John Barker

No shame or doubt
For there is none in that place
Not looking down like heathen kings
But dancing in the isles and streets of gold
And singing praise more fully than he dreamed
And life more raw and beautiful then the veil here on earth

Good morning

Coffee in my hand
And Kipling in my pocket
Gospel in my ears
And a breeze is blowing in

Steps

Down the center isle she'd only walked
I carried her
With seven other men

Up with her dad
At birth, to wed,
And back with Grandad
And now with us.

Down the steps she never took,
We carried her again:
Just like her dad when life began.

With candles, vows, and separation-
Dedicated, married, and now deceased-
She finished what they started.
The eight of us attest to that.

Inside a car she never drove,
We placed her as gently as we could:
The rollers made it smooth.
I said goodbye before I let her go.

Followed by a line of cars and hearts
That stretched back eighty years or more
She would have fussed,
Although she thought it right to do.

Three men await her at the gate,
And two have walked that path before.

Bitterness

Some say superman is out there,
But I just saw him fall
Not to Lex Luther or Miss Lane
But to the noisy few
Who turned their back on him
And kicked him to the curb
Pretending, speaking for us all

She's on her way

She's on her way
To trip the light fantastic
With the older man
Who swept her heart away
Over sixty years ago

With barn dances and bright flowers
She was his sunshine
And then he went away
Still singing their sweet song

His sunshine, his only sunshine
Had waited for this day
With nights of lonely patience

No one could come between.

The task your feet are on

There is a God
And some are wrong
And none can love too much
Three things that make the world go round
And add the human touch

When all is dark
or, worse yet,
When shadows obscure the view
These three things your path will set
Past midnight dark and day anew

Forget your fear
Regrets, laments
And throw aside your crutch
For none of it will matter soon
All hindrance aside, your feet must rush

To finish well with crown and cup
The task your feet are on

God Damn!

God damn, I miss him
He sips wine, but I know his jokes
We can sit and talk and be at ease
God damn, I miss his face
Twenty with and thirteen apart
The other one is with the wind
God damn, I miss my friend
We disagree, but in his core
He stands on what we can agree

Past Desperation

Have you ever thought
That the only way
You would be allowed to rest
And decompress from the day
Would be to steer for the lights
Up the road a way
And find a bed in the ICU
Where your visitors would say
With time and pity in their voice
"It's not his fault he cannot work, or go to school today."

It took me fourteen sessions
Life talks and lessons
To be able to ask it that way
And to admit
The stress, it hurt

...and now my wife is headed that way.

Zzzzz

Oh the late night
Thoughts of random
Things that go bump
In the night
In the wallet
Anything but sleep.

Millstone Threatened

She's only four,
But still I'm wondering:
Am I holding her back
From the Spirit's power
Because I think she's young.

Ghandi

Strong man from India
He knew of God
Of the greatest of these
With the least of these
He talked with God
And put the "Christians" to shame
The hollow gongs
Could not withstand the Truth of Love
Melchizedek of India

In the Trenches

Whistling by and by
The bullets begin to whisper
Closer to my eardrum
Than I would like

It's gonna happen
It'll tear my flesh wide open
And split my head in two
Two halves already fighting

He lives and speaks and breaths,
But not as loud as bullets
Whizzing by my ear
The sniper's getting closer to my heart

I want to hear the breath
The Son of Man beside me
In the trenches of my life
Instead of sniper's Hell inside me

My Gratification (Will it Hurt)

1. I live on crisis
(Haven't had one in a while)
Beliefs are floating
Waiting for their anchorage
To dig in

2. Crisis demands answers
Right or wrong
The choice is timed
And judged quickly
Gratification comes

3. I am demanding
And require
The answer of others
For gratification
Quickly

4. Whose skin
Does my anchor cling to
And will it hurt
If it digs deep or
Scratches passing