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    A Ragged God: Poems & Reflections
    A Ragged God: Poems & Reflections
    A Ragged God: Poems & Reflections
    Ebook85 pages38 minutes

    A Ragged God: Poems & Reflections

    By Dan Turner

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    About this ebook

    Dan Turner is a poet of profound insight and spirituality. This book collects poems across several decades, with themes ranging from family, nature, spirituality and the poignant pursuit of justice.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJohn R. Mabry
    Release dateMar 28, 2016
    ISBN9781940671796
    A Ragged God: Poems & Reflections

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      Book preview

      A Ragged God - Dan Turner

      contents

      - god -

      If God

      I’m Waiting

      What Kind of God

      Godog

      God Burdened

      Are You There?

      The Man

      Windswept

      A Past Thought

      - family -

      Three Generations

      Meeting On a Day

      Away from Home

      Winter Memory Chicago

      For Charlie

      Alice, the Dog in Memoriam

      My Two Sisters: For Terry and Nancy

      This Body

      Desert

      The Children

      - beauty -

      White Bird

      The Rebirth and Death of a Monastery

      Sights on a Walk

      The Prairie

      Baja Reflection, 3-28-01

      Thunder Ranges

      The Sounds of Spring

      - justice -

      Memory and Past

      Questions

      One Night in Cambodia

      Refugee Boy

      Night in Nicaragua

      El Pueblo de los Campos

      The Women of Nicaragua

      The Woman on the Judah St. Trolley, June 20 2000

      About the Author

      DEDICATED

      to the memory of my dear friend

      STAN LUBARSKI

      and with heartfelt thanks to my wife

      ELIZABETH

      …

      If God

      If God’s face was moist upon

      the morning

      If he blinked away sleep

      and smiled when he saw me

      I would love him.

      I would love him like the sun

      or a leaf or a flower.

      Like a bird would I love him.

      If he rubbed his eyes on waking

      Oh, I would love him

      Like a brother, like a sister, like a mother

      He would be loved then.

      I’m Waiting

      If I stood still, He would bump into me.

      I would not have to search Him out.

      If I stood in this place,

      He could not miss me.

      He would fall into me, arms awkward, eyes startled.

      He would laugh like a belch of surprise.

      If I stood right here, and stretched to embrace.

      He would stumble into my arms.

      I would hold Him, my pilgrim God.

      And laugh at all His folly for my sake

      And weep at all His pain

      for my sake.

      If I but stood where I am now

      Wouldn’t He stumble into me.

      My God, my pilgrim wanderer?

      I’m waiting.

      What Kind of God

      I worship a ragged God, a dusty deity

      who staggered out of the desert

      dragging darkness after Him

      I love a burdened God,

      She-heavy with all the world’s births.

      Embracing those born out of time, the castaways

      the bastards, the peculiar, the queer.

      She is hounded through the streets

      by her hateful children whom she simply loves.

      My God is not perfect,

      seeking darkness…to scatter Light.

      To scatter Light.

      Godog

      I always wanted to love You like a dog loves.

      The most accessible sweet being.

      Is this why your name backwards means what it means?

      God Burdened

      I have carried the burden of God within me

      Weighing me down

      Through the dark bottomless pool of struggles.

      The weight of God has dragged at me,

      Suffocated me, denied me flight

      When I sought higher destinies.

      A sack of stones held me firm

      But a light beckoned.

      I wondered then whose weight I bore.

      Until I felt the heaviness was all my own,

      My own voice masquerading divinity

      A

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