Luke’s Take: Couplets
Amidst the gathered throng all who contemplate
A farmer wandered forth to sow with agrarian gait
Some seeds were trampled, snatched by birds in flight
Others met the rocky ground and withered from the light
Among the thorns, hope struggled, choked by worldly care
While on good soil, faith blossomed, life fertile and rare
Each heart receives The Word, its journey has begun
By holding fast and persevering it, a harvest is won
Mark’s Take: A Limerick
A man scattered seed as He fanned’em
Always knowing whose growth’s in tandem
The stalk, then the head
And the grain is ripe and spread
The harvests appear just as He’s planned’em
Matthew’s Take: Haikus
Seeds fall on the path
Birds swoop down without a root
Message snatched away
Rocky ground, quick joy
Sun scorches shallow roots fast
Withers in trouble
Among the sharp thorns
Worries choke the growing Word
Fruitless riches fade
Good soil receives seed
Understanding yields a crop
Abundance in heart
Wheat and weeds both grow
Harvest sorts what is sown here
Truth’s spread by our God
Epilogue:
A Tender Shoot springs
Wonderful Counselor He
Succors to His kin
The apostle Luke speaks of a friend who visits his neighbor, asking for three loaves of bread so he can offer the breaking of bread and other sustenance with his unexpected late-night visitor. It becomes a duality newly purposed upon the neighbor who disliked the 12th-hour disturbance at the door; he bade him to leave, but the persistent act went on until the neighbor relented and gave his visitor what was asked.
The irritable spirit failed in its task of non-compliance, and now the act of the hour was not the original sin, upon the unexpected, the visitor, and the neighbor, as righteousness of giving knows not the hour and should not be held accountable by it. The act of doing the righteous thing was through persistence, lest admitted failure descend upon neighbors for an unknown time, but do right, and there will be peace and harmony for all.
A simple man who came to be
had a place, home, but no talent,
bought some seeds, clueless—what succeeds?
Least known was spread them on the land,
After, he lived his life daily,
each day, looking out his window,
till he saw a seed sprout aptly.
Turned into a stalk, starts to grow,
free to the sunlight and the rain.
First, the blades, the ears, then the corn.
At which time, he got out his cane,
cut the stalk; its ear, he had torn.
At the market, corn went on sale,
home he ate—his life was no tale.
Such is God's kingdom, and the powers that be.
Talentless, therefore, a clueless simple man, was he.
The seed, land, sun, rain, sprout, stalk, blade, ear, and corn; the powers that had been.
'Ere the corn at the market, knows he, it's due time for the corn, set the powers that made him.
Call it the Charlie Kirk effect
But for not being a Christian, recently
I’ve been hearing a lot of Bible quotes,
Quotes which I can easily take to heart,
Like the parable of the wheat ripening
In the field
While the weeds also ripened
All around.
It’s not a matter of just wanting one and not the other
And getting our wishes as if they had that power.
It’s a matter of recognizing both,
The difference in the seeds and their causes,
And appreciating how both the crop and the weeds
Are part of our nature, and both will be abundant
When we reach a crisis point of fullness,
Internally as spiritual beings as we struggle
To live the truth within our conflicted nature,
And externally as material beings as this conflict
Plays out in wars, domestic and foreign,
As both sides struggle for survival and dominance.
It’s easy to know which side will prevail
Since one side is of Life
And the other of death.
We might be self-deluded which side we’re actually on
But in the end it will be crystal clear.
Life and death after all
Cannot be confused.
(10/12/25)
the ocean and the cellphone
the child hears only the ocean
the elder fool is without the hearing of the elder moon
ones tide returns
when one ends the foolishness
undoing the letters takes you forward
the writing is decisive victory over saddness
I am the grace : in repentance face
Among tales told long ago were those
of finding hidden buried treasures,
of growing seeds in diverse soils,
of building homes on sand or rock,
of sorting worthy sheep from wicked goats,
of inviting multitudes to a banquet,
of celebrating a prodigal returning home,
of saving a life by a scorned Samaritan.
Jesus loved earthly stories
with heavenly implications.
His parables were spiritual seeds
sown in hearers’ hearts and minds,
analogies thrown alongside
puzzling narrative plots,
poignant truths with shocking twists
and unexpected outcomes.
Deceptively simple, sly stories
with multiple potential meanings,
his parables perplexed expectations,
and upended usual understandings.
Even his bewildered disciples
pleaded for private interpretations.
