There in the trenches
I've seen headless henchmen
Bending spoons
For hapless children
Cremated too soon

Demons croon
They zip
They zag
As the lower class picks their scabs
The gift of gab
Sent towards rips from packs
The rush alone could make one gag!

Have you been there?
Would you go back?

There in the trenches
I've met widows and wives
Carousing with voyeurs
Polishing pikes
Their best years behind
Spent on pyrite-
Euphoric alibis
Which eviscerate bright eyes

Will the Church draw nigh
Or watch the stranded die?

Into the trenches
Few do proudly go
Ash pollutes the snow
Falling like pyrex smoke
You might choke
When violence hits your nose

Deathblows
Thrown by the dead broke
Cross your eyes
And clog your throat
Check your pulse
As an ambulance clears the roads

Would you leave ivory thrones
To reach a people with no hope?

There in the trenches
Christ spent His time
Teaching the poor
Healing the blind
Who are we to stand aghast?
Shrugging our shoulders
Fine wine in antique glass?

When revival comes
Will it move your feet
With Gospel passion
Down the cracking streets?

Could you spare a dime
To prepare a meal
For a drooping reed
With snakebitten heals?

There in the trenches
Good News must flow
Will you remain aloof
Or be the one to boldly go?

"A Beatitude Prayer"
(See Matthew 5:3-12)

Teach me to cleave
To the richness of poverty
Every drop of me
A proper offering

I'll happily mourn
And feel the warmth
Of Your comforting ways
Calling me to faith

To run with meekness
Strength in weakness
Trusting Your providence
A tower of strong defense

I will hunger
In awe and wonder
For the knowledge You grant
Hope to cleanse each garbled glance

Your mercy in me
Will freely seep
To fiends in the streets
In the slush and the sleet

So they can blessedly see
Your face in purity
With minds fixed above
This cursed ball of dust

Make me a heavenly son
When harmony is unsung
Spreading the Great News:
Men can have peace with You

Even if I'm hated
Cursed and berated
Like all the godly before
Still my joy is more

Even when persecuted
Reviled and excluded
I know my one reward
Rests with You
My joy is more

You've called us from the darkness
Of sins feigned delight
To offer up devotion
And chase the light

In humble adoration
Through Your awesome might
We can face the ages
And chase the light

Our weapons forged anew
Our strategies revised
To better testify
As we chase the light

This our one ambition
To glorify the Christ
Our crosses hoisted upright
As we chase the light

The call to long endurance
Effectually ignites
Creating faith from indifference
So we can chase the light

We've known the lash of estrangement
In our once futile minds
Your bludgeoned body was the payment
So we can chase the light

The call to saving faith
Runs ever deep and wide
Streams of ineffable grace
Draw us to chase the light

Love
I'm lost without it
Bogged down
Across the mountains
I could turn my longings high
And offer up the angels cry
But if I do not have charity
My cymbals crash in rude cacophony

Love
I could donate my very body
In glad service for my brothers
In willing service for my country
I could be swallowed by flames
Give my clothes and all my gains
And if love is not my aim
Work is void and intention vain

Love
Ever balanced with truth
In all our dealings
As our proof
Hating sin
Hating deception
Rightly serving
Until we breach the gates of heaven

Love
You show
And love You gave
To those born of the grave
Upon a cross
Your very life
Through blood and faith
We're declared right

Love
None can mention greater
Than which is offered
By our loving Lord and Savior
Pierced and whipped
Sweat and spit
For the Church His side was split
Enthroned in heaven He now sits

Love
He is
Pure love
He gives
My ransom paid
My heart reshaped
Through His blood I do draw near
And through His love I'm freed of fear

Hold me when I'm broken
By sorrows of the night
And I pray for Your glory to shine through as light
Though I pass through thick darkness
I know morning comes
You've promised to hold me
Until my worries are none

I lift up my head
For the sorrow is gone
In Your joy I'm refreshed
Quickened and made strong

Though the trials may come
I'll be not afraid
For in the cold of the night
Your grace will not fade
Your grace will not fade

Through our pain Your proclaim
"My grace will remain"

No camera flash
I might evaporate
When the other kids laugh
I can't commiserate
They don't know what I know
They don't go where I go

No winter dance
Another semester passed
My basketball
My sweaty palms
They're all flat
They're all flat

No report cards
Only hospital gowns
Crying fathers
My mother frowns
They don't see what I see
They don't feel how I feel

No mirrors
No websites
My fears hide
The dessert aisle
My social life
A desert isle

My health
Volatile
Myself
Scars and piles
Blinded by starlight
I faint on the car ride

Sixteen
In treatment since fourteen
Hide the scissors
Stash the razor
They make me feel so real
A five-pound loss sealed the deal

This nurse is nice
She makes me laugh
The others are lizards
They hunt in packs
She's been there
Tenth grade with thinned hair

She's been there
Missing the fresh air
She's been there
Confined to a wheelchair
She knows what I know
She sees what I see

Eighteen
I find recovery
No more treatment homes
No more holidays alone
No more hospital gowns
No more parental frowns

I write this letter
To all the winter girls
Struggling girls
Scar and shiver girls
I know what they know
I feel what they feel

Years death obsessed
All hunger suppressed
Splintered arms
Senseless harm
Seeking control
To calm your soul

I know how it feels
Hating recovery
Residential trips
Counting calories
Skipping meals
Fleeing from misery

I know how it feels
I've seen what you see
But i won't go back
I won't give in
Once a shivering winter girl
Now
I hope summer never ends

Step out from the cold
Embrace the warmth
Icicle girl
You deserve so much more