Bread hit them like a ton of bricks.
Bread can make one very sick.
Man minding his own business,
Quickly became a mayhem witness.
The teenage four, like the Joker’s core,
destroying aisles in the grocery store.
On a hot eve, they hit my man with a fighting bag.
It’s all a game…received more than a finger wag.
Like all good criminals they forgot camera’s rolling.
For act-out job, the manager - police would be calling.
But not until the chase and the chastening from victim.
Wrong guy - hoodlums shouldn’t have picked on him.
Most often we misthought,
yet understood
The bitter truth
that nothing here is good
Our earthly life,
of reason is unbrewed
That hides the pain
and hurt which we allude
This root of gall
becomes my daily food
And eat the fruit
that turns my bowels crude
My tongue was fooled
by that which could not soothe
For I did swallow
more than I had chewed
For this I stumbled
and became most rude
I was offended
like the multitude
And though my mind
is calloused, I construed
His chastening rod
is made of tender wood
And ceases not until
it breaks for good
A wormwood changed
my bitter attitude
Of course, there will always be that one
that leaves a smoking hole in your being,
a wound from a bullet
that was mistaken for love.
It is chastening to know that
that special person has quite forgotten,
nor will even note
your long disappearing trick.
More importantly, you now realize,
that it was you
who shot yourself.
Giving thanks every day
Receiving grace the old-fashioned way,
And pondering how lucky I am
That Jesus came as a little lamb
Instead of a chastening rod;
That this path I have trod,
Unusually rough and perilously steep,
Delivers me safely
Ever closer to blessed serenity.
written January 23, 2022
The Epidemic
2 Chronicals 7:14 *
The greatest impact of the century
Unlike any seen before
Referred to, as a silent enemy
It rapidly spread from shore to shore
At first, some appeared nonchalant
To the magnitude it did present
They chose to ignore, - - facts
And deem it just another event
Issues involved more than "things"
It was about death and life
Drastic measures were exercised
Most everyone felt the strife
Everyday activities were curtailed
Authorities implemented control
All but basic essentials
Were temporarily put on hold
The epidemic touched rich and poor
A virus does not choose it's prey
The medical world frantically sought
For a way to make it go away
Did it ever occur that mankind
Has drifted away from God
In Eden, when they disobeyed
They were met with a chastening rod
A promise in God's Word declared *
A solution for people in that day
Perhaps this, - - we should consider
Lest we become a castaway
Colan L Hiatt = 05-02-20
© All Rights Reserved
Complaining with bitterness
My heart mourns over selfishness-caused angst
Grieving because of pride-bruised infirmity…
Oh, God… correct me, I beg
As I submit to You, humbly broken
Thanking You for chastening me with Your love
For my virtuous transformation…
…never impossible through faith’s strength!
Immersing in failure’s frustration
My soul wallows in futile blame-game
Afflicted with vanity ailment…
Oh, God… Your mercy* I beseech
While I yearn for Your corrective act
Praising You for awakening me by Your grace
Toward triumphant servanthood…
…marked with joyous obedience!
*Psalm 30:10 Hear, O LORD, and have mercy upon me: LORD, be thou my helper.
June 28, 2019
Dreams Dancing A Dance Into Retreating Time
I hasten to see worrying worries flown
In abyss of chastening chastened fires,
For decades she held tight, loving love, her own,
Soft melody, with noted notes that inspire,
Fallen spirit given grasping grasps at hope,
Dreams dancing a dance into retreating Time,
Resplendent ardor, its aching aches a rope,
Wrapping blessed blessings true, sweet and sublime!
There within bluest blues, sweet angel resides:
Her feet prancing a prance in bright ruby shoes
Through mirroring mirrors where no secret hides
With laughing laughs, tossing treasures two by two's.
Where dreaming dreams and only love's heart abides
Resplendent loving love sings, and then decides!
Robert J. Lindley, 3-23-2019
Sonnet, ( Of Dreams, When Full Moon's Glow Sings)
Note: A heavily reworked old poem fragment, which was
originally dated from September 3rd, 1977...
A thousand ways My love expressed
My song to sing of all the best
My love poured out with all My heart
To call her out and set apart.
A thousand ways My love expressed
Her heart devotion is My request
But in return from the black abyss
I am offered back a "Judas kiss."
Betrayal ! Betrayal ! My heart does ache
Like a painful sting of a venomous snake
She has been found in her lover's bed
And eaten of his covenant bread.
Her secrets now are brought to light
And for her soul there'll be a fight
Her lovers sue, a case they bring
And still My song I continue to sing.
A thousand ways I sing My song
With chastening love her life prolong
One by one her lovers die
With repented tears do purify.
