!

We remember proud native Americans cut down like tall grass,
Living alongside noisy buffalo roaming free on endless prairie,
Made nearly extinct by long guns and, greed the ammunition,
Oh, how we white newcomers tried killing their hope in a future.

No, it’s not too late! the time is right now!
Refuse to die one by one, school after school,
America, awaken! death’s hands knock at our door,
Ban those damn rifles built for war aimed at our babies.

Gather persons who love children more than their guns,
Leave fear behind, free your heart’s courage, rise up!
Let our brave, precious youth whom we love be the guide,
Will you join the kids as they march for their lives?

david walters ©2018