I'm not the man -- performed by Brian

Thin-skinned heart

Thin-skinned heart                                                                       

You say, Don’t try to understand Me. 

Good advice, since You don’t  

quite make sense, that is to say,

nothing seems to fit and You,

of course, are everything

but, every so often You send me off

on an analytical jag, knowing

I’ll come back around because

my thoughts always lead me in circles.

It’s about time, this time;

inevitability and purpose, distance

and proximity and the ubiquitous

reality of non-significance while never leaving,

mind You, the confines of my thick skull,

never venturing near the love-strapped,

thin-skinned heart I bear inside

until I am, at last, back on Your stoop,

knocking on Your door and being let in

graciously, mercifully, as I fall in timeless,

eternal repetition, at the unfathomable,

beyond imagination and conception, illusion

of Your body and Your holy, human feet.

O child of God, one significant allurement of faith

is the lack of any coherent alternative.

A gold coin

A gold coin

You asked me to follow You.
Like Jonah, there were places I'd rather be.

The belly of a fish can be made comfortable
if the foreign shore holds enough dread --

darkness can be soothing to the eyes;
that constant stench can carry

the solace of familiarity.
You said, 'Get naked.'  When I didn't

shed my clothes quickly enough,
You took matters into Your own hands.

These days, I go about repeating Your name
like hammering nails into a coffin.

Make me a gold coin, Lord, glittering in the sunlight,
when You finally slit the fish's belly.

O child of God, the Beloved is pointing out,
with His graceful fingers, the land of milk and honey.

                         (from A Jewel in the Dust)