mister don’t-knower

"Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving." Colossians 4:2


Who do you find in
Your heightening heights?
Your lengthening depths?
Either is a good place to
Meet him. 
Also in between the extremes.

Now toward you and your mountain 
comes a grinding cloud.
It’s lightning blinding and it’s thunder loud.
But your mountain wall is high, so it’s not allowed.
So westward veers the searching cloud.  

Your friend said he didn’t know why you’d say prayers in the rain. 
There is no god who notices you, and anyway there is no god. He said.
He doesn’t do whatever you need or want or say-Whether you are out in the rain or not.

But then, I don’t know, Maybe if you’re holy or something. He said. 
Or in the end you decide you got lucky when you actually got a blessing.
Or even if you suspect that faith was the operative thing.
You decide it could be faith or karma or perpetual cycles.
Or any other promising thing. 
But there is no other promising thing that will save you.

and still, the people out west do hurt in my heart.
There’s a soft spot there. A growing soft spot.
Another torrent comes.
in buckets of rain 
on you.
It's cats and dogs and fire and fright.
If you have nothing to walk under
Or go into,
And you get lost in the nighttime.
That’s one time when you might
say prayers in the rain.

Prayers in the rain.
Not so much to keep dry.
Is it raining inside your life’s borders?
Is the ground firm when you touch the ground
After you jumped through things
upon which you’d rather not expound.

Is it the cross and is it Christ?
There's a time in your lifetime 
to grasp that basic thing.
Then other things, then different things.
You still stretch and reach,
But the battle is the Lord’s.
At least that’s what he said.

Meanwhile, the plains get soaked
Because that storm turned west.
But there’s no one out there
in that desert wilderness.
Except the critters and varmints
Who are delighted with the rain. 
Up go their prayers of praise and joy in the rain.
With a hundred or so different sounds.
You think about how God is glorified
by the sound of his peepers,
and the trout catching a water strider.

God is on his favorite quest,
To discover your pain and to give you rest.
A rest as high and as deep
as the mountains, plains, valleys and ditches.
His rest anywhere would just be the best.

The storm doesn’t turn, and I get a torrent. 
So this is being on the wrong side of the rain.
So now on the wrong side of the rain,
with a worn heart and scattered brain,
I remember you saying
This is a time when I could actually be praying?
What did you say about prayers from under the rain?

Whether it’s rain on your head, or rain in your heart,
Have you exhausted all your other options,
Are you getting tired of your own exhaustion?

from under the rain

This reading is from a passage written in 1918 by a man enlisted in World War I on the side of the British. He was Siegfried Sassoon, ultimately a company commander.  He was no friend of the war or the British Army. He begins by addressing a dead friend who was killed in a disastrous military encounter.  

Siegfried sounds like an amazing person. He was decorated for saving many lives with conspicuous risk to self.  And he was a successful writer of poetry- conveying the ugly truths he found as he fought the war.  And protesting how his military was being wrapped in politics and how maneuvers were being conducted wrongly as a direct result…which is what happened when his friend died.  His essays bashed persons and institutions, to where his self restraint became a problem and repercussions became bigger. But a brilliant life he lived.

I wonder how his superiors felt about balancing his outright defiance against his heroism. How do you punish a hero? A soldier you have promoted to Company Commander.  And how many of "his suicide missions" risked his mate's lives along with his own?  Ultimately he was placed somewhere for  help with his declining mental status.  Reminder to self.. follow up on this person..

Reference found in The Internet Archive under The Essay- BBC Radio 3: 6/21/2017. The reader is Joanna Bourke.

a soldier's declaration

It isn't about a discontented car that leaves home in search of a better life. It’s about the car you use to get away from the bank you just robbed.

the getaway car

the reach

In bed you stare at the ceiling.
Wondering why you spent yesterday
Counting the time left until today.
At the time you were counting the time until tomorrow.

I made some notes yesterday. I got to thinkin'.
So I put the notes in the postage.
In case I ever got to prove
I ever got back from yesterday.

Let's do this  soon!

Let's get some privacy
in  a willow tree,
just you and me, 
except for the critters, 
which are not there.  
And the wine that makes us pretend.

Just you and me 
under a willow tree, 
Exactly where we like to be.
When we're counting the days until tomorrow.

counting the days until          tomorrow

This song is dedicated to my wife Cheryl. 

She is a scientist at heart and especially loves ginkgo trees.

We'll be married 40 years in May.

I ask her to give a listen before I post my songs.  I fixed the ending of this song Ginkgo because of something she noticed. Ha ha and I thought it was finished!  We both know that some of my songs are not exactly her cup of tea. She seems to like this one pretty well.

