Three Times Fallen

Splintered, dead weight of the wood on my shoulder,

Cutting. The flesh and the muscles and bones of my

Body are beaten and bruised; prodded, pulled, rodded.

Each breath comes wheezing; now squeezing up, lifting and

Breathing against the shards, pierced; press the flesh of my

Face, wrapped and round my skull, contacted, contracted,

Tightened and clamped; the hard ground comes up fast to my

Eyes and I’ve cracked my lips open and bashed my cheek

Broken; the sweat, drool, and blood drip from my chin, my nose running.

Spectral chimeras, utopian daydreamers -

Spare his Mother the sight of this spectacle.

Specter accepted, his scepter, his sacrifice.

Man of derision, despised, and mocked:

Humankind’s savior, redeemer, our steadfast rock.

-Gary Edward Geraci

High Face Crimes

to seek, fear; to pray

for one who’d smite your “right” cheek

“left”- a lamb to shear

• Gary Edward Geraci

The Cold Hard Truth

Life or liberty?

Hell is for those who kill life:

No liberty there.

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.” Mark 1:15

-Gary Edward Geraci

Anaphora

the epiclesis

is immediate; not man’s work.

action - the Spirit’s.

-Gary Edward Geraci

Stable City Skylines

No longer telling of the desolate pleasure tales of loose living;

That that never lasted I think we can all relate.

Besides, as of late,

A more pleasurable, genuine happiness,

A joy rattled and racked soul,

Was found and traced back, traced further and even farther back

To the far flung days of firm, engineered foundations.

Form from the generic sciences of the

Complementarity between dissimilar materials,

Paradoxical perhaps but permeated to the core by the

Permanency of steel beams, machine pile driven, to solid bedrock;

Strange bed fellows but the resulting procreation:

One hundred proud floors blasting absolutely skyward

With a design life of at least one hundred years.

“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth” (Job 38:4)

-Gary Edward Geraci

Would They Lock Me Up?

I’m on the brink of

Running out into the street

“Lord! Lord! He’s inside!”

-Gary Edward Geraci 

Immaculate Heart of Mary

Immaculate Heart

like a million dollar mule

moving saving grace

-Gary Edward Geraci

Shifting Winds

great Awakening

renews the whole of the earth

make haste Holy Ghost!

-Gary Edward Geraci

Their Witness His

This morning’s afternoon hopes to be

Of peace and painless consolations,

Love kind, kindness, sound security:

Freed man; fervid prayer and mentations.

Noon, after mourning doves flying flexed 

In fixed numbers, sort, soar, slightly spread:

Shook, shoulder-sigh and I sit row high next 

To a young girl; we have shared bread.

Her mom too; familiar faces lined,

Friends filed, like family, one journey;

Returning, turning from sin; one mind;

Content, the content of our souls sprung free.

So our sojourn is as nutmeg swirl

In a petite, cold porcelain cup

Of eggnog; poured, powdered, stirred to whirl:

World’s saints mark and flavor; saints to sup.

One by one we prep and pray, make way

To the One who gives to bind and loose;

Blind Mercy Divine, He takes away

The rancor of sin and its deadly noose.

Then I run to pray my penance, pleased

By the ease; this certainty; my resolve:

To execrate frail faults; fraught misdeeds;

To consecrate work, problems to solve.

For those who partake my love is great,

Rest assured: a cloud of witnesses!

We confirm each other; smiles, handshake,

Yet they are face to Face; their witness His!

-Gary Edward Geraci

if you but take a bite of this forbidden fruit...

what seems to me a 

perennial temptation

i can be like God

-Gary Edward Geraci 

Bearded Gospel Men

bearded Gospel men 

just one hostile thing they’ve feared

unrepented sin 

Gary Edward Geraci

World Religions

many look and see

God diff’rently but He sees

us all: progeny

• Gary Edward Geraci

Towel Boy

“so what kind of man would keep his wife chained to a budget and then make a deduction when she toppled over one of his orchid plants? he deserved it that she left him!”

I simply replied although with a tinge of anger in my voice

“so what kind of mother would wrap her child up in a towel and leave him restrained on the bed while the rest of his four siblings rolled and rollicked around him in play?”

My mother turned a crimson red in the face

-Gary Edward Geraci

Kerygma

evangelized kind,

wise words; wisdom for mankind’s

endless happiness

-Gary Edward Geraci

The Scandal of the Lights

Handsome rows of homes were well lit 

until recently, 

Christmas Day. 

Red, blues, and greens flashing and sparkling 

commercial glee and secular fantasy, 

a few lone Nativity scenes. No sooner than 

the Day 

had past so too these lights have been swallowed 

up, so soon it seems. 

Oh but those scandalous few who 

dare to shine on, plugging in anyway, 

you know they’re likely to greet you 

“Merry Christmas” 

a week past the Epiphany, 

and all through the “Christmas Weekdays” 

that govern their calendars;

international feast days; to dine 

and binge right up to the day of 

the “Baptism of the Lord.” 

Those non-imposing gentle lights; 

proposing, softly shining luminaries 

now well into the worldly workplaces 

and well past the day before the first day of 

Ordinary Time.

-Gary Edward Geraci

Nuclear Cell of Society

Firm permanency

Hearts set, a grand edifice

Tempests - harmony

-Gary Edward Geraci