Three Poems by Mark Weinrich

geese flying, sunset, image by skeeze, on Pixabay

A SIGH

“All my longings lie open before you Lord; my sighing

is not hidden from you.” (Psalm 38:9)

When I’m worn out and caved in

I love to linger over David’s

promise that God hears my sighs.

David was a shepherd, a warrior,

an outlaw, a refugee, a general,

and finally the king of Israel;

if anyone understood what it meant

to be stressed and weary, David was

the guy. If he says my sighs are not

hidden from God, that means they

are open before Him. God understands

when every fiber of my strength is spent.

What comfort in taking a deep, deep

breath, holding it and knowing God

hears the release. No matter how weak,

how weary I feel, it is a wordless prayer

that restores me.

____________

HIS SENDOFF

I was eighteen, he was over eighty,

I stood beside his bed, though he

was somewhere between present

and forever. I hoped my music

might somehow pierce the fog.

He had served the Lord for over

fifty years, but sadly his mind

had retreated to his B.C. days

where unseemly language was

habit and bouts of anger common.

My songs had calmed those storms.

Now I was filling the unknown.

I knew only a dozen chords,

enough to play old gospel songs

and John Denver.

I closed my eyes and sang

his favorite hymn, “Amazing Grace…”

Midway through the second verse,

he sat up, clear as stepping into

the pulpit. He smiled the brightest

smile and sang with me…

“It’s a miracle,” the daughter exalted,

“Daddy’s back.”

She rushed out to call family.

He sang two more verses with me,

lay back and breathed his last.

His peaceful smile and shining eyes

are etched in the halls

of my memory, like fine glass

with morning light

shining through.

(Previously published in The Storyteller Magazine, 2017)

________________

LANGUAGE OF GEESE

In the discordant honks

there is a tenderness of speech

uncommon to the human ear.

There is no commander pounding,

shouting strokes.

Their words are orchestration,

rising and falling notes,

composition for preserving

strength; weakest in back,

the strongest forward.

Their arrow is

a continuous dance

exchanging places

that all will find rest.

And if their language

has a foreign ring,

it is the voice of gentleness,

from wing beat to wing beat,

the words of encouragement

that bear them on.

________________________

Mark Weinrich is a cancer survivor, a retired pastor, gardener, hiker, and musician. He has had over 420 poems, articles, and short stories published in numerous publications. He has sold eight children’s books and has two fantasy novels on Kindle.

August 2021 issue