My mind cannot comprehend
The quickness of the speed
Of time as it passes
As more of time we need

The sun rises up each morning
And a day anew begins
Then the sun will set
And the day anew, it ends

The morning came so silent
As a promise new and stark
Then silently disappeared
Into the black of dark

Another day to quickly gone
Now the days have turned to years
With more behind than ahead
And eyes now dimmed with tears

Beyond deaths darkened portal
The deep and silent grave
In the abyss that lies beyond
Is that place that's ruled by day

Where the light of God forever shines
Within that realm unseen
And angels there abound
To love , lift up , esteem

It is a bright and beautiful place
Where abides all believers souls
It holds all true peace and joy
No more is death or woe

No need of sun or moon or star
For the light of God, he is it's king
There all faithful servants to the lord himself
Will live under Jesus reign

To walk in eternal life
Forever in Gods own haven
Where love and peace and kindness dwell
Together forever in heaven

The sun shines today,
I smile ,
And thank God ,
Above.

Looking out across the emerald valley
That today lies hidden under a shroud of grey
I wish for the sun to raise its head
And lift this shroud away

The beauty that hangs from heavens floor
It is concealed from my eye
Yet I know that the blue above
Still paints the shielded sky

The Forrest rest low in the valley far
Though it is but a ghost unseen
It lies painted by the masters hand
In shades of brown and green

There is also beauty in the grey
Though it is harder seen
While looking through the heavy fog
Still there lies the blue and green

The cold grey mist causes me to ponder
The things I hold the dearest
Sometimes it is through the grey
That I can see my life the clearest

Today the words I speak
Will lift up and edify
I will listen to the words you say
And not become angry without a reason why

RLB
James 1:19

All of life's greatest pleasures
Are those created by Gods own hands
The height of the sky and the depth of the sea
And the beauty upon the lands

The shimmering stars in the sky at night
Hang weightless above our heads
Keeping a vigilant watch over us
As we rest within our beds

A sea so deep it is still unknown
It remains a mystery to mortal men
While ships and boats float above
We wonder what lies below unseen

The beauty to us that God reveals
For our human eyes to behold
Has more majesty in each new scene
Than you would think the world could hold

Gods very work we can see
It is one of life's truest treasures
For compared to the beauty God has made
Mankinds hands could never measure

RLB

I am just a flag
I do not mean to cause discontent
All I did was wave
Over men who into battle went

The motives of those men's hearts
I could not see
But from what I observed
It was a fight for liberty

I am just a flag
I cannot **** or hate
Let me wave again
My presence reinstate

It truly makes no sense
For me to be taken down
When the reason for the hate
Within men's hearts is found

You men should find within your heart
The need to love and to forgive
I'm just a flag that waves
Above land on which men live

Simply just a symbol
Only cloth and thread
Let me leave you with some words
A man I knew once said;

"A house divided against itself cannot stand"
President Abraham Lincoln
Springfield ILL,
June 17,1858

RLB

Heaven must be
A beautiful home
For loved ones we know
That have already gone
A beautiful land
Full of eternal day
Where those here we loved
Now in eternity wait
Where the music is so sweet
And all sounds are so fair
Rivers like glass
In that land over there
The birds how they sing
Songs of sweet praise
In a land that knows not
The ending of days

From
Beneath
Winters
Numbing
Hold
Spring
Shall
Burst
Forth
Renewed
and
Bold

Talking
To
GOD
Intimately
And
Listening
For
His
Loving
Response

Since the day of the first created man
When the initial breath of life was given
The bell of time has continually rang
For the ones now gone and those still living

One by one echo the rings
Deep within the ears of living men
Then comes the moment they are no more heard
For the bell has stopped to ring not again

Each time the bell  of time rings out
That ring is lost forevermore
Becoming just an echo in the past
A dying ring that sounds no more

Each living soul hears the bell
And each ring we hear we claim as mine
All men past and present and those to come
Are the ones for whom tolls the bell of time

What has a man gained
What of value does his treasure chest hold
If he die without Christ
And lose his own soul

Matthew 16:26

As I look upon the image
Of a face I have never known
I ask "What story might I see,
If your life to me we're shown?

Were your sorrows just as mine
Your troubles and your trials
Did the same things bring you joy
And laughter along with smiles

Now you are just a ghost
Yet in this image I can see your face
A life from a distant past
A story from another place

My story to will someday hide
In an image one may behold
As one like me looks into the face
Of a man from long ago

I think the sky above
Is the bottom of heavens floor
And if this thought is true
Where is heavens door?

Is heavens door unseen?
By the eyes of mortal men
And if this is true
How do we enter in?

God who lives in heaven
Made for man a way
That we could enter through
And reside with him someday

Heavens door exist
Though not in common form
It is Christ the son of God
Who was of a ****** born

Upon a cross Christ died
But rose to life again
And he became the door
Through which to heaven we may enter in

Forgiveness he offers from sin
To all not just a few
If we will accept, believe and repent
He becomes the door we enter through

No opening is there anywhere
No wooden door nor frame
Just a simple faith and belief
In Jesus precious name.

A beautiful blanket of white
Covers the frozen earth
It is slowly disappearing
As spring is marching forth

The road of life is ever changing,
It offers to us no one to blame,
But I ask "Why can't only the bad parts wash away ,
And leave the good to remain.

RLB

I've looked and sought through the days
But still I do not see
Any mother made from the mold
That shaped the mother God made for me

My mother so loving
My mother so kind
She knitted her family
With ties that bind

O mother I miss you
Your tender voice your joyous laugh
your gentle smile
I know I shall see you again
But I must remain for yet a little while

My mother she waits
On heavens sweet shore
To welcome us home
Forevermore.

