Back in 2003 or 2004, I volunteered to write a couple of reflections for a Virginia Conference devotional called A Summer Read. One was a hymn about the sabbath called “On the Seventh Day God Rested and the other was a poem titled “Daughter.” When I wrote it, I had only been a father for a short while after the birth of my oldest daughter Ellen. Based upon Mark 7:24-37, it imagines the unfolding of Ellen’s life until she leaves home, a day that I thought at the time would come much, much less quickly than it has. I offer this as a meditation for Fathers’ Day.
Daughter
21 Sunday Jun 2020
Posted in poetry
The audio for my sermon for the 
What follows is the poem I read at Reveille United Methodist Church’s 5:30 Service of Lessons and Carols. I wrote it in August after hearing a radio reading of poetry by the late David Rakoff, whose style and humor influenced the form of this poem. It was designed for a service already filled with scripture, liturgy, and music, where a traditional sermon would not have worked. I hope you enjoy it. Merry Christmas.
Gideon (A Poem For My Nation)