on fifty shades

when did the umbrella of humanity

shade our eyes to fifty

doves lighting then falling still beside watery brooks

bathed in milk

fragrant with spices and balsam

tender like banks of sweet herbs

stained fifty shades of bloodred

yearning to inhale the scent of fifty unspoiled lilies distilling sweet myrrh

two in union

only

male and female

husband and wife

hands and body

pure

as ivory innocence strong

as steady as pillars holding

faith and trust and gentleness

upon fine respect and harmonious submission

to the Maker of the gift

Who creates the

exclusive

and excellent state

majestic

as the cedars

speech sweet and prose gentle

never foul four letters

never cursing the altogether

lovely of his beloved and friend

how very fair

the

unbound

the

unchained

the

free

eyes trusting

protective as the doe

lips like a thread of scarlet

mouth lovely

tongue tamed

hearts ravaged by courage

I looked for him among the debris of fifty million broken souls but could not find him

I went to the cities and into the streets and broad ways and sought the pure original gift

but I could not find

amidst the shades of gray

black and white

wrong and right

blurred

by whom and what our wretched insatiable souls seek

lost hands groping through fifty shades of self

consuming and consummating

fifty shades of demise

until at last I returned to the Watchman

the Watchman who went into the city, pushing past fifty shaded alleyways

and fifty chains that bound me

loosing the violence causing irreverent slips of the soul

and when the Watchman found me and gave me

my one love

I held him and would not let him go

until the pureness stirred

awakened

restored

shades and shadows

bowing to light

illuminated

and

right

lovely

and

good

and worth the

fight

*****

poem contains excerpts from the Song of Solomon

and is

dedicated to survivors

of sexual abuse and trafficking

who know too well how words on pages, images on screens and actions of those who would control contribute to the destruction and devaluation of the gift God meant to be pure and good and true and safe

*****

may the Lord continue to break chains and bring light and peace and hope to infinite shades of wrong, evil and injustice everywhere

*****

artwork by Dena Lowery

gold free summer

The yellow goldfinch sits on the edge of the feeder, talons clinging to the sure source of food.

Meanwhile, the fire from last night’s revelry still smolders, smokey remnants of a school year rising into the unknown clear.

Heat of summer presses down already and too soon, and we run into the free weight of it happy and relieved.

*****

born of and heavy laden truth

born of seeds

born of trees

born of still

waters and heavy

soil

laden with and planted by

ancestors

witnesses to

creation destruction peace

and birth

do we really

think

the skin we peel from

fruit bears nothing

upon the faith of future

seedlings

reaching toward

yearning for

YAWEH

depending on us

to share

truth

*****

Painting is by Issachar Ber Ryback, a painter born in Ukraine in the early 20th century and commissioned to paint scenes from the Ukraine countryside, devastated from and even in the midst of pogroms. Read more about him and see his works at http://www.comite-ryback.org/Biography.php