I Have No Pains Today-a poem

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith for the Years of Winter

I do not mean to overload you with poems. I doubt that my poems are why anyone reads CIW. Sometimes, though, I do not have one of my little story/reflections ready, and since I write a poem-like thing most days, one of them is usually available. I feel like I ought to post something new each day, in case you come looking for something new, so… at least this poem is new, and it is a reflection on faith in winter years… and I always warn you by noting in the title if it’s a poem!

I have no pains today

That is reason enough for celebration

I have other reasons, though, other

Joys to offer up. My loved ones all

Are well, and they choose with care

The slips and disappointments

That they share

I have no meetings of committee

And if some moron at the coffee shop loudly

Proclaims some philosophy with which I disagree

[which, by definition, is erroneous and stupid]

My legs work.

So many of my friends have gone ahead

But they have left a trail of memories

Like breadcrumbs, that bring us back together

Whenever I recall their names and faces

And there are others, still here, who remind me

To keep going

There is, of course, that matter of the skunks

Who dig up the yard, and the woodpecker

That makes holes up high on the house

But I have dug hard in places to feed

My family, as that skunk digs hard

To feed hers. And I have tried to impress

The girls, the way the woodpecker does,

Pointing out the difference between metaphor

And simile, and saying words

Like patripassionism, so who am I to judge?

[Still, I would be willing to live in Costa Rica for the winter]

JRMcF

johnrobertmcfarland@gmail.com

I tweet as yooper1721.