The Face of Anguish

A response to the earthquake in Haiti - pray for the people!

The Face of Anguish

By Steve Loggins

1/21/10

Unexpected pain fills the heart of the young,

Fear of the future is not on her mind yet.

Only a longing, unsatisfied, and strong,

And a sense of loss and a looming threat.

A heart pierced through with urgent anguish,

Her family’s gone, her home, her love

No hope is left, her sorrows languish

like waves on a beach with moonlight above.

The shaking earth has killed her world,

Strangers invade to offer relief

to hurts unimaginable, emotions unfurled

like a flag in the wind, depicting her grief.

A scream of despair with tears of wailing,

No comfort can come to a damaged soul.

There is only the pain, there is only the tearing

of a heart ripped in two that none can console.

“Time heals all wounds”, so the saying goes

but this means nothing to her today,

and in truth, it’s not right for everyone knows

that scars from our wounds will stay.

“Does God hate me? Why did this happen?”

These questions linger, the millions ponder

The disaster struck, the suffering so sudden,

In a place where pain was prone to wander.

No answers, just questions, fill the air of despair

There is no easy solution,

But a hand offered in love can answer a prayer,

And ease pain into resolution.

God loves the Haitian people,

just as He loves the Jew,

He sent His son for their consolation

For sin, which He hates, His world, He renews.

Adrift

Adrift

by Steve Loggins

1/12/10

Stranded in an endless sea of doubt

No sign of safety or rescue

No hope

The waters stretch to claim me

for their own

drowning

I make my struggle against

the overwhelming

flood

Without any aid of flotsam

To hold me up

despair

Alone I tread, adrift in woe

The sound of water

engulfing

No ship in sight, no rescuers

No birds so far from

land

The easy thing will be to die

To stop the struggle

sink

Beneath the waves, silence comes

The peace of death’s

embrace

Say “no!” to coward’s easy way,

swim on ‘til something

changes

There is always hope

Faith and

Love

To sustain us, though we perish

A far white shore rimmed in

gold

Turning of the Year

Turning of the year

by Steve Loggins

1/3/10

The countdown to the moment goes and then the clock strikes twelve,

The world erupts in jubilant cheer as another year is put on the shelf.

A blank slate is now before us, the grounds for our expectant joys,

We hope for the best, we wish for a change, the change that time deploys.

But what is time? a ticking clock will demonstrate its passing,

A linear count of finite beats, that culminates with none amassing.

An hourglass may run the time through a bottleneck to show,

That sand has passed from bulb to bulb, from moving high to low.

But is this time? Or just a trick to show us what we want to know,

That we have the time to live and breathe, time to learn and grow.

The turning of a year for us marks many things we want to see,

We count ourselves by the years we live, and hope this one turns out to be

Better than the previous one, and all those gone before,

With furtive optimism we meet the year as a new thing to explore.

Some hopes are dashed immediately, as death and suffering come

For Chronos knows no changing days, time keeps plodding on and on.

Atropos cuts the spinning thread that Lachesis measures out,

For each man, woman, child of us, the Fates make us cry or shout.

It is a lie. There are no Fates or Norns to decide our days,

There is only God, the master of time, to Him we owe our praise.

He gave us life, He gives us time, to live, to love, to die.

And then His promise made to us is that time will say “goodbye”

No turning of the year, no sorrow comes to life,

Eternity will end our fears, heaven ends all strife.

The Master stands beyond our days, and from eternal past

Outside the years we measure out, only His people last.

So count the passing of your time, number your days and die

But understand that there is more – trust God and don’t deny.

A Christmas Poem

by Steve Loggins

12/21/09

Mystery of God Incarnate, a babe in manger lay

In humble cave of Bethlehem, the One He sent to save

the world from man’s own folly, God now condescends

to shrink Himself to mortal flesh, to renew us as His friends.

O Blessed night of Coming! His advent to this earth

of sin and shame and heartache, such promise in His Birth!

We have someone to save us, from all that we may do

This little Babe, no sin has He, the First Man made anew.

The shepherds are the only ones to hear the angels sing

that God has come to Bethlehem, a stable holds The King,

Emmanuel, Messiah born, the Christ Child fully here

O blessed night of happening! A night to calm our fear.

A maiden fair, a handsome man, entrusted with His care

They have no home, no place to go, only the clothes they wear

Troubled times, with dangers near, the First family embarks

On a journey of faith that culminates with Jesus on a cross.

So now it starts, this Holy night of serene nativity,

The star is lit to guide the way for men to come to Thee.

