When My Spirit Rises

What happens when you die?  There are lots of ideas regarding heaven or hell, or perhaps you believe that’s it and nothing happens. Some believe we are reincarnated and come back to live life again on the earth. I believe my spirit will return to God who gave it life. The body is only a temporary shell that our spirit lives in during our time on the earth. The Bible is full of metaphors that describes heaven as a magnificent place with golden streets, rivers, trees, and precious stones set into the walls. It talks of the throne of God and Jesus at His right hand. But if God is Spirit then I believe we return to the spirit world of God and whatever else that entails.  The thing that amazes me is how attached we have become to this earth , knowing all along that we can’t take it with us.

When My Spirit Rises

When my spirit rises

Unencumbered and free

No weight or worry

Accompanying me

Interesting that I value things

When in the end the spirit flies

Leaving it all behind

How much I worry and fret

But this too shall pass when I am gone

My spirit rises out of this shell

A virtual butterfly reborn

From caterpillar to chrysalis

Reborn in the image of God

Spirit Creator Redeemer Savior

Knowing there is no place for the earthly

In the Spirit world beyond

I can’t take it with me

But then again

Why would I want to

When my spirit rises

Leaving it all behind

Photos: Dwight & Ruth Roth

 

Indecision

When I think of indecision, I think of squirrels crossing the street! They run out and then stop, not sure they can make it, they freeze before darting away just in time. Sometimes they don’t make it.  The same is true with humans. Indecision causes us to freeze and not be able to function adequately. Sometimes we don’t survive either!

Indecision

Indecision is the cancer of the soul

The stealer of joy in life

The weight that becomes unbearable

Indecision races through the mind

Veering wildly around sharp turns

Looking over steep heart-stopping cliffs

Indecision distorts perception

Assumes answers yet to be given

Like quicksand sucking us down

Indecision all-consuming anxiety

Fear of the inevitable choice

Knowing it must be made

Indecision leaves us chained

Stealing our freedom to be

Stuck in the swamp of worry and woe

Indecision leaves us impotent

Lacking will to move on

Leaving us hollow and empty

Photos: Dwight L. Roth

Living With Diversity

Diversity is one of the buzz words that is used on almost every news broadcast we hear these days. It is sad to me that diversity seems to be the thing that divides us rather than bringing richness an mutual understanding to our society. It appears to me that extremes one way or the other do not help us. Attempting to force diversity on society rarely works. Instead it brings about the divide we see between the left and the right in our country today.  If we could learn to accept diversity without one side or the other trying to dominate and push its position on the other, I believe we might learn to appreciate each other better.

Living with Diversity

We must rise above the demanding

Those who would hold us back

Covering our light with darkness

Telling us we must conform

Some would have us call

Darkness light and light darkness

In a world where darkness rules

Always distorting the truth

Others would like us to believe

Conformity is the answer to faith

That questioning or having a different view

Needs to be held in question

Sad that we can’t enjoy our diversity

Without one side or the other

Feeling like they have to control

The way everyone else thinks

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Photo: Dwight L. Roth

Cobwebs of the Blue Ridge

For every new invention there is a cost. Not in making it, but in what it does to change society, culture, and the world. Electric Power is one of those inventions that is so embedded into the fabric of our life, that day to day life would stop if it should suddenly disappear.  I am very thankful to be alive in this generation. I have seen many great changes since I was born. Color TV, calculators, computers, cell phones, tablets, electric cars, Space Shuttles, rockets,  LED lights, and many more inventions  were invented during my lifetime.  Makes me feel old!! We learn to live with the side effects of all of these.

Cobwebs of the Blue Ridge

Giant spiders of steel haunt the Blue Ridge

And many mountains across the country

Spinning their webs of twisted wire

Across peaks and valleys while stretching endlessly

Glistening in the sunshine like silver threads

Shimmering with dew drops when it rains

Full of power deadly currents of life

Some with twenty-five thousand volts

From dams to cities across the way

Giant colossuses spread their webs

Bringing energy and light to the darkest night

Mountain Spiders’ webs already spun

Woven across the scars on the landscape

Over rocks and hills with a never ending hum

Without them life as we know it would cease

Don’t Give Me No Hints!

