Traversing Oceans

Traversing Oceans

Often I’m writing poems

Even I don’t understand

The words just seem to flow from me

Like water from the hand

Though there is some deliberate direction

There is always also splash

The life seems just to splatter

It stains the crimson sash

I often love to drift along

Sail the open seas

And somewhere in the midst of it

I find out who is me

So try a little sailing

Open to the winds

You just might find your deliberate course

Becomes subject to beauty’s whims

There truly is the place of wonder

8/29/18

Movement in Pi

Movement in Pi (π)

It is a poet’s most dreaded moment

When there is nothing to write

The entire world within is dead

Which makes all things without the same

Even though the sun shines brightly

Even though the grass is being mowed

Even as the wasps and bees swirl around the window panes

And the ceiling fan just quietly keeps going around

I am much more like that fan right now

Though I don’t think dead things go in circles

So maybe there is a hope after all

Just the fact there is a movement in pi (π)

Is enough to bring a spark of life

So once again I see the plan

That even in the midst of the dreaded death

There is nothing to write, but there is nothing but life

I just love the Circle

Sense Eternal

Sense eternal

there seems to be a place where I live

yet I cannot seem to dwell there

I cannot seem to breathe the air there

all the while smoldering in this sordid heat

and dryness, dark and dust

I live in a land of angels and oceans

Streaming rivers, birds in flight

Mists dancing with the mountains

Where words are never enough

You have to breathe in the beauty

For it just becomes a part of you

I feel it in the depths of me

I know I am there

I can feel the colors, the sounds 

The movements of the symphonies eternal

yet I can still smell the dust, the heat

Instead of running through golden fields of wheat

I simply sit here and yearn for more

I refuse to live in an unending chore

But rather dwell in the beauty

Knowing that it must flow forth from me

Water for the trees

Healing for the nations

Joy and hope and deep libations

Of all that is good and real

there seems to be a place where I live

I simply have to dwell there

or maybe rather let it dwell in me

K, Duane Carter 6/29/13

Sun

Sun

I ride by the mystical mountains

upon a purely white, God-breathed note

I slip into His eternal chambers

with a single bright sound that He wrote

I allow my spirit to return quickly to Him

without shame I no longer hide

as I move into the fire of His sun

He moves me into this mythical ride

The myth is more than just happenstance

The truth is simply too much to flee

The throes of His love are simply too much to grasp

Until I realize their grasp is on me

I ride by the Mystic of mountains

resting on this purely God-breathed note

I lie here in His eternal chambers

being the song that He wrote

K, Duane Carter

Formulae

Formulae

The thing I don’t like about formulas

Is that it takes all of the magic away

Yet at the same time they are woven throughout the universe

Dancing throughout the night and the day

Why is that?

Please don’t say that is just how it came to be

For I have seen the grandeur of the ocean

I have felt the complexity of the tree

I have delighted in flights of pure wonder

I have known the great mystery of Whom

I’ve been enraptured by the beauty of flower

I’ve seen life as it comes forth from the womb

See, the thing I don’t like about formulas

Is that it takes all of the magic away

Yet at the same time they are woven throughout the universe

Dancing throughout the night and the day

And I’m just beginning to hear the music

K, Duane Carter 11-25-11

Wonder

The curtain has been raised

And this is what is seen

What to others looks like a giant mess

Yet to my Maker it is serene

He sees the beauty in the silks

He sees color, symmetry, lines

He sees life is drifting right in the midst

He sees wonder in the chaos that is mine

The curtain has been raised both for me and for you

So what has been stolen and plundered?

All of this is just a beginning for Him

A beginning of art, glow, and wonder

K, Duane Carter  3-6-11

Written for onestoppoetry challenge.  In honor of my son, Eli, whose birthday is today, adopted from a Chinese orphanage four years ago because someone saw the wonder in the chaos.

Discovery

Discovery

I sit here quietly, pondering

Waiting for words to drop like the rain from the sky

A constant, a constant wondering why

Looking for reasons that don’t exist

In the place where I understand

Things formed by a greater hand

Infinitely great, infinitely small

Infinitely vast, infinitely all

Which is why I am quiet in my pondering

Somewhat afraid to journey into that

For when could I ever return?

