singing praise before I could read the hymnal
and my mother’s prayers before she passed
cut the first furrows of unmerited grace
grooves that ease the floods
cut deeper by flowing waters
a ditch less than a scar creates a path
the path creates a run
a run creek stream river
singing praise full and true
that once I used to choke
I cringed singing I believe in you
I cringe to feel those days
old or new your promises hold
a covenant of mercy a testament of love
steadfastly falls and deepens the mark
a testimony a sign a rockbed of faithfulness
I believe who you say you are
your grace toward me is not in vain
here is my fruit taste and see
you are good you are good you are good
my roots sink deep into the bank of your flow
I will not be uprooted
I will bear fruit in season
a stream of mercy flows from hill through valley
inhale the stinging smoke
imbibe the burning fire
sustain my waning comfort
dull the plowshare of thought
too many rivulets diverging
streams will quickly cut a new way
thoughtlessness will cut a crevasse
off the canyon a new way
but these things are hardly new
they fire wire transpire together
gutters cut and down they go
supposing a deeper is not yet found
“I remember rope tied to mower on the hillside
“I see a truck on delivery delay a cop car
“I feel like 100 bucks considering inflation
shallow lines always go but always flow with gravity
a manger professes your presence
a cross your sacrifice dear
Sunday dawns in perfect light
the star in the east full ablaze
a sacrifice a substitution a creator
who would not see his creation torn away
a love that made a way time and again
carves eternal indelibly inexorable love
I may go far
but always love
as I have been
the way is set
the river
deep and wide
etched and carved
by the rains
of grace
—
incessant meandering still I jitter to find a new path drawn
down the old the brevity of my attention affection
is a palimpsest a delicate vellum reused and
rewritten so many times too many times
written with the same words words
that draw the quill into true
scripted grooves I live
by grace I live
for glory