Act I (Death)

 

You ask of this mystery if there could be a reason

Why I would pluck these flowers at the prime of their season

Yet even pollen drifts the air when precious petals fall

Who put these flowers in the ground, no mystery at all

Who dropped the fire in the sky to light and make the day?

The stars dance about the night while eyes are tucked away

Your languid eyes prod where they should not, answers cannot be

Can mortals dare to comprehend the deep pressures of the sea?

And when the dark beckons on toward answers intent to snare

You question why the darkness grows: you kneel before it bare

 

My comfort, my tenderness is a blade into your heart

The pain is the harbinger calling waves of truth to part

My peace is an axe whet on the stone of your suffering

I have prepared this banquet and hope is all you need bring

Yet rather than carry hope you live where darkness remains

You weep into a quilt stitch’d of guilt, hardship and blood stains

This question leaks like a sieve, like a picture frame it hangs

Covered with soot and dust, the answer throbs with hunger pangs

You are starved my son, and you refuse to come to table

Redemption’s steady flowing, if only you were Abel

 

I amend your assertion of this ruse or deception

If only you could see past your own host’le perception

Of old, the clouds have always poured and rain has plagued the sky

Of old, my name engaged the dirt and caused the seas to dry

Yet never has my purpose wrought a heart to loose its soul

Inherent deep within you rests a grace to make you whole

Its secret, could you pine for if a passion did reside

But you reason that misery is where I choose to hide

Is creation born inviolable, played to its demise?

The mystery of God: that only death can please His eyes?

 

 

Act II (Pride)

There is no pleasure in this, now the milk has turned yellow

Each break in the bend, gust of the bellow

Its just additions to the pain that you bear on your own

Know the effect; see the cause is your home

Run away I plead, upon this mountain you may take r’prieve

Your God brings you up; your own words deceive

You carry the shovel barrowing my cover of grace

By throwing aside my peace you efface

If you keep digging these trenches the light is quick to fade

I do not hold hostages so what is there to escape?

 

Once removed from impurity, does gold then lose its worth?

So the man who comes to me, out of th’earth

Fate has not procured design, nor destines those of my hand

I alone hold judgment with my command

Were dark storm clouds to arise out of a waterless dune

Question the logic while you drown in’its swoon

What’s beyond comprehension is not the skill of the wise

Wisdom is fear through humility’s eyes

Bear not your own burdens yet take on my burden of truth

The understanding it brings is what you knew in your youth

 

Where once there was a potter now the clay molds on its own

Shape not considered, missing flesh and bone

A purpose now forsaken yet before you, there, its gleam

Bright as the sun, made a vessel for its beam

Abandon that which holds you; see all good things I bestow

In grace I mold you, in grace you will grow

Innocence holds wisdom beyond what you may think it lacks

Follows close behind me, even in my tracks

It knows not how weak it is for its strength is found in me

Whatever once could hinder I have nailed upon a tree

 

 

Act III (Repentance)

Another age glimpses by and the message causes pain

Not by my will but by the realization of their stain

Considering the hazards of living within my wrath

My children lean upon themselves tasting a ‘fear of death

Depraved of any knowledge they refuse to question me

Insisting I enjoin them on their quest for clemency

For grace I tore the curtain, they enshrine the curtain’s worth

Then claim my wretchedness that I provision them with mirth

Guilt is not the statute that all my mercy should endure

I paved the golden street that curiosity would implore

Desire, that you want me, that a hope is quick to be grasp’d

Then take hold, freedom comes until forever has elaps’d

 

No solace found in yesterdays, or tears for what has come

Do not desert what haunts you, nor stand before it numb

See deep within you a promised sea that cleanses as it groans

I bear upon myself the aches that trouble you in moans

I do this not to satisfy a need I must sedate

I do this for my child, that his sinfulness abate

What haunts you is the realization, I alone possess

That future as you think you know it, is unknown at best

There is something far beyond you that I wish for you to see

But only you can choose to travel light on bended knee

I reach my hand down to hold you in stillness and in fear

Not wrath that I could bring, but that your one true hope is near

 

Ask me to carry you though the road ahead uncertain

Ask only for my presence; know I pull back the curtain

Ask blessings dredged in anxiety; peace will flood your heart

Ask sincerely for this truth and my hope will never part

 

My son, question this mystery, why grace falls on the ground?

I pour my spirit endlessly far as the curse is found.

Written March 3, 2014