Thursday, August 29, 2013

Unaffordable



Anger is, most often, generated
by the assumption that you know best
and more about what matters than others,
combined with the subconscious assurance
that, because you are so enlightened,

the world spins at your command.
Think about it. Once you understand
that it's barely possible to fully know
the why and when of your own self,

and fairly impossible to walk in others' shoes;
once you see that your little mass
in the universal scheme and

your tiny dot on the continuum of time
are quite insignificant in the story of creation,

anger becomes a luxury that reality cannot afford.


© 2013 Todd Jenkins

Monday, August 26, 2013

Minimalism

The Future popped-in again today,
re-inviting you to continue the journey.

She said the road will feel
much less steep if you don't  
carry your past the whole way.

The best parts of yesterday
are what make you into
who you are today,
so there's no need to keep
dragging them along.

Continuing to remind others
of them will diminish both you
and today by keeping you
trapped in the past tense. 

The worst parts of yesterday
have also impacted your present.
Learn from them and drop them off
at the recycling center.

When others try to drag them up,
politely decline to handle them.
You won't have room for today's gifts
if you keep picking up yesterday's garbage.



© 2013 Todd Jenkins

Saturday, August 24, 2013

Mount Jerusalem

Moses and Martin didn't make it
up the mountain on the bypass. 
Easy Street seldom leads us
into the presence of God.

Pharaohs and water hoses,
angry Egyptians and snarling dogs,
wilderness and jail cell;
all struggles along the climb.

Arrival of the true peace
of God’s desired shalom
awaits room at the table
for the twin sisters of Justice and Mercy.

At the table of holy presence,
where humanity is the common denominator,
the feast wafts its inviting aroma
into the hearts of those hungry for God.

When justice seems to flow
like January molasses,
righteousness like a giant glacier,
keep us on the steep and narrow way.

Let us daily make our upward trek
through our own tribulations
that we might one day reach
the top of mount Jerusalem.



© 2003 Todd Jenkins

Monday, August 19, 2013

signed copy

A collection of 64 prayers/poems titled: Tuesday’s Muse: Visual and Verbal Appetizers for the Great Banquet of Your Life is now available.  

You may order directly from Amazon: 

For a signed copy, send $15 and your shipping address to:
Todd Jenkins
Tuesday’s Muse
92 Lovers Lane
Fayetteville, TN  37334

You may arrange to pick up a signed copy locally for $11.

Grace,


Saturday, August 17, 2013

Duplicity

Give me your tomatoes,
your peppers, your hybrid  melons,
yearning to be consumed,
but not so much your tired,
your poor, your huddled masses
yearning to breathe free.

The wretched refuse of bowing
to chemicals and corporations
has our shores teeming with toxicity,
and our hearts quivering with xenophobia.

The tempest-tossed who dream
of hope will not so much be met
 with lamp at golden door
as laser sight and incarceration.

All the while, our consumptive greed
turns a blind eye to the duplicity
of deportation and the rending
of family's fabric, to which
we claim undying allegiance.

Who will resurrect liberty?

© 2013 Todd Jenkins


“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.”


― Emma Lazarus

Thursday, August 15, 2013

Tears


They are the ocean upon which
life sails; waves lapping steadily
against the shore of our stories.

Each wave brings in the broken pieces
of former journeys, some as jagged behemoths,
others as tiny chunks worn smooth.

It is your own beach, yet not even you
know tide’s syncopated struggle.
Stay put, and be washed each day,
letting the moon's pull have its way.

The vessel of your relationships
anchors just beyond the first sandbar.

The day will come when you
find the courage to swim,
with fragments in your hand,
out to the waiting ship.

The you who climbs aboard
is not the you who last sailed,
neither are you alone.

Collective wisdom and comfort
from previous journeys
guide and hold you now.

This, the tear’s path,
safely carrying both you
and your fractured history
into a hope-filled present.


© 2013 Todd Jenkins

Monday, August 12, 2013

Static

Listening for God's call in life
can feel a lot like listening
to NPR on an old truck radio
in a remote, small town.

Every once-in-a-while you find
a place where there is no interference,
the static and bleed-over are minimal,
and the message comes through loud and clear.

The rest of the time you stay tuned-in,
despite the cacophony of distraction,
hanging on an occasional phrase or revelation,
piecing together a larger picture

based on what you heard more clearly
when you were closer to the tower –
on the mountaintop, as the faithful
are wont to call it.



© 2013 Todd Jenkins

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Still

It is a verb of muscular inaction
and mental/spiritual focus;

a description of not-yetness;
an expression of deep longing;

perhaps the most complete
description of God's image

we are created to reflect:
relaxed, intense, journeying, desiring.



© 2013 Todd Jenkins

Monday, August 5, 2013

Fulfilled

When our need for specialness
has been met by the reality of grace –
when we begin to comprehend
even a small portion of how much

God loves us, and that the only string
attached to this love is our being created
(over which we have no control and
with which we have nothing to do) –

all other means by which we self-identify
over and above others begin to fade
into insignificance. Competition, conquering,
and correctness, yield to community and creativity.

The universe itself and everything in it
become our web of communion.
Holiness is too pervasive to hoard,
even if we could. Rather than declaring

its bounds and location, we are free
to listen to it, swim in it, taste it,
let its aroma fill our nostrils, marvel
at its beauty, gasp at its expanse.



© 2013 Todd Jenkins

Thursday, August 1, 2013

LML




Seek ye first to be and then to find
a Low Maintenance Lover:
someone who recognizes their own
broken needs for and expressions of love
as the wonderful imperfections they are;

someone who gives love,
not for reciprocation,
but for the sheer joy of catching glimpses
of how even broken-to-broken
expressions of it are capable
of calling forth the joyous
divine purposes hidden
deep within us all;

someone who often realizes
that sharing intimacy in all its
glorious manifestations is far closer
to imago dei than reproduction could ever be.

© 2013 Todd Jenkins