RLB

Yesterday now is passed
It silently rest behind
All of it that now remains
Are the memories within my mind

Precious memories that I recall
Of precious friends and loved ones dear
They fill my thoughts of yesterday
My memories hold them near

It is hard to understand why time
So quickly passes by
Takes the ones we dearly love
And leaves us with tear dimmed eye

Yet I look to tomorrow in faith
Holding to the promise that Jesus told
You shall meet those you love again
In heaven on streets of gold

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18

Excuse me, may I ask,
Have you seen yesterday?
It was here just a moment ago,
But seems to have quietly slipped away,

It looked very much like today,
In its length and span,
It was filled with familiar faces,
And was once held within my hand,

The only difference when compared to today,
Is that yesterday held loved ones dear,
How sad it is that there they remain,
O how I wish yesterday would reappear,

I miss yesterday's cherished moments,
Inside ,my heart knows I shall never find,
Yesterday in tomorrow's hours,
For tomorrow to must be left behind.

RLB

At the time we never give much thought
To folks we touch with our hands
We put our arms around them
Then we take it back again

In a quickly passing moment
Our hands will touch the ones we cherish
Then just as quickly as we feel them
The touch we gave will perish

Time, it passes soon upon the wind
And those we love we now long to touch
We wish once more to feel them here
Knowing now it meant so much

Treasure the way a loved one feels
Cherish them each passing day
Hug them close and hold their hand
And you will have a memory made

Life is made up of so many emotions
It is a twisted and mangled scene
An intertwined ball of what is good and what is bad
Full of confusion and things serene

It's so hard for my mind to understand
This mixture of love and hate
This combination of polar opposites
These intersecting marks upon lifes slate

Yet I know within my heart
Both good and evil make up this life
And there is no way to seperate
For there is no peace without the strife

So I struggle within the storm
My heart always knowing what is right
I've accepted there will always be a battle
Between the lies of darkness and the truth of light

Pain in life will always exist
Comfort to has its space
These two will always be in a struggle
In this pain verses comfort place

RLB

Within
The
Solitude
Of
Natures
Canopied
Cathedral
GOD
Quietly
Walks

Time cannot be measured
For we know not its length
Time gives to us our weakness
As it takes from us our strength

My
Heart
Is
Dark
And
Empty
And
Cold,
As
Death.

O what heights you have reached
Green  little Leaf
But soon the seasons change
And you will fall to me

Now, I cannot touch you
I can only look and see
It is sad that you must die
Before you will come to me

You know not I watch
In the summers breeze I have seen you dance
There high upon your stage
You sway and you prance

You posses such beauty
Up there close to heavens stars
Just a simple little Leaf
But I love you as you are

I want to hold you , Leaf
But out of reach you reside
I long to gently touch you
Before it is you die.

Seconds to minutes to hours
They come and they disappear
Then as quickly as a shooting star
We have passed away a year

We may have days before us
But soon they will be left behind
And become a year now gone
That we shall no more find

Time is spent with each breath we take
Time that is never regained
As we spend do we spend it wisely
Or do we waste it just the same

Live your life fully each day
Spend with joy your alloted time
You know not how much you have
Just as I do not know mine

The clock counts away the moments
As they give themselves away
Then the clock it to soon stops
And we lay still within the grave

The
Song
Of
The
Sparrow,
Is
Simply,
Praise
To
GOD.

A house is made of wood and nails
Some are made of brick and stone
Yet when finished it is just a shell
But when filled with love its home

A new chance
A new occasion
A new day

RLB

Morning pristine
Slate clean
Day untarnished

RLB

Each day individually ,
And the days that constitute the span
of your life,
Become what you decide they will be,
What you determine to make of them,
Each one forming and taking shape,
Into what you envision for each moment,
Of each day,
Of your entire life.

Treasured memories never fade
They are not dimmed by the span of time
Every detail is forever etched
Upon the thoughts of the recalling mind

Precious memories held so dear
That never fade nor fail
They are a pathway to my past
An old loved and familiar trail

That leads me back to my yesterday's
When my heart yearns to return once more
Back to the place where the memory was born
A cherished place I knew before

Within my memories live those I love
In images as clear as a crystal stone
I keep them hidden inside my heart
These treasured memories that are my own.

After our days are lived
After our work is done
After we have loved
After life has gone

RLB

My
Joy
Is
Tempered
By
My
Saddness,
Both
Reside
Within
My
Heart
Today.

RLB

Why do you hide yourself
Keeping your rays of warmth concealed
How I long for your breaking forth
Your glory once more revealed

To long you have hidden unseen
Behind the curtain of cold and gray
Break Forth Break  Forth Break Forth I plead
Break Forth with light of day

All I touch to my touch is cold
The trees they shiver within the wind
All of nature that breathes is hidden
Waiting for you to perform again

The gray cold curtain has hung low to long
I pine for it to rise
Revealing the performer upon the stage
Majestically lifting up into the sky

RLB
Longing for the sun to shine.

Have you ever heard ,
Listening to natures sounds,
GOD speak to you,
From heavens hallowed ground ?

We write the words we write
So eyes that read will know
Within we are poets
In heart and mind and soul.

RLB

The moon tonight shines from the eastern sky
Through the trees crooked and barren limb
And as I look upon this mysterious beauty
I can only think of him

He who placed the moon so high
So that all human eyes might see
Is the same who changed the seasons
That in turn changed the tree

He who gives the moon
It's bright and brilliant light
Is the same who holds the stars
Above the darkened night

He holds in perfect place
Each shining light under heavens floor
With an unseen and a mighty hand
GOD!
To you be praise forevermore .

RLB

A
Heart
Turned
To
Sapphire
Under
This
Worlds
Obsidian
Sky

RLB