A thousand ways My love expressed
My one true love put through the test
The testing trials will take their toll
As the purging fires refine her soul.
But still a thousand songs I sing
And love for her the best I bring
There is no relenting day or night
All for the heart of the Shulamite.
CHASTENING
A stern word spoken from above,
A word of warning, yet in love,
Sometimes enough to do the task
Of bringing wayward Christians back.
Some fall to circumstances’ strain,
Or laid aside and sick with pain,
Or surgery will often claim
That wayward soul who shamed Christ’s name.
A setback in financial bliss
Will often well accomplish this.
And soon the sins are all confessed,
And once again that life is blessed.
Yes, God, like us, has many ways
Of chastening children through the days.
Yet each child’s chastened, and the one
Who is without is not His son.
The Shepherd’s rod must often break
The legs of him who wrong paths takes.
And sin left unconfessed can lead
Beyond that quiet voice that pleads,
Beyond the sickness and the pain,
Beyond the dire financial strain,
And God can stop life-giving breath
And call that child home in death.
So listen to His careful word,
Respond the instant that you’ve heard,
And chastening will have done its task
And brought you the easy pathway back.
It’s hard again
And the loneliness
Abrades the skin and soul
I am yours
With assurance I am whole
But not today
The saints seem
All so far away
And claiming victory
Even in the smallest things
While I doubt much
And fear the strokes
That chastening brings.
But Father this is just
Denial of your love
You feel and touch
And timely send your
Rescue from above
Mine to wait and watch
And speak those words
Of timeless writ
Til I see the joy of it.
Trials to blessings? Is it so
that the evil I encounter
God redeems to good from woe?
Afflictions, vexing confounders,
convulsing me upon the surge,
the Master Potter's implements
to conform me, mold and purge.
Confident His just intent
is with skillful wheel to craft
an object shapely for His pleasure.
Upon the scrap heap never cast
an imperfect caricature,
unyielding to Your purposes,
disobedient to Your plan.
Pliable--not rigid, formless--
surrendered in Your loving hand,
the sharp knife shapes the tender clay;
I flinch beneath the chastening mace:
My God determined to portray
a trophy worth of His grace.
© Faye Lanham Gibson, 6-14-2014
For our survival
You win our bread
In our pursuit rival
You show us a good head
On every crooked path
You, a good lead
There are friends
You are a more than...
Just like a mother.
To our 'Daddy'
A listening ear always
Courage to make hays
In the sun pelting rays
A true hand lending
Defines you a better father.
Under your arms
Secured and cared for
A true defence
When in murky trials
A chastening reliance
That checks every offence.
You teach me
To be a better person
For every lesson
Springs of wisdom
Thank you...
For God...For you
The best dad.
For our survival
You win our bread
In our pursuit rival
You show us a good head
On every crooked path
You, a good lead
There are friends
You are a more than...
Just like a mother.
To our 'Daddy'
A listening ear always
Courage to make hays
In the sun pelting rays
A true hand lending
Defines you a better father.
Under your arms
Secured and cared for
A true defence
When in murky trials
A chastening reliance
That checks every offence.
You teach me
To be a better person
For every lesson
Springs of wisdom
Thank you...
For God...For you
The best dad.
Hewn in verse and ancient lore,
It descends through an open door
To place its fingers on mortal souls,
On meager pleas on lifeless shoals.
Far below where creatures dwell,
Its surging scorn is born as rising embers swell.
Small shadows merge where thoughts collect,
And pierce the fog of day,
Murmured sounds rise to settle on unsympathetic play.
Cast aside each whimper lost within a chastening howl;
Hidden in burrows, mortals scurry
And feel the weight of worry.
Dark whispers mingle ravenous desires
From misty lofts in chambers forlorn,
From anvil thrones their cries adorn the morn.
From a heavenly palace, they scatter stones of malice;
Sparks of thunder pierce the night,
Then fade from sight.
Their cold embrace excites our race;
Unleashed hordes reap our toil,
And plunder our grace.
In distant lands which stretch & bind
One can appease the inner swell in their mind
Through dusk to its break away in dawn
We have planted our seeds now lets sing a happy song
A heart with pure lasting sentiment lost in plight
The contemplative takes off on some flight
To rest among the ashes falsely scattered in the night
To sound the chime in respect to solace
The switch at the side of the door left unaided latch
The contemplative...
A deep resounding reflective look by which to ponder its scope
Among the all consuming twisted weeds & thorns to cope
Yet still brandished by its complex chastening
The rudimentary journey for the contemplative...
A seed of joy springs through its sprinkled rudimentary equation
The contemplative is arranged in a quaint yet vast excursion
The thought of laughter in the face of pain
In line toward singing outside in the rain
The contemplative reflects...
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