Upon the resting waters

Upon the resting waters
Thy rippling response
Hath wakened
This reflection

Awhile their traces
May churn and tremmer
Till their waves have wandered
Out to sea

So now anew
This current change
The shore remains
Yet they erode
Little by litte

With each passing wave
Their margins mend
And new pathways
Prove

Ah this work
Of waiting and eroding
Old ways to new
Of patient persistense

Thine old rooted resistance
Is wasting away
That new channels
May change
Thy coarse
Anew

So now
To uncharted
Seas of tempest
And tranquility

Grant us this
Ability
To accept
This fair
Set wind

And let it fill
Our sails
Till this course
Prevails

And works
Its way in us
May we anchor
Thus when

At last to westward
Waters we shall harbor
Through winter
And through spring

Then shall come
Our joy at last
When we have
Looked long

Upon our
Journeyed
Past
And found
Our way
At last

-Joshua Lee Foist

When I do yet wonder

When I do yet wonder
How at times these thoughts
Do blunder
Away away into the day

The rushing in and out
They quickly fade
And I am left in their
Rummaging

Wondering what they all mean
The things unseen
Yet felt and fleeting they
Still flourish their fluttering
In me

The mind and its chemistry
Partake of this
Yet what for this
Thy presence alone

Can beckon me
And tease
Yet I cannot please
For I am lost
And cannot offer
The way

Tis in retrospect
The thought
Which edges
Its way in

Twas sin
This passing
Or pardon me now
I was lost and knew not
Till now

Thy way was crooked
Thy signs were shaded
With doubts debated
And no clarity did come

For the dismal duration
Of preoccupation
Did its chipping away
And still what of the day

Tis clear that choice
Lies always before
Though distractions
All around reactions

If not to hold steadfast
This fortress cannot
Hope to hold
No earthly support
Can hold it complete

Save surrender
And always
It comes

Yet pride has its way
Of reckoning
And wishes to obstain
From humility's pain

For there's dignity to uphold
And the ways of old
Have always remained

Why wander from
Their security now
Though sorrows be there
Their passing in prayer

Yet seeps the poison
Of every word
And wounds
Grow deeper

With every listening ear
So this be thy moment
Of waking

To this all else forsaking
For no other fix
Will do

Its prison doth always find
Their irons are cold
And not kind

So quicken then
To thy release
That thou mayist find
Pure peace

Not a portion
To pass the pain
But one that comes
When courage remain

And acceptance
Doth start to know
Thy heart

No judgement to stand
Tis patient and prudent
Perishing all thy part
Of poisonous power

Till at last be thy hour
Of surrender
That moment shall not
Thee quickly forget

For there thy savior
Did bear thy burden
And carry it all
Beyond the grave

That thee
In thy lowest estate
May rise anew
By his single sacrifice

Thy one sure hope
Hath found
Thy help
Hath come
At last

-Joshua Lee Foist

On days where creativity takes its lull

On days where creativity takes its lull
And my mind begins to strull
Longing for a time and place
To think and think profoundly

To stop and take a breath
From all the noise of the day
When little seems left
But to breathe in and out

Yet still within my heart
I know there is a deeper part
A substance far richer and grand
That for the now seems far from hand

To dream me back to desire
Where my imagination had its day
To where the joys of life
Are each and every day

And not lost in the dismal decay
Of the on and on repetition
That tirelessly pulls me from my
Position of hope

Yet sunken in the shadows
I see a flickering faint existence
That mirrors to me my own self
And beckons me near

Come closer without fear
There's still hope of this dream
Let not doubt or anything
Be thy mountainous impossibility

Thy time is thy own
And how it is spent
Is chosen tick by tick
Till the shards of sand
In thy glass doth cease

May it not be then
That comes thy peace
But may thy joy increase
Day by day

As thee pass it through
So do as thou wilt do
For as long as it is
Given you

And do it well
That in thy passing
Many may tell thy tale
And how thy life was spent

Let not thy mind resent
The wanderings of what
Might have been
But when when when

For then thy life was lived
Thy stories were told
Each day in their own
Particular way

So what ere
The doubts of this season
Remember the reason
Is to make much of what
Is there to make
And all the rest
Forsake

-Joshua Lee Foist