Today a blessing from St Augustine regarding life
and one suggestion of a way to we see it through…
Pray as though everything depended on God…
and
Work as though everything depended upon you.
Categories:
st. augustine, inspiration,
Form: Rhyme
In what good has it all come to
In my imaginary mind?
We roll through the wake of the water,
Goddammitting our way through.
Rising with our victories.
Cursing in our swift descents.
Buddhists are laughing on the shoreline.
I’m selling popcorn on the boat.
Categories:
st. augustine, life,
Form: Free verse
Orbit or forfeit but never collide
You’ll just mess it up like last time
On a beach in St. Augustine, Florida, I thought I wanted you.
Orbit or forfeit but never collide
You’ll just mess it up like last time
I could have sworn I knew you from somewhere, the way your hair aligned with the freckles on your nose like a seashell. So distinct. And rare.
Orbit or forfeit but never collide
You’ll just mess it up like last time
I caught your eye. Visions of prairie wagon dirt clouds plumed in my head. I think it was the sea spray. Maybe. Grains of sand splayed on your forearms like stars. You had a dusty look about you.
Orbit or forfeit but never collide
You’ll just mess it up like last time
You smiled, and flakes of crystallized sea salt broke off your skin like a sparkling chrysalis. You were glowing,
but I averted my eye.
My mantric mind.
Orbit or forfeit but never collide
You’ll just mess it up like last time
Categories:
st. augustine, anxiety, beach, beauty, desire,
Form: Free verse
The kids that sing silently
And the kids that grow like dandelions
Out from St.Augustine lawns
The ones with October-sheltered downcast pupils
That tuck pride into calf-high stockings
They don’t see trouble,
Their heads lifted up towards angelic heavens
Bodies stranded on those cracked-sidewalks.
Categories:
st. augustine, 12th grade, beautiful, child,
Form: Free verse
I can only live in a garden
where warped talons
of tiger tulip petals mar
unbroken lines of pastel shimmer,
not where silent cerulean lakes
float as though aloft
in frames of polished stone
to tell the cloudless sky,
I'm your offspring.
I smile for blighted statues
mocked by companies of peonies
effervescing in ballet
and the coarse tusk of St Augustine
thronged by emerald dichondra.
I have no business among wisteria's cornucopias
of lilac bounty nor the glee
of summer marigolds.
I tend thorny stalks
of a wild rose that never blooms
and climbing ferns whispering
in shaded corners of spring's
explosive allemande.
I feel only weight of gray misted mornings
when the dank of coming rain permeates
in pale foliage's stag line
where vines creep in distant communion,
ignored by harsh jonquil rays.
Categories:
st. augustine, flower, garden, nature, solitude,
Form: Free verse
Every man hath the choice,
To do whate'er he will,
Let my choice be to follow Thee,
And be what You would have me be.
For You give to us only the best,
And only in You do we find our rest.**
(copyright 10/30/15)
**You have made us for Yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You. - St. Augustine
Categories:
st. augustine, faith, hope, jesus, love,
Form: Lyric
People have always asked fundamental questions:
Who am I?
Where did I come from?
Where am I going?
Why do I need to struggle to achieve my goals?
Why is it so hard to love and be loved?
What is the meaning of sickness, death, and evil?
What will happen after death?
These questions relate to human existence
They also move one to ask questions about the divine
Because they pertain to Eternal God’s existence
When asked for deeper reflection
They uncover an inner sense of longing for God
They challenge our minds
But the mind answers are not always sufficient
We must become aware of the mysterious yearning of the human heart
God has planted in every human heart the hunger
And longing for the infinite
For nothing less than God
St. Augustine
A theologian from the 5th century said it best:
“Our heart is restless until it rests in you”
How our quest for God awakened
Eternal God pursues us
This spurs us to search for Him whom we were made
The Catechism presents 3 paths
Through which every person can come to Eternal God:
Creation, the human person and Revelation
4162014
Categories:
st. augustine, black african american, christian,
Form: Light Verse
AND PASSING INTO HOLY SOULSFROM AGE TO AGE
SHE PRODUCES FRIENDS OF GOD
PROPHETS
WISDOM 7:27
IF YOU GO TO MILAN in northern Italy
You probably head first to the Duomo
The massive Gothic Cathedral in the center
After you tour it and walk amid the spires on its roof
You might sit on the piazza steps eating gelato with scores of others
Then you might descend to the subway, ready for another adventure
As you hurry through the hallway to catch a train
You’ll pass a locked door with a small window
If you look
You’ll see mounds of dirt and stones
But if you return to the church
You can visit that underground space by going down some steps in the back
Amid the excavations is an octagonal-darkness
Alone
Contemplate the font where St. Ambrose washed
St. Augustine in the living waters of baptism
Then you can return to the bustling
Brightness, centuries later
But still held in the e3mbrace of the same Wisdom they sought
Found
Lord, open my soul to your wisdom and truth
Readings and Gospel
Wisdom 7:22, 8:1 * Psalm 119:89-91, 130, 135, 175
Luke 17:20-25
Categories:
st. augustine, education, family, children, friendship,
Form: I do not know?
Syrupy with recipe ran along brasseries
Peiping, Mags and Oasis pricey rotisseries
Sizzling sizzlers the Peter Cat’s clamor
Addled couples fending their pockets out of scarce.
Boogie with deejays rhythm along discos
Tantra, Fusion and Roxy surfaced floorshows
Mass hangout the Some Place Else’s beckon
Mini-fashioned getups makes the other to pay on.
Volumes with fictions traded along bargains
Oxford and Metropolitan are mostly visited
Cohort no bar wide-ranged music stocked at Music World
Passerby’s daily dos’ makes the guard better-known.
Xaverians with hip-hops confined along principles
St. Mary, AG and St. Augustine are teenagers realm
Scandals and hearsays are their daily boasts
Highly noetic minds makes them their daily booze.
Hotfooted with attachés bucked along clock at nine
Pushed subway, the most busiest at times
Hi-fi managers and Board meetings at The Park
Foreigners often ease themselves at the Flurry’s cake bar.
Categories:
st. augustine, people, places, school, urban,
Form: Blank verse
I like to think I do not hate her
a Christian man,
heart so bound
in Galatians, John, St. Augustine
was on his knees, an artful proof
begging grace,
cursing youth
I like to think she will remain
in hands, God’s,
road to zion
travels though, alone, unearthed
she digs a grave
steep
like mountains
point to peak
A son, husband, job,friend
she will deceive
believe her eyes
for now, in sex, muscles
drown,
deep sweat
a wager's soul
wager's debt
I like to think she will be found
out, that is
For her sake and
her son, that bent at breast
now the toy of restless
throbs
and wet, used skin
I like to think she’ll love again
Categories:
st. augustine, angst, loss, passion, sympathy,
Form: I do not know?