glennkaiser.com - Pastor: Unpublished Poetry

Unpublished Poetry

Glenn on Worship

All the poetry on this page was written by and is copyrighted by Glenn Kaiser and Cornerstone Press.

ABSOLUTION

Put it in the language of men
write it in the native tongue
shout it from the roofs and the timbertops
watch how it breathes and runs
in cracked foundations
crooked relations
scorching and healing high noon black night
all mighty absolutely infallably right
nothing left that could alter it's sum

but they twist and turn and churn it around
and they print it all manner of ways
it'll never be forgotten
in eternity's wake
it'll make you
break you
most completely overtake you
ring forever
at the end of your days

Absolution
Fill `er Up
Let's Not Talk About Sin
Art Fully
`Burb Farmer
Chalice In The Wood
Choked Up
The Personally Corrupt
Down
Earrings
A Sort of Edsel
Friday
Moors
Sometimes
To Walk In The Woods Once More

FILL 'ER UP

gassing up the angst wagon
pumped up and flexing
night meets night
vexed and hexing
blood in a sea of sharp toothed frenzy
where can it lead?
sentanced next Wednesday

wrong upon wrong upon agonized ether
what's left to show but the venom of the speaker
children assured of who did wrong
bitterness bread-fed far too long

gassing up the wagon
adjust the megaphone
driven
driven
brittle
this bone

LET'S NOT TALK ABOUT SIN

*%@#@!!*&$@$$$%
-annonymous.

ART FULLY

yeh yeh nice guy sat in front of me in English
so what and when are you gonna get a real job ya liberal
fem creep?
o.k. so art and me get along
sometimes well
and other times Art wants to drag me to hell
an' I don't wanna go
or don't wanna know
or get tired of trying to entertain art
like it's all for his show

I think sometimes he lies but wants me to accept
his vision of a world that only makes me upset

yeh I went to school with Art
nice fella he was
before he fell completely in love with
his own image
maybe he had something to say about something

maybe

maybe not.

'BURB FARMER

yes we hedged and trimmed
painted and primped
saloned saturdays and occasionally binged
oh but life had meaning in the pleasure we earned
and we deduced nothing from the lovers we spurned
to get what we could- that's the point of education
mental-moral bungee jumping to a concrete elation
well the mmmm's got mmm-er and the rest got clinton
from seattle to miami sea to sea they were squintin'
i always got headaches 'less i wore the latest thrill
climbing double timing to the top of the hill
all the world's going to hell
so what's it really matter

me?
bigger barns!
(somthin' smokin' in the rafters?)

CHALICE IN THE WOOD

here all eyes know scent touch God's prints
sonnet of wonder woodsmoke and flint
violence part of the chain of creation
thunder-lightning
creatures eating daily meat rations

i love the lack of pretention here
fox and coyote field mouse deer
crows and bluebirds bluegills shrew
sun and wind and me and You
narrowing noise sans broken cement
but so many tracks where the animals went
can't get enough of Your imagination
best we can do is a hollow imitation

city where the sick and the dead need grace
certain my pulpit's in that sterile place
thank you for the challenge
nature's sabbath and the balance
sin... but grace abounding more
by the chalice of His mercy
in both wood
and
urban core

CHOKED UP

had truth by the wallet in a nashville heat
slick corperation suit with a case of sore feet
couldn't reconcile markets with the bottom line
in a white throne moment pure ran outta time

song dance novel in a fantasy burlesque
pump it up the system get the firm to invest
gotcha thinkin' salivatin' cuz you got ta have some
pushin' midnight condos on the surface of the sun

it's a bull market for the pork-future boys
fallen golden arches and uhf toys
pretty weeds in a garden where the snakeskins lay
saw whips in the temple
saw the merchants pay

THE PERSONALLY CORRUPT

there was this dysfunctionalized victim who
fell out of love with me an' you
cuz we looked like a father and mother
sister and brother
an' we overseasoned the stew

anyway the fable went
(please overlook the embellishment)
we usurped enablement
cuz we loved out of our ellement

empowering?
Impossible!
for lack of education
and any fool knows truth from such a source
is hardly plausable
In fact the thought of love in such a class is reprehensible
to yield to simple simpletons (though true) still
indefenseable!

all power absolutely stains
with poison all who kin it

your problem ain't authority

it's just that you're not in it.

DOWN.

the only possible direction for you
revelation so revealingly true
all roads lead to an exitless pain
un-escapable unending torments in the flame

only God could make damnation so perfected
no, not the slightest minute item was neglected
an eternity for it to fully bloom
for every filthy lying desecrating move
and you yes you
will finally reap your chosen state
the fullest measure of the wrath of God your fate.

EARRINGS

and when there was no earrings
i had
ear rings

tinitis

i only regret that i have
but two ears
to yield up
for the sake of

those with ears
to hear here

so there

ring ring

i have a message...

A SORT OF EDSEL

nothing worth trading for it
if they say it's good
but i packed mine up
sling-shot it to the woods
saw it scream-sail over the beams of a treeline
then i busted out the opposite direction in a beeline
some folks bake 'em like clay in the oven
others do 'em fast sell 'em cheap by the dozen
i used ta think mine was one of the surest
then i realized enemies are sorta like tourists
consumers of the products that you try to give away
they just wouldn't dance to the truth i tried to play
so i became a captive to the truth they wasn't buyin'
an' i refused to bankroll the idols they were flyin'
so it shipped on out got peppered in the press
i couldn't see no need to tie it hard to the mast
see, reputations come
and reputations go
mine was crucified about two thousand years ago.

FRIDAY

why?
how could they call this friday
"good"

it was just another grind for me
I had nothing to show for it
it was bloody, unkind
yet a dripping not a downpour
infact a boring rather dingy day among days
in the race of rats

good!
good God it's over
thank God it's friday

'eh?

MOORS

after transatlantic flight
i lie in bed under the eaves
listening to the wind blown night
and the spell lulls me fast asleep
in this netherlands dream i arise
with the kiss of a winter's breath
under blankets of grace and affection
secure in this place of rest
far away from the inner war
here on the edge of the roar
far away the defeat of time
i am safe in this love of mine
Yours on the moor

SOMETIMES...

Sometimes i bring my memory out
look at the way things were
Dad an' me at the Cities Service station
When the price of things wasn't so high
the smell of Snickers and gasoline
a lube job for my young mind
small town A&W; across the road
back in those simpler times

Aaah memories serve me, yes they do
memories serve me well
cereberal Kodaks of a younger age
before the price of things went to hell

Some nights take me to that September
when the gusts were unseasonably cold
nobody could tell me nothin' then
my instincts were incredibly bold
but purfumed death was in my home
and important as i knew trees were
they tore it all down- it's a business park now
i remember the howling wind
should've notified my next of kin

Rootbeer was a nickel, loaf of bread a dime
Sears still had a Roebuck
music on the AM side
now Mom and Dad are gone
my hair is turning gray
everything decays, changes with time
all but a tomb that couldn't hold mine
all but that resurrected King
thank God Jesus don't change!

yesterday, today
forever the same.

TO WALK IN THE WOODS ONCE MORE to walk in the woods once more
to know sweeping currents in my face
to feel the wet and the lure
and the power of creative grace

to realize the quiet
yet stillness of a different kind
the harmony of all things here
in this climate of infinite design

to sit at the base of the bark and leaf
to see sweet sunsets again
discovering small eyes peering through the mist
no trust in the instincts of man

Your evidence is here and I love You for it
all the more reason to escape
times of refreshing in the Wind of Your Spirit
Hands hold me in nature's embrace

Posted 04/26/01