God's Country

God’s Country

I have come into the land of God

I am closer than I have ever been

Yet I have never been further away

It isn’t that my heart has strayed

Rather I am steeped in an aloneness

I’ve never had this before

This pressure that molds and forms

It makes and shapes and recreates

Something I could never have dreamed or imagined

I sense Him coming after me

With a passion that could only compare to a fiery wind

A heat, a power so massive that no one and no thing can stop it

Yet I fell nothing, see nothing, hear nothing

Knowing all the while it is right there behind me

Waiting to surprise me with such an abrupt suddenness

That my rocky heart must crack and bleed

A new one will take its place

Then the stagnant will erase

I have come into the land of God

I simply wait

I simply walk on

To the way where He’s already been

K, Duane Carter 7-28-11

The Call

The Call

I have felt the call to go up this mountain

Though I am here all alone

Yet still, a small voice calls out from beyond

For me to go to places never traversed before

Though the summer, the snow is still in place

The mask comes off, and reveals the face

All is done and all is well

I feel the sense of expectation swell

I begin the steep ascent

K, Duane Carter 7-20-11

No rmal

No rmal

There’s nothing worse for a poet

Than to have no poem

But even darker still

Is a life with no desire

An existence with no burning fire

Long has it been quenched and calmed

Into a vicious and nasty state

Known as normal

It’s time to arise

It’s time to arise

To stretch out those broken wings to fly

(For how will you taste healing unless you fly again)

Feeling the winds of yearning begin to lift you up

To taste the sweet and bitter cup

Of the real and untamed and glorious Fire

Of the deep and haunting chalice of desire

Begin to dream again

Begin to call impossible friend

And watch him yield to the sight that is within you

Who makes all things new

K, Duane Carter 7-13-11

Folding Laundry

Folding Laundry

such an endless eternity

seeming to go on and on and on

more coming in than going out

turning your heart into a Dead Sea

Yet

let your heart connect with Life

let your being connect with a River

and all of a sudden

every towel you fold

every wash cloth you put away

releases color, light, and wonder

it is an act of worship

it releases a fragrance of love into the home

it causes the angels to fly and roam

into your spirit, soul, and life

it puts a veil of the miraculous on all who live there

and even those who don't

suddenly you are an ambassador of the King

releasing heaven into earth

Life then sings, "Come up higher"

Welcome to the delight of folding laundry

it is the place of your promotion

a simple choice to avoid emotion

living out of a greater place

You iron a shirt

And there you see God's face

Isn't it great?

K, Duane Carter 7-2-11