I have created a new website, www.inktraveler.wordpress.com, and one of the tabs along the top of the homepage is "The Christian Chronicles." My poems will continue to be posted there.

Love & Blessings,
McKenzie

Palm Sunday

Family

We sit together and
I can hear the thoughts

wondering

about That Day, feel
the hearts

brimming

with hope. What else
could I want but to

return

to the place where the
faith grows and

hums

with the Lord's
Promise, our own promises

growing

with every
gathering.

Lent - Core Value # 5

Worship

When I am unsure,
I turn to You.
When I need guidance,
I look to the trees

and see
how their limbs
bend and sway
with the wind.

They stretch their limbs
far up into the sky,
bend them deep
into the earth.

What praise
they have for what
they cannot see.
What wisdom

should I borrow
and honor in Your name -
to bend and pray
in worship.

Lent - Core Value # 4

God's Gift

He was silent from that
distance -

a statue up on a
hillside

while I stood far
behind, waiting.

But His heart was
with me -

the warming beat,
the promise still

hidden
underneath

an unplanted
cross.

I somehow knew He
was there for me,

for all of us
in a way that

none of our hearts
could fathom.

Lent - Core Value # 3

Blessing

The man was
silenced -

hands deep
in empty pockets

as he watched
the Lord

sort the dozens
into two flocks.

He remembered
what he had not done,

why his pockets
remained full,

his house an
empty cage.

He met the Lord's eyes
once

and waited
for His choice.

Without a word
the Lord placed coins

in both of his hands
to fill the hands

of both
the flocks.

Lent - Core Value # 2

Heart - Collected

When she walked in, her
fingers were covered
in rings,
jeweled hearts,

that brought out the silver
in her eyes -
the storm that hung
over

the nearest balcony.
She said,
"There are men gathered
around a fire, cupping

the warmest air
their hands can take,
breath fogging like
the middle of winter."

I looked out the
window and wondered
if there was enough
bread and coffee

to go around.
She touched my shoulder
in certainty and
passed out the door

in silence, my eyes
following her, seeing
the flash of
lightning,

the flicker of
wings.

Lent - Core Value # 1

Open[ed] My Heart

Silence fell.
No words came from their mouths.

We remain silent for You, to
hear the words that bring us

to our knees -

We pray. The trees' limbs are
stretched high from the earth before

the wind bends them, bowing
over and over

beyond Sunday.

Silence holds my lips. They say,
before I was made, You knew me.

You knew I would follow
You and only waited -

offered me

before a church, humming
repeatedly with prayer.

Now and
before my heartbeat -

You open, and opened, my heart.

Together

I won't say I understood at first.
He gave me two list -
The Lord said,

"I want you to build the greatest
wall and
tear it down.

The people will come together
in my name."
I was speechless,

thought of the bricks and nails
at my feet
and shuddered.

I feared the sound of that fall
and asked the Lord
His reason.

He came forward and looked over
a land
I could not see

and said: "There are many walls that
are built that only
our hearts can see."

Silence. I understood He had given me
my second list.
I took up a pen

and in the name of the Lord wrote my wall.