Greater Works

based on John 14:12 Aramaic Bible

Noah did a great work

       Moses too

Abraham was father to Issac

       did not have to make a sacrifice of him

                  became the father of faith

Jonah finished his task 

         after much travail and prayer

                   from the belly of a fish and was still

                               mad at GOD

Jesus did great works

           some we will never know of

Peter and Paul led the blind to see

            and Jesus said 
  

                       Timeless truth, I tell you: ‘whoever believes in Me,

                       those works which I have done, he will also do,

                       and he will do greater works than these, because

                       I am going to the presence of my Father.’

Expect greater works

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Solstice

as day is to night and night is to day
     the longest day with shortest night
until it swings back the other way
      the longest night and shortest day

________________________

dVerse prompt on solstice couplets

Monarch Migration

I hurried 

     from five blocks down the street

          equipped with a jar

               and father’s fishnet

so much orange

was more than I expected that August day

the white of milkweed in the field

     fluttered with brilliance of orange

          a cluster of milkweed and butterflies

two or three 

     clung to a single stem

while some rode others

     on their backs

          sun upon their wings 

and few would fly

     as they sucked a clover flower

I stood and picked

     as though they were poppies

          to fill my jar

and only when

     next to the coolness of glass

               did those wings start to pound

No More Liver and Onions

I swore this would not turn into a food blog. My second thoughts and the idea of serving a cookie for breakfast and baked in the reality that I have always sifted the thought of writing a cookbook since meeting my former and present husband, Greg, who taught me how to cook liver and onions. If that sounds like a run-on sentence it probably is, and so also is the desire to be a good cook and to write about it.

The liver and onions is not a metaphor, it was one of Greg’s prime dishes. The sweet aroma of sautéed onions waffling up in the BOQ, followed by the immergence of thin, fleshy organ meat, all cooking away in a cast iron skillet. That was the start of my desire to conquer the art of cooking and relationships. I studied it. I wanted to make it work. I even tried oxtail but to no avail. People sent recipe books for wedding presents so I did have help.

We stewed our lives together in a do-it-yourself house with two children, several dogs and a cat. My skills improved. The heat of the cast iron skillet still on the stove, melts the butter, and I am free to throw in the ingredients, some that cook fast and a few that refine themselves very slowly creating an irresistible taste.

wait for the moment
stepping out of the kitchen
to eat a cookie

The Antiself

I would sing a song of myself
but I can’t sing

Write a story where I am the main character
but I can’t write about me

See a picture thinking this is I
but make it someone else

Now I sing of them
instead of me

I write their story as though
it were mine

it is a picture
that moves through my time

Now I can sing
write
see

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dVerse prompt on a song of myself

Mustard Field

  

While driving on a country road in England I saw a mustard field. It was just the right time when all the plants were in bloom, a patch of vibrant color on the landscape. I had to stop, take a photo, ponder the source of mustard, like Jesus sitting in the countryside, saw its brilliance and told a parable about the man who planted a mustard seed in his own field. It was a simple truth, one the people could relate to. It was a healing plant, an ancient mustard recipe. He used it to demonstrate the kingdom.

Pliny the Elder wrote of it. It can grow wild but when cultivated it is much improved. Once it is sown it is hard to get rid of it. The tiniest of seed yet Jesus said it will grow into a tree that shelters the birds.

the sound of yellow
vibrates from 2000 years
says my kingdom come

dVerse prompt on sound. Pliny the Elder wrote about natural history circa 23 to 79AD.

Press

set type                                                    spread ink

upside down backwards                      thin layer on the plate

use space                                     ink rollers

know pica                               choice of paper

composing stick                                       pull heavy handle

lay of the nick                                   does all the work

what to say                                         printed word

___________________
dVerse prompt to write a contrapuntal poem – read three ways – column one read down – column two read down – read across each line