cold squishies beneath my feet,
the thrill of the world
in my heart as it beats.

the songs of the birds
i joyfully hear,
i know without doubt
that Creator is near.

the warmth of the morning
sinks deep in my chest
perhaps what i’m thinking
really is best.

Yet the voices of others resist crying:

“Heresy!
Idolatry!
Paganism!
Sin!!”

No.

these are the cries of those who misread
the presence of God
and the All of His deeds.

—
– aside from a love poem I wrote for my mother when I was in 2nd grade, this was the first poem I’d ever written. It was composed in 1988, when I was still 19, while sitting barefoot by a lovely farm pond near North Liberty, IA. Not necessarily a great poem, it clearly had an agenda. It was written as a corrective to those who overly emphasize Divine transcendence from the world and minimize God’s immanence in it. – I hadn’t even heard of Marcus Borg, panentheism, process theology, etc. yet. This tells me that such an insight really is of God as it is innate wisdom.