During careful contemplation,
parables interrogate our lives.
Providing few easy answers,
parables compel us to ponder.
(First published in Earth & Altar, 14 Nov. 2024. See also my poems “God Around the Corner” and “Consider the Dreaming Birds.”)
Into the hard ground
A seed has fallen in despair
Unto grace His care.
When the sunflowers awake
they will follow a blind sun.
For now, they are
cold hard seeds in a
softening earth.
The dark is their light,
just as the light can be dark,
in the sleeping mind.
When tall, some taller than I,
some will see from their roots,
others will see only the way,
a blind sun sees.
Parables like this
should not be read,
with the eyes in your head.
heard a parable
which had been unbearable
sounding terrible
they would enable
you to hide under a table
which was in a stable
when you will appall
where you have started to stall
like humpty may fall
prepared parabola
when high on chair and noble
will be great and global
Karen Krutsinger
Murder should be
spelled MURDER.
Comments Turned Off
Horn Haiku
sorry that comments
by you will have been turned off
why I do not know
Now 8,960 poems and
shooting for 9,000.
Had to do this as an
edit correction.
advertising has
been big pain in you know where
turning on and off
cursor triggers things
commercial starts appearing
which is my dismay
my life will trudge on
day by day will grow older
until very end
God will be waiting
while saving a place for me
how lucky I am
Horn Haiku has been
a comfort waiting for me
so will carry on
PATIENCE AND IMPATIENCE.
Patience is morality they say,
That: does not function with a noblewoman whose man is far away.
Won't she alleviate her fever with another man?
Perhaps the one who is not apt of being with her.
Impatience they say wrecks commodity
Not when they slap your father in your presence
And you say, patience is life.
You shall be tagged a bastard.
This life has its own vices.
Patience works when needed
Yet, impatience complements your patience when you are off guard.
For, the world is filled with evildoers.
Patience cools things down
While uncertainty makes things aggravate.
Yet, Impatience solves a case in the court
For when an attorney is too cool, he is tagged as a lout.
©Fawass Olalekan Adelabu
With tendencies towards modes abhorrent, I operate
Hone deterrence to deserved carnal pleasure consolidate
Intentional extension of potential paths provoke
Libidinous grasping of bliss platter's swift revoke
Elysium eviction accepts anguish for apple crisp taste
Impaired paradise jags a vagabond, journey's ardour
Want stimulates striving, stiff splinter of suffered strappado
Harvest achieved after toil has farmer famished
Indebted unto a sliding spiral, subsided vanquish
Sacrilege accounts for devious mortals' imminent waste
Pain prescribed for impiety wraps breath in challenge
Embarrassed to decay, by greedy big ego enchanted
Rid of Eden's pardon, shield of shame, always disgraced
22nd October
Transgressions
Obstruct Heaven
Merlin the cranky cat
sat around getting fat.
Wanting to be heard
he mewed and purred.
He yowled and howled
and even growled
all with the same result.
He felt it quite the insult.
He snarled and hissed
What had he missed?
He tried a mewl
and lost his cool.
Short of a caterwaul
what should he call?
A tiny squeak perhaps?
Were they taking naps?
Chirrups and chirps
brought no alerts.
His tail-raising trills
brought no thrills.
He wanted dinner now.
He raised a loud MEOW!
Using the magic word
he finally was heard!
Merlin became the Magic Cat
in his tuxedo and top hat.
The other cats took their cue.
“Meow” meant “Please and thank you!”
The moral is if dinner you choose,
learn to mind your Ps and Mews!
Come, self-taught, and look at this!
A game for wicked guides,
A game of hit-or-miss,
A game My truth decides.
The leaders of this nation,
They conspire against Me.
Time for revelation,
About My sovereign pea.
I draw them to My table,
My shell game - in reverse,
Their plans I will disable,
Because they are perverse.
My shells I set before them.
Pick any - sans the pea.
All but 'one' succeeds for them,
Like 'one fish' in the sea.
But alas, the shell reveals,
They picked My sovereign pea.
Now My purpose their choice seals-
They're bound, but I AM free!
Claiming victory early,
The wicked sneer with glee,
'Til I sping My trap swiftly.
Break out My sovereign pea!
They will always choose the shell,
That has the sovereign pea.
Their wisdom cannot dispel,
What I've ordained to be!
Come, self-taught, and become wise!
This game that has no prize,
This game that will scrutinize,
Your will to compromise.
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