The Beautiful Tears: poetry by Robert Funderburk

abstract, blue and gold, image by Annalise Batista, on Pixabay, modified

A New Life

August, 1957, your fast ended

When a boy of fifteen

Gave his heart to Jesus.

All that’s left is a grassy spot

And one old pine

But I’ll forever remember

The little white frame church

And the altar

And that young evangelist

Who cried out to God

For the lost.

*

The Beautiful Tears

She who would never cry

Nor show her soul outside

Wept like a lost child

In the farthest, darkest pew

For no reason that she knew

Her tears were cruel and bitter

She could not stop their flow

From the wounded heart of someone

She had yet to know

And God kept a silence

For his weeping, chosen child

And used her tears for healing

In His unfailing love

And thought them beautiful

And thought them beautiful

(First published by Penwood Review)

*

The Word

Let the words flow

From the pages into the hands

That hold the book,

Up the arms into the body

To warm the heart

And bring joy and light

To desolate regions

Of the soul

Like a visit

With your closest friend.

______________________

Robert Funderburk was born by coal oil lamplight

in his home near Liberty, Mississippi, graduated

from Louisiana State University in 1965, served as

SSgt in the USAFR from 1965 to1971. He now lives

with his wife, Barbara, enjoying the peace of home

on fifty acres of wilderness in Olive Branch, Louisiana.