"Do away with me, Lord!
For I have blown it again!
There's rust on my sword,
There's weakness within.
Who sinks in the Dead Sea?
And drowns with his cross?
I am broken and weary,
I am a total loss!
My life is sucked out,
There's no longer a flow,
I better dropout-
I failed You, I know."
"I see, but hardly agree!
This is how you must grow,
When I prune back the tree,
Its assuring to know!
I sent you a fiery trial,
Exposing your deepest ore,
Rest yourself for awhile,
And be strengthened even more.
In My kingdom you'll see
An east river that flows
From Jerusalem to the Dead Sea,
Transforming as it goes.
Where the Sea is stagnant,
The waters become fresh.
What was once repugnant,
Will satisfy afresh.
I will fill it with fish.
Its banks will provide fruit.
You will eat from My dish!
My wine will Restitute!
It will all be worth it!"
Ezekiel’s Witness
David J Walker
It was the Spring before Eddie died that Fall
The graveled back road leading to the
end of the airport runway and an audible adventure
In the perfect evening air
no wind
as the light defused
into the equinox sky
we parked his Buick on the leeward side of
the barbed wire fence just beyond the runway
and stood in the chilled and perfectly stilled night air
Where
we became four animated fixtures
beckoning to the coming Continental Airliner
watching it grow nearer
bigger
louder
roaring
rattling our bones in the backwash of
a passenger jet landing on time in
the middle of nowhere
Ezekiel bore witness to the wheel in the wheel
Way up in the middle of the sky
Ezekiel bore witness in the valley of bones
Dry but not lifeless
Eddie left a note naming the boys who would
Bear the pall of his casket
It was the fall of our senior year
God has since creation declared
that a sabbath day is for our good
for as He rested a day after creation
so by His example, we also should
As God did His work in six days
then showed to take a day of rest
so all work is not at all good
we all need rest for our best
We owe God a day of worship
in thankfulness to His mercy and grace
bowing before Him receiving His love
praise His name before His dear face
Under the law iot was the seventh day
but when Christ rose from the dead
signifying the first day He blessed
now Sabbath is Sunday as Jesus said
God shows the importance of His sabbath
showing His lordship over them all
for He is the sanctifier of His own
showing the sign behind His call
("Moreover also I gave them my sabbaths,
to be a sign between me and them, that they
might know that I am the LORD that sanctify
them. " )
~ Ezekiel 20:12
Indeed its form is scripture spoken forth
With wings as cloaks these words provoke an art
Then torn with ravage blamed with names that torch
The feel untouched insane and born apart.
To think that man was dreaming earth inward
Is past the sight between to wings mundane
Connected moving back and forth in parts
But burned with coals explained as shapes unchained.
Revived from need surviving freedom lost
Where wheels inside of wheels described as lift
Will move together disguised as one thought
Then rises truth from damaged sight a gift.
Like ice that stretched above to freeze the sound
A voice resembles thrones where glory fits.
There are hazards there,
to board imagination of another soul,
to probe behind the rocks along the way
and find too much, converting chill into reality—
there is the romance!
There too is desert, the wandering for years,
knowing that the self alone will dessicate
until there is another sacrifice,
another mingling of the blood there at the wrist,
forsworn to die as breath is dry upon the skin.
It is as much a ship's departure
blessed of the wind upon the back,
blessed to see the stars above the prow
and still detect the beating of a second heart
as passionate as mine to cease
its feckless thundering.
There is the time to seize the glory
of the second wind from out the east,
the second rising of the power of God
that lurked behind the cloud of innocence
to interpose its frailty
upon device, its patient magic
on the dryness of despair, the bones
of a forgotten day, connected still again
by two...and by that still outrageous gambit
forged of love.
Each moment we linger in bits of time and space,
each path left unchosen is filled with angels trace.
We move through life in shrouds of metal, on we race,
with whirling wheels, distracted minds, we don't feel the grace.
Yet, we're part of all and in angel's arms embraced.
How many times were we saved by their love encased?
While driving on an iced road, I slid, I tried to brace,
between two cliffs I floated, met my angel face to face.
The car settled a mere foot from the cliff's rocky base.
A mere scratch of bush on door was left me ... as trace.
Facing traffic in this hairpin of road, I braced,
prayers on my lips I turned not a curl out of place.
Ezekiel lifted me and in his arms was I laced
and lived to meet the day and angel face to face.
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.