Today’s poem goes way back to my first book, The Wind and the Shadows, which I self-published in 2020. It is a whimsically serious theological reflection. (If that confused you, wait until you read the poem 😆). Spirituality is not ultimately about a belief system (though that is part of it). God is a person; spiritual life is getting to know this person we call God as we relate to Him.
Every relationship has ups and downs and seasons where we struggle to understand the other person. Relating to God is no exception. Sometimes we struggle to understand God because of what we don’t know. This is familar to most people. God is so different from us, so *other* in constitution, nature, perspective, etc. that we often bob in an ocean of what we don’t know. Underscoring this is the title of a work by an anonymous monk in the 14th century: The Cloud of Unknowing.
In other cases, what we learn about God confuses us. Fresh understanding (especially when it doesn’t fit with our preconceived beliefs) can take years of processing, talking things through with God, and waiting for fuller answers. “Godd O’ballD” explores the complexity and surrender of this space in a playful way.
Godd O’ballD
Right now
I wood
lyke 2 spell
yor nayme
with two dees
beakuz
iyme
con-fused
without fusion
un-one
Two
without u
blown to sub-atomic smithereens
(set blender to atom-smasher. Hit bl-end)
with ewe
confronted with tornadic reinteriordecorating
sudden death we(l)dding
what a mess
pureed guts
my insides
me
myself &
i(s)land.
A Wandering Minstrel 
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