Poetry

A Gentler Cross?

A Gentler Cross?

Is there no gentler cross for me,

Upon which I should die,

Whose planks are planed and sanded down,

And stained to match my eyes?

On the North Side

In the lee of a ridge line,

On the north side of a nameless rise,

The mound rose in gentle slope,

A steady ascent from valley to crest,

The Climb

Living Word,

Who quenches my soul’s thirst,

I come as a beggar to Your stream.

I come as one with scraped feet from the rugged rocks

A Tree Story

A Tree Story

A tree grown tall from summer’s grace

Stood stately, strong, alone

Amid the flora of the wald

Her bark was hard as stone

Turtles and People

Turtles are funny little things.

Don’t you think so, too?

From their mud-wiggled tails

To their hard craggy shells

From their web-footed claws

Why Chairs?

What hands shaped the legs?

What thought inspired the art?

What craft created the form

Wherein people could sit

And rest from labor?

The Hound of Heaven

The poem “The Hound of Heaven” by Francis Thompson is one of the most loved and powerful poems of English literature. Noted for the vivid imagery in his poems, Thompson shares his own personal story in these poetic verses. Thompson (1859–1907) lived a difficult life before he found hope in…

What Should I Pray?

What should I pray?

Lord, make my life comfortable and easy,

Save me from this hour?

Is that what I should pray?

Or should I pray,

Reflections on a Mountain Stream

by David Packer

(I stopped by the Great Smokies National Park and sat by a stream to write: August 2, 1979)

The purity of a mountain stream

Third World

by David Packer

See that child that sits in the dust?

Diesel soot has carved its scar on his life.

Scraps fall from hands to ground to his