Donal Mahoney- A Poem

Sundown at the Abbey

After a day in the fields

plowing and sowing, 

the old monks see 

sundown is near so 

they put away tools, 

clean up for supper. 

It's soup and bread 

torn from a loaf, 

chunks of good cheese, 

a rainbow of bright 

fruit from the orchard, 

coffee as black as tar.

There are 20 monks left,

slow and ailing, a drop

from a hundred or so 

a few decades ago.

The harvest is small,

their lives still simple. 

They work in the fields

and pray in the chapel.

But birds in the air 

sometimes hear prayer 

rise from the fields

and soar past them.

 

Donal Mahoney lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

J.D. DeHart

What Is Caesar’s

 

Render unto Caesar he told them,

and they thought he spoke of coins,

listening to the light jingle

in their bags, compared to the vast

clamor they heard among the wealthy,

succumbing to the false promise of greed.

They failed to recognize the image stamped

was the emperor’s profile, while the image

embossed upon their frame,

their fiery creativity and capacity

for kindness and mercy,

belonged to the emperor of heaven.

JD DeHart is a writer and teacher.  His blog is jddehart.blogspot.com and his first chapbook, The Truth About Snails, is due Fall 2014.

Donal Mahoney- A Poem

 

Observer of Current Events

It's not de rigueur

to believe he's there

behind the sun,

the stars, the moon

watching us 

holding a burnt match 

from the first Big Bang, 

a souvenir, and 

holding another

yet to be struck

the day he says

"No more!" 

Donal Mahoney lives in St. Louis, Missouri.

Douglas Polk- A Poem

Christians

wheat among the weeds,

sheep among the wolves,

passive,

unconcerned with the day to day,

living on a higher plane,

where time has no beginning or end,

and goodness thrives,

patiently waiting for the evil to end.

Lela Marie De La Garza- A Poem

      

        DESERT                                

 

This is desolation,

Dry as chalk and bone:

Fill your cup with dust,

Eat the broken stone,

 

Or put your faith in God,

And miracles abound:

Water from the rock

Manna on the ground.