For when could I ever learn,

When there is no end to the learning?

Yet I cannot deny the burning, yearning

Heaven strikes its most beautiful note

And my heart just sings and rings

Sounds I don’t understand

Lyrics I don’t comprehend

Yet they are placed right here before me

In the faces of my wonder-filled children

In the smile of my beautiful wife

In the breath that flows through my being

In the Presence that gives me my life

I take the step,

Discovering I actually have wings

See what happens when heaven sings?

My heart still rings…

K, Duane Carter 3-5-11

Ice Sculptures

I see a throne, and He who sits on it is white and majestic

Children climbing to get into his lap

Angels attending at His side

His arms open wide

Hands held high beside

There is such wonder in His sculptures

And the Water keeps coming

Yes the Water keeps coming

His rhythm still drumming

The rhythm still drumming

I see a throne, and He Who sits on it is pure

The cross for joy He did endure

So I could see Him in all of these things

And clap in joy and wonder

K, Duane Carter 1-10-09

Pierced

I see the shafts of light
Piercing the darkness through
The dragon’s head is severed
And light keeps shining through
I see the ocean coming
In a never ending wave
I see the blue skies see it all
And it’s beauty I start to crave
These shafts of light are piercing
Even into me
But darkness now has been destroyed
And I have been set free
The cloud of glory is coming
To rest on this hardened earth
The light, the wind, the water
Will bring it into a glorious birth

And we will know Him in all His glory and wonder

K. Duane Carter 6-22-09

Picture of God

I see God in this picture
First in its mystery that some would say
This isn’t in focus, the camera did sway
But no, it did not, there was simply delay

And the lens captured God in the moment

We see Him through glass and darkly at that
But He is here, He is here and today as I sat
And I saw Him my heart did leap up with glee
Because He had chosen to give His picture to me

I see Him in rock, I see Him in water
I see Him in light and all other matter
I see Him in the flowing, I see Him in the still
I see Him amongst us in the wonder of will
I see Him in the contrasts of shadows and light
I see Him in the depths and in the midst of my sight

As I ponder this picture I could go on and on
But I will give you time to see Him
And to sing your own song

K. Duane Carter
3-1-09

Reality

Reality

I am tired of seeing with these eyes
I am tired of listening with these ears
I am tired of rationalizing with this mind
And coming up empty, wrong and paralyzed
I long to live by the Spirit and in the Spirit
Rise up within me O One that raises the One from the dead
Rise up within me and bring me into the true Life
The life where I know what You say
Not why You say it, not caring why You say it
But simply that You do
Simply that You are
Simply You are Love and Light
And in You is no darkness at all
Let the life within me be Light
And only Light
For I am tired of seeing with these blind eyes
I want to see with the ones You have given me to see with
I want to hear with the ears You gave me to hear with
The ones that are truly me and not what others see
I want to see with Your ears and hear with Your eyes
I want to gaze into the beauty of Your face, forever mesmerized
Let the life within me be Light
Let the light within me be Life
For nothing else matters
Nothing else matters
Nothing else
Nothing

K. Duane Carter
11-26-08

God’s purpose is not to give me answers. God’s purpose is to give me wonder and mystery. God’s purpose is to reveal the One that should be truly worshipped and worship is a response to His wonder, not to mere reasons. But if I constantly seek the reasons and the answers, then He cannot trust me with the deeper wonders because I am too busy asking “Why?” and “What is the meaning of this?” to just sit and listen and dream. I must take the path of childlike trust to enter into His kingdom. Often I will lead my children into places that they don’t understand why we are going there, but they simply follow and they typically enjoy the trip. God please grow in me the childlike wonder. Please restore to me my childhood innocence, my childhood wonder, my child-like trust. I see that You are already doing that. Thank You for Your answers to my prayers, even those where I don’t understand or see the answer. May I be truly loyal and truly trustworthy to share in Your mysteries and wonders.