She's a real nice girl and a great co-producer.

ginkgo

view with a room

unbreakable plans

one fell swoop

pushing his luck

Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”  Luke 8:25

even winds and water

"Under the Sun" is a phrase in Ecclesiastes, a book of the Christian Bible, that refers to everything that is done and everything that happens in our lives.  And if it is something Under the Sun, it is within the Lord's wisdom. Our part is to gain the wisdom to see God's relevance in our lives. To keep gaining.

Under The Sun

we'll see...

all our days

weekend

Writing "Then and There" started 7 months ago with three notes and a spark of promise. It was finished this week when the 3- note spark fanned into flame.

then and there

eyes of a pure mind

the shattered plains

This came from 1987.  It didn't take much to make Amanda laugh. She is presented here with her dad, me. I love her still, as much as ever.

Literally Me and My Baby

Snickelways are narrow shortcuts that allow you to walk in between city buildings, so you can get places faster and avoid the crowds. They are located in York, England, and some date back to medieval times.  Each one is said to have its own personality.

In this song, I mean for each section to stand for one of the various  Snickelway paths.   I like to think that the ending is the Snickelway that takes you home.

Snickelways

Brin is a character I liked in a book series called Legends of the First Empire- by Michael J Sullivan. And Brin does keep a book which is monumental in the story.  I love these books and this author.The picture is of a girl I thought Brin could look like. Painted by Alexej von Jawlensky in early 1900's.

Also...my two sons play drums on this track, each playing in their own unique style. They also helped a lot with production.

Thanks for listening! 
Marty

the book of Brin

Value of Time

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On the last day of the feast, the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink”. - John 7:37


Bring the thirsty and let them drink.
Come over here and get a drink. 
This man says, “come to me and drink”.
And suddenly I had to turn and stop and think.
And face all my uncertainty.
And wonder about eternity.
And where to place my hope.

He says it's living water- 
flowing like a river-
through the life of the believer.
In the spirit of the savior. 
Poured into his endeavors-
With the seeker, the warrior, 
The thinker, deceiver. 
The never-receiver.
The almost-believer.

It's a life inside that’s more than you.
Extending through, out past your view.
Running past the walls of you.
Like the streams and rivers like to  do.

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P.S. I painted the picture in 1994 and recorded the song in 2020.  So technically this thing took 26 years before it was done ;-) 
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the great day

The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”
‭‭
Isaiah‬ ‭40

on wings like eagles

Awake in a Dream

Riding on a raft.
The size of myself times two.
At least I can lie down here, he observed.
But there he stood, bearing the waves 
With style and grace.
Not the freak-out craze 
you'd expect
From a giraffe riding on a raft.

Then he said...
At sea, at night, with the moon as my light.
On a raft with a sail, nothing else in sight.
The insistent waves, the clenching winds.
Blowing tight in my sail.
Then a kick in the shins.
I tuck my tail under.  Tuck it real tight.
And skip across like a stone.
A flash in the night.
I leave behind a rooster tail wake.
Just a wake in my dream.

I see her out there.
20–foot tall if she’s an inch.
Her raft-a wreck-a victim to the waves.
I snatch her out just in time and see she's so fine. 

So I decided this is just fine.
Better than continuous solitude 
On a big raft. 
With room for one more.
In a dream I took her flowers.
Yes a dream within a dream! 

And today she's my mate,
 who kind of won't stop cursing me.
But who otherwise is just fine. 

I feign deafness- a common giraffe reaction. 
Till she starts ramming my neck with her horns. 
Is she mean- or just want some attention?
Or to show some affection?

I never have understood girl giraffes. 
That’s just something I thought I should mention.

The mangoes. Growing in a grove.
I lift one to her mouth.  Trying to be nice.
She bites down, and it squirts back into my face.
She licks me down. With her really long giraffe tongue...
And we just…glide into things…
It’s polite to divert one's eyes at this point.

Just when a new subspecies is about to appear…
We find ourselves in a blinding fast muscle car.
Blue lights closing in.
One foot on the brake, and one on the spin. 
Forward in time, ready to blast.
No recollection after that.
Just a big blur and a flat.

Just her face surrounded by fireflies…
I tell her all my secrets. I confess all my lies.
Sometimes after that is when she swings her horns into my neck.
Where did she ever get lashes that long?
Soon we find a shady spot.
And soon some little small bodies hit the floor.

But now we’re passing again
Into the whirl of the wind.
Out on a raft.
A calm sea at night.
The moon glowing light. 
All this to my complete delight.

Now basically, my needs are simple.
I practice my rear kick. But haven’t needed it in a while.
I have placed my mark in distant places. 
I thank my maker.
I give love to my mate.
I teach my sons how to be a man.
And how to dream dreams
The best they can.

And her eyelashes still flutter.
The girl I met.
Who has joined me.
Lying awake in a dream.

open strings

Pinned to spotlight

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