Tag Archives: working through issues

When The Messenger Gets The Greater Gift: Revolutionary ConTEXTing Free Verse Poem

God knew
what He was doing
when He called me
to be a messenger
of His and her love.

Old, not forgotten father
got sweet gifts of kosher
home-canned plums in apple juice.
And candy.
He knows she loves him.

But how often can a guy who loves
Ella’s scatting,
the Duke,
the Dizz,
who gets Misty to Sarah Vaughn,
who channels Satchmo,
get to talk to a Mensch
who hung out with them in Philly,
when he was the only white guy in the club
where they played
for the love of that music?
That sound?

To touch the past like that,
to hear those notes
through his vocal telling,
yes,
through that time machine,
I got the greater gift.
Just like He knew I would.

God’s Messenger Takes A Jar Of Plums To Herb: Revolutionary ImproVerse Free Verse

I drive
past palm trees
and mangrove swamps
and sawgrass
and waterways
and gators,
by divine request
to kibbitz
with an old man,
church friends of mine’s father,
to bring him
home-canned plums in apple juice
and love
and blessings to a blind man,
that he may see again
his daughter’s devotion.

I’m sent by divine decree.
The thought came to me,
suddenly, surprisingly,
certainly,
directly.

So why do I fear?
Why am I nervous?
Why do I feel silly?
My big heart
can carry the message
God wants it to bring.