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559 - Our Jeopardy |
Our Jeopardy
It is good to use
best china
treasured dishes
the most genuine goblets
or the oldest lace tablecloth
there is a risk of course
every time we use anything
or anyone shares an inmost
mood or moment
or a fragile cup of revelation
but not to touch
not to handle
not to employ the available
artifacts of being
a human being
that is the quiet crash
the deadly catastrophe
where nothing
is enjoyed or broken
or spoken or spilled
or stained or mended
where nothing is ever
lived
loved
pored over
laughed over
wept over
lost
or found.
Thomas John Carlisle is a graduate of Williams College and Union Theological Seminary in New York. He has served several Presbyterian pastorates, but his ministry in recent years has been writing poetry and giving seminars for students and pastors. He has published ten volumes of poems and is a regular contributor to Church Management.