Men really are from Mars when it comes to communicating with women. My wife and I have been married forty-seven years and still haven’t mastered this one.  Most men will function if told exactly what to do. Women never seem to learn that simple fact. They always like to drop hints and hope we men will catch on and follow through.For some reason women seem to make everything a test, and then in absurd ways, attempt to tie our responses to love! Imagine that!! This tongue-in -cheek poem is a little truth and a little fiction. I hope it makes you smile.

Don’t Give Me No Hints

“The trash can’s getting full”

She does it every time

Drops those little hints

Expecting me to mind

Funny how women think

Dropping their little hints

Getting all upset

When we don’t smell the stink

Men don’t hear you

They have to be told

Over and over again

Even when they’re old

Spell it out

In no uncertain terms

Exactly what you want

But don’t drop hints

It’s not his concern

In her mind

He’ll never learn

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This poem was accepted for inclusion by Old Mount Press in the next Poetry and Prose Anthology,  What Bugs Me.  It will be going to the press this month, and will also be available on Amazon.com Kindle Books in the near future.  Type the name Tom Davis in the Amazon search to read all the past anthologies. Tom is the editor of Old Mountain Press.

Photo: Dwight L. Roth

Thanksgiving on Skyline Drive

Yesterday I spent Thanksgiving with my son and family in Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. In the afternoon we took a ride to the top of Afton Mountain where we got on the Skyline Drive. This is the northern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway in NC. It was a little hazy from the forest fires that were burning down the valley, but the winter views are still spectacular. Here is another poem without words. Enjoy!!

 

Twin Kiss

A post last week reminded me of days long gone at the local drive-in ice cream shop on Rt. 21 near my home in Pennsylvania. It was a place to take your date for pizza or a twist cone which his were the Twin Kiss got its name. My sister would bring me left over pizza from here when she came back form her dates. It was a time of innocence and coming of age that will always have a sweet place in my mind

Twin Kiss

Sweet twist vanilla and chocolate

Teasing taste buds fries on the plate

Buddy Morgan kept them coming

Burgers pizza and milkshakes running

Mugs of root beer ice on the glass

Drinking it down a very easy task

Chevys Fords and a 58 Mercury

Parked in rows no one in a hurry

Guys with ducktails Girls without worry

Bobby sox and poodle skirts cute as a button

Sitting tight by their guy teasing and cuttin’

Days long gone the Twin Kiss too

I remember those old days

How about you?

A Thankful Heart

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

A Thankful Heart

When the world closes in with darkness and sin

I am thankful for blessings beyond imagination

Through depression and illness God has restored us

Children and grandchildren bring out our love

God’s grace and mercy sent down from above

Blessed beyond measure more than we deserve

Happy Thanksgiving to all those who serve

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Photo: Dwight L. Roth

Jack Rabbit in the City

Look what we found in the middle of the city of Edmonton, Alberta Canada. On a trip to visit family a few years ago, we saw this Jack Rabbit living in the yard around the Condo. This was in the middle of May and he was just shedding his white winter coat for his brown summer one. A small pond with ducks and a yard full of grass gave him the shelter he needed. In a city of over a million people he has adapted to living along side of his human invaders.

Jack Rabbit in the City

In the cold Alberta Northland

Jack Rabbit lives close at hand

Near a pond with little Mallard ducks

In the city next to cars and trucks

Trims the grass all summer long

Enjoys the green with the summer throng

Bad weather’s coming cold and snow

Fatten up while he can before 40 below

Don’t know what he eats in that situation

Eat all he can now is his only mission

Jackie looks for a new fur coat

Winter is coming and that’s no joke

Pulls out the old coat throws it away

A sleek new white one is his today

No protestors complaining about his new fur

He’ll blend right in that’s what it’s for

On a white blanket of glistening snow

He’ll blend right in he’s good to go

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Photo: Dwight L. Roth

 

The Fermented Brew

The Fermented Brew

Perhaps you might consider

Your vote

As hops in the vat

Fermentation and condensation

Yields something far more potent

Than the present mix

The blend of diversity

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Flavors society

Sour mash boils

Evaporating and rising

Cooling condensing

Contained and chilled

Giving a heads up

To all who partake

Repulsed by others

Who don’t imbibe

Grapes in the barrel

Still fermenting

Aging four more years

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Photos: Dwight L. Roth