A December Rose

A December Rose

By Steve Loggins

12/6/09

Rushing from the house to car to get where I must go,

Wondering if I have the time to do what I must do,

Suddenly I spy a Rose, in times when nothing grows,

For December’s here, and cold has come, its death is overdue.

I pause to look, to see its strength, and smell aroma sweet,

For it should not be, its time is past, but here it is for me

To see and touch and wonder at, for roses cannot beat

the cold of winter and how the earth makes times for growing flee.

This moment’s here, a brief respite from death, in glory stands

A Rose with outstretched petals fair, with beauty on display

For all the world who cares to stop, this rose makes no demands

It only grows and fulfills its goals of growing in the day.

“Stop the world from turning”, I cry, “make this moment last”

But it cannot be, only in my memory, can this rose truly live

Forever in its beauty and fragrant winter’s past

A future pressed in a book I hold, this rose will always give.

A December Rose, an unlikely time, to pause and see the world

And know the times, and hold the day, to claim what we all know

Instinctively, that life is short, our days are few, unfurled

Like petals of a rose that wait to embrace tomorrow’s snow.

A kiss of death, of finality, will tomorrow’s ice then bring,

The Rose will die, its petals fall, only…wait until the Spring.

A tree for the Ages

A Tree for the Ages

by Steve Loggins

11/28/09

Trees are cut all the day for every kind of reason,

To build a home, to make a fire, to celebrate the season.

 

Trees are a gift from God to us, they help renew the earth,

From falling leaf that compost makes, to acorns giving birth

To mighty oaks that reach the sky for nesting eagles’ homes,

And sheltering holes for bird and beast and insects’ honeycombs.

 

A tree may grow straight and tall, or crooked, dwarfed and small,

It may be hard or soft inside, yet saw and axe will make it fall.

 

We use its wood for many things, both beautiful and base,

For noble things like bridges built, yet sometimes things disgrace

 

An arrow may fly to kill a man, or bring home winter’s meat

The wood may burn to light the way, or fill a house with heat

 

A conflagration may result where all we own’s consumed,

Then a tree is felled and milled to build on more and bigger rooms.

The tree is prized for what it is and what to us it brings,

Its fruit can feed us, its roots can heal us or snuff out living things.

Of all the gifts the tree has borne to us who owe it so

The best is The Gift of sacrifice that the Son of God bestowed

On Calvary’s brow, a tree once stood, with crimson stain and thorn,

A testament of grace from God, brought by His only Son.

With outstretched arms and iron nails, a tree felt his Maker die

And if a tree could only weep, I’m sure this tree would cry.

Not knowing that God’s plan for man and all of flawed creation

Would be delivered by His blood, this tree’s sad decoration.

It is a tree for the ages, it stands outside of time,

No one can praise its beauty for its purpose is Divine

I’m sure the tree of life that roots in waters from God’s throne

Has kinship to this tree of death where Jesus died alone.

For you and me, and all who come to take of Calvary’s gift

This tree of knowledge of His grace, no longer set adrift

A rugged cross, amazing grace, such songs we sing today

Because a tree once held our God who took all our sins away.

Winter's Coming

Winter’s Coming

Once the leaves begin to change, and the seasons start to wind,

Awareness that the world has turned embarks upon our mind.

The days grow short, and a chill ensues, a little at a time,

With a vigor for us to opt to see... or ignore the signs

That winter’s coming – all too soon, for some of us - we sigh

Longing for those summer days, filled with happy times.

Winter can be a bitter place, with nothing left to find

Or a time and place of love for all things God has intertwined.

It is our choice to hate or love the wintry Days of life,

But icy days can offer, too, some memories with spice,

It is our choice to linger in, or run outside to play,

In Winter’s wonder land of joy in bleak and snowy days

The seasons of our life turn 'round each and every year

The years roll on and soon we find that winter's growing near

In life’s grand plan for every man, in sorrow and in cheer,

We make a choice to love our life, or hate the times we fear.

Embrace your life in summer’s day, the fall, and winter too

Love every season of every year, as a gift from God to you

Without the spring, no flowers bud, the world becoming new,

But winter’s cold helps make it work for all things, God’s review.

Winter’s coming – it’s a fact – for all folks young and old,

Some live the day, some try to stay in summer days of gold,

But this one thing is clear to us – His blessings are foretold,

No matter what the season brings – in winter’s days of cold –

Or breezy days of autumn’s might – He’s always Nature’s Lord.