My Escape...

Make a way of escape
for me, so I'm not
counted among
the fallen.
Their open-shame-masks
I don't long to wear.
I want to hide, though not from Thee,
but in Thee, so my countenance is lifted
and made to shine like the noon day sun.

Righteousness makes glad my heart
when mine enemies have circled and hurl
accusations like arrows to kill my name
and none hit their mark.

Then You are worshiped when mine
enemies are put to shame and Your little
lamb sends reeling ravenous lions thirsty
to mar Your image in me.

Who can climb Mount God?
None whose hands are clay caked,
dirtied from digging into the dredge heaps
of society searching it for deeper pleasures
no longer found on the surface
but buried as a corpse-treasure out of sight
from what used to please
but now has been made dull.

Who can stand on His Holy Hill?
None whose feet have trudged in forbidden lands of self,
seeking and traversing the uncharted courses of human character
that are found not hidden but well occupied
by so many before them.
These courses are all the routes which man travels
that carry them from the Presence
and are found to be well plodded.
Feet that are muddied by these roads
can never stand surely and are reduced to bent reeds
unable to support any weight of living.

One can ascend; One can surely stand, and does so even now
ensuring us that we too were meant to stand.
Our hands too were meant to grasp He who is no longer seen,
yet we lost our will to clutch.

He does surely clutch, and does so with such force
I can't be plucked or dropped.

Make a way of escape for me so I'm not counted among the fallen.
Make difficult the words of hate
because they once poured like a sieve even when making nice
because they weren't given to You in eternal surrender;
they belonged to me while there was still a me.
Now be 'Thee' in 'me' as all is lost and found in You
and Wind blows in to extinguish the candle flicker of self
and igniting the fire of salvation
blown from coals found upon Your altar.

I am then consumed and You exist as the Light-Blown-Lighted
in the core of my existence and there You are found...
My Escape.