Six Holy Land Sonnets: David Muller

Foundation Stone

Years stack on years, in courses built by time,

Up from the foundations of history,

Forming the parapets on which I stand,

Viewing the world and all its mystery.

We sail the stars and walk the oceans' floor,

Dissect an atom, track a planet's flight.

We know so much and yet our souls are poor,

Created for the day, we live in night.

Yet when we journey to the wall's deep base,

And walk among the great foundation stones,

We feel the weight of history and Grace

Across our thoughts and singing in our bones.

For God moves through this world from day to day,

If we but pay attention on the way.

Galilean Silence

When words become a burden on my soul,

And all the sounds of life break on my ears,

They grind upon my heart without parole,

To drain my hope across my face as tears.

The days of life stretch forth in endless grey

Through valleys carved into a deep despair

Where ev'ry laughter swiftly fades away

To leave my senses numbly unaware.

But then upon the Galilean Sea

Within a boat of timeless wooden build,

A Holy silence gently sets me free

Into a life where Love might be fulfilled.

For in the quiet hidden by each word,

Is where the love of God is truly heard.

Masada

I stood within a fortress mountain peak,

So far above the sea they say is dead,

Where even in this day there is mystique,

Creating Holy tales with words unsaid.

Through baths King Herod ordered to be built,

To rooms where zealots faced their final day,

I cannot help but feel a little guilt,

For wanting all the tales yet cannot stay.

Too soon back to the world of common time,

Too soon back to the clutter of my life,

I pray that God will help my find the rhyme

Which spreads His peace and someday ends the strife.

What better use could I make of my years,

Than work to heal those things which cause God tears.

Talking Stones

"The very stones themselves would then cry out",

Are words that I have heard since I was born,

But I admit I always held a doubt

That festered in my spirit like a thorn.

But as I walked among the many shrines

From Mary's birth to where the cross once stood.

My fingers traced the ancient rock designs

And heard the whispers, not quite understood.

They grew to be the songs of the devout

From generations long since come and gone

Till at the wall of prayer they were a shout

Which left the limits of my faith redrawn.

I never thought that stones would talk to me

To set my feet on paths I can't yet see.

Unexpected Outcome

To follow footsteps through the sands of time

I journeyed to the lands through which He trod,

The thought that I might meet with the sublime,

Just turn a corner, meet the living God.

But what I found was tourists and their guides

Exploring sites with flashes burning bright.

Then buying gifts each holy scene provides,

For friends and fam'ly when they reunite.

Until in silence came a truth unheard,

Why do you seek the living with the dead?

If you should truly seek the Gospel's Word,

Then all you need to do is turn your head.

For God is best encountered in the glance

Of ev'ry one you meet by plan or chance.

Unsure Hope

A call to pray sung in a foreign tongue,

In compliment to daylights final breath,

Took tales of ancient times and made them young,

Which made me feel Christ's passion and His death.

My soul was torn and healed within a thought,

My Savior's pain, His gift of Grace to me.

If all the world could know what He has bought,

Then walls could fall and ev'ryone be free.

But daylight fades back to our earthly night,

While singing voices softly drift away,

And sorrow will upon my hope alight,

As mankind kills God's spiritual bouquet.

How will I dare to follow where He calls,

When all I see are ever growing walls?