Rain Is Gold

It came like sheets of sprayed mist,
Only thicker and long enough to water
All of Mother Earth.

Now, listen as corn stalks snap
And second crop alfalfa shoots up,
Gives way to making hay,
To watching everything spring forth
Like hot house plants.

Then watch the crops come
To that later time of the first ripe apple
Or later on the cuke
That seemed so far away that day in May.


June 26, 1989



Do We Turn Back?

Within the walls of Word and song
The church dare not just move along,
But search and see her common way
To share good news in all her say.

Her people make her body grow;
They sing, they pray, and then must know
Where human need in men doth rise
There lies a task with no disguise.

Into a world that cries in need
Must move a church His call to heed.
To realize the cost and find
Her people to serve in tasks sublime.

In war, in prejudice, and even in race
The church must know and take her place.
In poverty amid the greatest need
Comes an open task all souls to feed.

Thus vision, call and duty come
To seek response and carry home
A deeper love and broader kin
Where no one dare doubt without within.


February 2, 1969