Lemons, tomatoes
Brimming over in trucks.
Big 16-wheelers
Between which we’re stuck.
Windmill propellers
Sixty feet long.
Convoy of army trucks;
Young men looking strong.
Low-riding race cars
Police were escorting.
Garlic aromas
And cattle all lowing.
Tall tandem bicycles
Built for a scream.
Cruisin’ on the highway
Was it a dream?
(2011)
Just in case people are not aware of the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, (for example, see
http://www.silkworth.net/aa/12steps.html ), this is a parody of that. I recently “joined” Idiots Anonymous, due to my mistakes regarding God’s love for me.
1) We admitted we were powerless over our blindness to God’s love — that our lives had become unmanageable.
2) Came to believe that His love could restore our sight.
3) Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.
4) Made a searching and fearless inventory of our blind spots.
5) Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our unbelief.
6) Were entirely ready to have God remove all the aspects of our blindness.
7) Humbly asked Him to remove our blindness.
8) Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9) Made direct amends to such people whenever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10) Continued to take inventory, and when we were blind or myopic, asked God for the grace to confess it.
11) Sought, through prayer and meditating on God’s word, to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.
12) Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to everyone we know, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.
My life is perfect;
I have no fears.
No qualms or worries,
No sighs, no tears.
While others fret
And have their crises,
I do not care;
I do my own thing.
I did it all
With my own sweat.
No help from others,
With no regret.
I don’t need God;
He’s for the weak.
My own glory
Do I seek.
But there’s one thing
I must admit.
It’s kind of lonely
Where I sit.
The redwood took
Two hundred years
To get so tall.
It took so long,
No one could tell
That it was strong.
Meanwhile,
The flowers around,
They were so proud.
But, their beauty great
Was quick to fade:
It was too late.
And still the redwood,
It did grow,
Though it was slow.
And now, the flowers,
They are gone,
But the redwood lives.
So happy for you
That you’ve found your way,
But while I’m still waiting,
I hope that you can say,
“Take courage, be strong.
It may be short, it may be long.
Don’t lose heart, make a new start
Every day.”
While you smile in triumph
Don’t forget the ones
Who still have a long way to go.
They got late to the show;
They didn’t know the things you knew
When you were young.
For some, one step
Takes tremendous strength,
While you have already run the race,
Or you’re near the end.
Of course, it takes grace.
Don’t let me wallow in self-pity.
My gifts may be different than yours,
But still God-given.
Please just recognize
That to win the prize
It’s a different road for each person.
But I must thank you
For who you are.
Although it’s painful to see
Someone who’s always ahead of me,
How else could I grow?
Thanks for taking the time
To share your wisdom sublime.
clarakatalin 
Missing Men
Missing men and absent abbas,
Deadbeat dads and passive papas,
Men who have gone off to fight,
Men who seem to be off site,
Men who sit and read the news,
While their kids are so confused.
Men who don’t know how to be men,
‘Cause their dad was missing when …
As they grew up, there was an absence
In body, spirit, or emotional lapses.
God, our Father, we pray to thee:
Fill the gaps we cannot see.
Help the men who never learned
For family, wife, to be concerned.
Who might not know to show respect
To women — sometimes they in fact reject
The ones who dare to have a mind;
Some men have not learned to be kind.
Don’t get me wrong, the ones who fight —
The rough guys, tough guys, they’re all right.
I only hope they will include
Some kindness in the interlude.
Yes, dear men, you have a role
To care for wife and children’s soul.
And like us women who too have flaws,
To see God’s plan we must give pause.
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Christian, Commentary, family, Poems
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