Jack Pelham

Do
steals
time
from
be
and
life
is
not
so
good.

Be
calms
do
and
leaves
him
fulfilled.

Peace came home today.
Life is horrible without him.
Should he go away again,
I hope he will not stay gone so long.

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Note:  This was written during an extended time of depression, during which I struggled often to find peace.  It would be quite some time before I found a truly serviceable peace, and that didn’t come until I was able to identify and rectify some foundational paradigms that were out of place.

I love language.

I love words just so
because, I think,
there is such a thing as
just so.

I love you–
No matter
How I feel.

Truth is a one-liner.

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Note:  This axiom has stayed with me ever since I first hypothesized it, and has proved itself over and over.  Whenever someone’s explanation of something is complicated, there’s a really good chance that their explanation is not the truth!

To love you
is
To love me

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Note:  I don’t remember who I wrote this for or about, but it was almost certainly open the occasion of observing that it does me good to love.

I had to make myself sit here today–
And now–oddly enough–
I have to make myself leave.

This was good for me–
I learned some things.

I am proud of me.

It is good for my soul
to sit here
Like it is good for my body
to sleep.

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NOTE:  This was about studying the Bible on a day when I did not feel so inclined.  I now feel about the same with on any of a number of topics:  history, religion, politics, etc.  Learning at that particular time was  a struggle, for it often meant moving against the tide of the unhealthy church of which I was a member.  Having since been freed from such encumbrances, however, I learn something new (and useful) nearly every day.

It is good to be weak.

I am built with a piece missing.
Whether I shall ever find it I do not know,
But were I build whole,
I would never have gone
Searching for the rest of me.

And, having never searched,
I would never have stumbled across you.

But you knew that, didn’t you?

It is good to be weak.

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NOTE:  I now flatly reject this piece as a misunderstanding of my own nature.  I had most certainly not been “built with a piece missing”.  Rather, it was simply the elements of life that I had built for myself on faulty foundations that seemed to me like missing pieces.  I do not go about yearning now as then, and I believe it is because I have finally seated this paradigm in its rightful place:  The truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, wherever it may lead.  And like it:  Vet everything before believing it.  These have made all the difference in my emotional life.

It seems the very nature of
Progress in my life
Is in the undoing of a
Great number of my
Previous accomplishments!

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Note:  This is still generally true of my life, although I’ve made good progress so far.  At this point, I’m no longer surprised to learn I had been wrong about something!

It amazes me that
After all these years
We are still
On page one.

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Note:  This poem, circa 1998, was likely a reference to Bible study, and how it doesn’t take much investigation before we end up “back in Genesis” trying to take yet another look at the puzzle to be sure we have got it right.  I do, however, see this same theme at work in areas outside religion.  And interestingly, I’ve come to a point, at least in some areas of life, where I think I have progressed beyond “page one”. So I’ve either grown somewhat since I penned this thought, or I am more deluded! But regarding religion, I must say that I’m still working on a major study of Genesis 1, and am far from having it all solved!