By Ric Hudgens (right)
“Love is or it ain’t. Thin love ain’t love at all.”–Toni Morrison
I don’t want the thin love anymore.
So thin it needs a second coat.
Too thin
to be seen at a certain angle
to hold the weight
to pull us out of the ditch
to keep things connected
to grasp with both hands
to tie my life together
to nourish our souls.
Give me the thick love.
The love that is love.
–rdh
08/12/2019
By Oz Cole-Arnal, former professor emeritus at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary
*Note: this is the third installment of poems from Professor Cole-Arnal’s recent memoir work. “Come the Dawn” was written in Feb 1981, shortly after almost succumbing to an illicit affair in France during May-June (1980). These words mark his attempt to remember his marital promises and his continual love for wife Marian (“Bunny”). It is also critical to remember that this poetry included a third party: his therapist Andy Coppolino with whom they were wrestling with his nocturnal dreams.
A howl of pain piercing the night,
Wide awake, the only sound a heartbeat,
The discovery of mortality, alone, deeply alone,
Wrapped in darkness and afraid
–Before the dawn. Continue reading “Come the Dawn”
By Oz Cole-Arnal, former professor emeritus at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary
Penned barely two months after “My Prayer” in the same year (October, 1980), the poem below shows how painful is the continuation of forbidden hungers vying against my effort to sustain integrity in my relationships with my dear wife, two boys, students and friends. Above all, although 1980 proved healthier than the next five years when my marriage fell apart, the poem below shows how fragile this “calm before the storm.”
Lonely man sitting by the water—
Transfixed by its mirror image,
Clinging to the pond’s stillness,
Fearful of its changing ripples,
And chained within! Continue reading “Narcissus”
By Ric Hudgens
We seem silly
adolescent
singing songs of love and romance
as innocents are daily crushed
between power and circumstance.
How trivial
self-centered
better odes of wrath and hatred.
The Arctic is ablaze!
The Amazon decimated! Continue reading “Against the Tide”
By Laurel Dykstra
in those days before the flood
they were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage
My scarred and raging
weary-eyed beloveds
ordinary defiant
with your teaching-outfit selfies
purple hair
fancy waistcoats
songs in a new range
carpentry projects
surfboards
magic card tricks
raspberry canes
You are magnificent Continue reading “Pastoral Letter”
Dear Radical Discipleship readers,
These last few months my life has intertwined between daily posts on RadicalDiscipleship and the crafting of word and images for Geez magazine. I love the work. My heart rises to the gathering of stories and the power of word in our work for liberation.
I am struck by the ways that RadicalDiscipleship and Geez co-mingle in their theologies, their work, and the communities of writers and readers. They bless one another and I am blessed by them both. They are different looking limbs in the common struggle. I long to conspire more holy mischief between the two. My mind is percolating and if you have thoughts, send them my way.
In the meantime, I want to make sure the invitation for both readers and writers is explicit. RadicalDiscipleship is a daily online dose of spirit. Geez is a strictly off-line oasis of beauty and story arriving in your mailbox four times a year.
If you don’t believe me, Tom Airey, my fellow co-curator and friend said “Over the past few years, Geez magazine has been like an ice cold IPA for my soul.”
So, we are offering a rare deal to RadicalDiscipleship readers to subscribe to Geez for 20% off. (A one year subscription normally $39 a year would be $31.20 or a three year subscription for $105 is now just $84.) Simply click HERE and put in the code “RD”.
Also, if you want to join Geez’s monthly newsletter or sign up to be in our writers/artist list, click HERE.
Ok, that is as close to an ad as you are going to get on RD.
Love and gratitude for this community,
Lydia Wylie-Kellermann
lydia@geezmagazine.org
By Tommy Airey
This book review of Rose Marie Berger’s Bending the Arch originally appeared in the Spring 2019 issue of Geez Magazine.
The day after the brutal massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890, there was a blizzard. The snow highlighted the innocence and purity of the victims. However, the whitest of snow could not cover the extent of Indigenous blood.
I recently heard this story told by Rev. Jim Bear Jacobs, and a few days later I found myself stranded under two feet of snow in Northern Paiute land, sitting next to the fire with Rose Marie Berger’s newly released book of poems, Bending the Arch. Continue reading “Confessions of a Westward Expansionist”
By Oz Cole-Arnal, former professor emeritus at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary
In his work on his manuscript-size memoirs, charting a life between the two Poor Peoples Campaigns, Oz Cole-Arnal (photo right) has reached the decade of his early to latter ’40s, the most broken period of his 78 years. He recounts betraying virtually all his values, barely able to sustain his faith & vision toward radical equality, stumbling along in brokenness, hurting all those he loved most. One help in such tumbling was the turning to poetry, which he has rediscovered & re-absorbed. This is the first of two poems to be posted on RadicalDiscipleship.net.
By Rev. Dr. Victoria Marie (June 13, 2019)
The State says they want to make things right with First Nations
Yet their actions lead to more and more desolation
Reconciliation’s just a word to those who hold power
As policies continue to make relationships sour Continue reading “Trans Mountain Lament”
By Steve Garnaas-Holmes (right), curator of Unfolding Light, a daily reflection rooted in a contemplative, Creation-centered spirituality, often inspired by his daily walk in the woods. To subscribe to Steve’s poems, click here.
I
Recently some stuff of ours got destroyed.
I’m discovering the innards of grief..
We were planning on giving the stuff away,
so it’s not the stuff I mourn, though it was valuable.
It’s what I’m discovering I need to let go of.
Attachment to what could have been— let it go.
Blame of those who destroyed it— let it go.
Shock at discovering a dark side of someone I trusted — let it go.
Anger at the powerlessness of badly wanting something back
I can’t get back.
Promising myself to stop rehearsing outrage… but I do.
Dashed hopes…work wasted… feeling violated…let it all go.
How many ways desire clings,
how many little pieces there are to letting go. Continue reading “Deepen My Yearning”
Radical Discipleship 