Shunned At A Funeral - The Sermon Of The Wilds

Gasps and sighs
I was sitting where the pines
Grow thin and where the ground
Remembers rain.
When the hush leaned
Close and asked me first what
I'd lost
And what
I'd gained.
So I asked
The quiet just to see if the world
Had words for me.
If you could
Talk, what would you tell a heart still
Learning how to be
If you could talk, what would you say
What truth would you not turn away?
If you could speak, if
I could
Hear, what would you tell
And music] me
Standing here
A dove stepped down from ash and limb with weather in her eyes.
She said
I saw the whole world around once.
I
Watched the old one die
But mercy learned to float that day on wooden lifted wings.
And land
Came back not clean but kept by
Promise, not by strength
If you could talk, what would
You say?
What truth would you not turn away?
If you could speak, if
I could
Hear, what would you tell me
Standing here
A lamb stood and singing] still
In clover shade, too calm for what he knew.
He said, "I learned that innocence
Still bleeds for what is true
They pointed once and whispered low, "Behold the cost
Of love." I never fought, I
Never ran, I only showed what's done
A raven crossed the open sky, black
Sentence written slowly said, "I fed
Where death had ruled, but life still
Told me go
I learned the dark is not a
Throne, it's only borrowed
Ground, and even great things must
Open up when mercy makes
A sound
If you could talk, would you
Say what truth would steady what
I sway
If you could speak, if
I could hear
What would you tell me
Standing here?
A lion
Breathed beside the stone cold voice
Held in wild, he said, "I learned that
Victory first learned to be a child.
I
Roared once loud and said, 'I'll play
Where kings are meant to fall
The crown came back, but not like before
It answered to a cross and
I saw then what they all
Had known, what fur and feather see
Creation doesn't gaze at hope
It leans towards certainty
If you could talk, what would
You say?
What truth would lie the narrow way
If you could speak if
I could hear
And music] you, tell me love
Was always here
And the forest didn't need a voice, it
Already testified
Every living thing
I met
Had learned how life survived