God of Love

‘Nature Poem’ by Tommy Pico Review

www.goodreads.com/book/show/32311036

“NDN teens have the highest rate of suicide of any population group in America. A white man can massacre 9 black ppl in a church and be fed Burger King by the cops afterward. A presidential candidate gains a platform by saying Mexican immigrants are murdered and rapists

It’s hard for me to imagine curiosity [in America] as anything more than a pretext for colonialism” (Tommy Pico, ‘Nature Poem,’ 40).

“Look, I’m sure you really do just want to wear those dream catcher earrings. They’re beautiful. I’m sure you don’t mean any harm, I’m sure you don’t really think abt us at all. I’m sure you don’t understand the concept of off-limits. But what if by not wearing a headdress in yr music video or changing yr damn mascot and perhaps adding .05% of personal annoyance to yr life for the twenty minutes it lasts, the 103 young ppl who tried to kill themselves on the Pine Ridge Indian reservation over the past four months wanted to live 50% more” (Tommy Pico, ‘Nature Poem,’ 56).

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Be Still…God is Our Refuge

God, you call me to

act for justice and mercy.

But teach me stillness.

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I like to do. I see following God as action. Faith as a verb. That is true. But what does it also mean to also ‘be still’ in God’s presence? To find stillness in God as my refuge (Psalm 46)?

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God,

I am called to act,

to do:

to advocate

to collaborate

to demand justice

to show mercy

to love profusely.

But what does it mean to be still?

To know that you are my refuge?

To find refuge

and strength

in the stillness

of God’s presence and power:

God’s love.

Lord, hear my prayer.

Amen.

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A Pigeon and God’s Presence

I scratch and crawl

through fatal attempts

at prayer perfection;

seeking the right words

and phrases to crack

the code of Divine Engagement.

But then, a glance

out the window –

the vibrant blue sky and

the awkwardly fluttering pigeon –

I found God

looking at me

deeply and desirously

with an audible hearty chuckle.

The pigeon landed on a telephone wire

and shit without shame

sure of its belonging and being.

And I laughed,

deeply and uproarously,

prayer punctuating the giggles

as I felt God’s gentle caress

to not take myself

too seriously.

But to rest in the seriousness of

God’s love and desire

for me; in my

most basic needs and desires,

without shame,

as with the bumbling and shitting pigeon,

God is present with me.

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Doxology

God of Love:

Working for the flourishing of all people –

toppling white supremacy, patriarchy, and affluence –

dispersing power to all people –

enabling all of creation to live fully.

Centering marginalized and oppressed voices

from prophetic resistance

to Kingdom community

of holistic well-being.

Racism, homophobia, sexism –

all tools of oppression and domination –

cast into the flames of Hell.

Hell:

the chosen rejection of God’s love

and flourishing of God’s creation.

And the God of wholeness

will be uplifted and

reign in Love,

Eternally.

Amen.

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