Psalm 149

Merciful Lord, Your myriad mercies—
~~and I, like a forest at the timberline—my musings and metaphors.

Merciful Lord, Your multitude of mercies—my years of sin—
~~if I had words . . .

Psalm 148

A child of God is a wonder;
~~the wonder of God is a child.

The wonder child at play is king and pauper, feast and crust.
~~Ah, child wonder, stormy season, young bud love!

The spirit of truth, like science, grasps it;
~~the truth of spirit, like art, releases it.

I am that child;
~~that child: I am.

Psalm 147

They drove their art like chariots;
~~ they rode their poetry like cavalry, on hooves and dust, into the new day of God.

Soldier psalms charged the blast like trumpets;
~~versed apostles sought true seeker like treasure:

they marked a measure of the new day’s dawn,
~~and moment to carry it on.

Psalm 146

The first step is no slight foot;
~~the first step is no narrow gain on a willing map.

Hail storms the summer pasture;
~~hail storms the sleeping homeland the way illness brings desire for better.

Hail summons a start;
~~hail summons the one ready to follow faith’s path.

Psalm 145

God Within, my guardian, disclose my soul, crest of an honest life:
~~not unlike the peacock, plainly a simple bird, simply a splendid bird.