"I want to thank all those who come from around the world and read the poetry that God has inspired me with to make the world a more pleasant and peaceful place. This site shall always be totally free for everyone with no tracking, pop-up ads & videos or other distractions." ~louis gander

November 19, 2016

You Know Me Well 11-19-16


My breath on pane
is all in vain.
It's bitter cold outside.
With fog on glass,
the hours pass.
I swallow deep, my pride.

The plume atop
my quill would stop
with only me to thank.
There are no herds
of rhyming words.
My frozen mind is blank.

I pray to God
but find it odd
that rhyme's don't come to me.
At any cost
I am so lost.
Is this just meant to be?

But it is rare,
that I would dare
to leave before I write.
Though inkwell's here
words disappear
on parchment through the night.

Not thinking 'prose'
my words are froze
just as it is outdoors -
with barren trees
all stripped of leaves,
like extinct dinosaurs.

Now I confess
that I digress
from what I want to say.
It sure does seem
I'm losing steam.
My poem drifts away.

Should I explore
my mind some more -
that's vast as the frontier -
or let you think
I'm out of ink
and end this poem here?

Oh, what's the use
for such a truce?
I'm finished anyhow.
I sure can tell
you know me well.
You're raising one eyebrow.

©2016 louis gander - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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November 12, 2016

Come With Me 11-12-16


Please come with me while we stand tall
and give to those awaiting call
who haven't any hope.
My tears run as a waterfall,
pour off my cheeks for one and all.
I don't know how they cope.

Now Susie is a dancer
She's nine, but now has cancer.
She's on a newer drug.
The days are slow.  She sits alone
'tween night and day in twilight zone.
She needs someone to hug.

Meet David with clef palate
who plays on old wood pallet
each long and boredom day.
His mother doesn't have a house.
He's shy and quiet as a mouse
and has nothing to say.

Meet Bobby Jean who's starving -
while turkeys we are carving -
for our Thanksgiving feast.
She needs some clothes and needs a bath.
She did not choose this endless path.
Of these, she is the 'least'.

Meet the Muslim boy, Abdul.
He's beaten hard and it's so cruel.
He studies the Koran.
If you were him, you would be too
and studying a twisted view
to be an evil man.

Please come with me while we stand tall
and give to those awaiting call
who haven't any hope.
My tears run as a waterfall,
pour off my cheeks for one and all.
I don't know how they cope.

©2016 louis gander - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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October 29, 2016

Clouds Of Grace 10-29-16


The seconds seem to march on by
as I lay in my bed.
The still, dark room surrounds me as
life's chaos fills my head.

I sought God's great forgiveness here
and prayed His 'will' be done.
I sought His endless blessings too -
His each and every one.

Awakened in the dead of night
brings pain and misery.
Those pins and needles sting me like
a million honey bee.

There's something in my eyes that runs
right down my wrinkled cheeks.
The seconds turn to minutes and
then hours into weeks.

The weeks turn into months and years
as I lay on my bed.
I hear the ticking of the clock
as life hangs by a thread.

A thread that is so fragile and
holds every thought that comes -
and pounds into my painful ears
like noisy, marching drums.

I try to shut my eyes and sleep,
but through the pain and flack -
my tears still win the battle, though
I've tried to hold them back.

My head begins exploding with
anxiety attack,
but so as not to live regret
I yank my muscles back.

This horrid pain has hit me like
a ton or two of brick -
that brings more torture to my ears
with every single 'tick'.

I sought God's will through faithful hope
but must accept this quest -
that when my fragile thread does snap,
I find that God has blessed.

Not maybe how I thought He would -
because this world harms.
But when that fragile thread does snap -
I'll find I'm in His arms.

For Christ endured this torture too.
He knows just how I feel.
So faithfully He carries me
and brings my heart to heal.

He holds me up, takes tension off
that single fragile thread,
so I can float on clouds of grace
that quell my pain instead.

©2016 louis gander - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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October 22, 2016

In Your Image 10-22-16


You made me in Your image Lord,
but I broke through the mold.
I thought my way was better so
I didn't do as told.
I lived in curiosity
when I was just a child.
I grew up wanting everything,
was selfish and was wild.

I lived in all my foolishness
and put myself in bubble.
And when I drew my idols in -
it got me into trouble.
One rainy day my bubble burst
and so I sat depressed.
Drenching wet I swallowed pride
that should have been addressed.

If I could start all over Lord,
I'd listen and obey.
And that way I would not be in
the fix I am today.
You'd make me in Your image Lord.
I wouldn't break the mold.
I'd know your way was better and
I'd do as I was told.

©2016 louis gander - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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September 24, 2016

An Attitude Of Prayer 9-24-16


The sun was hot.  There was no breeze.
It seemed that nature died -
except annoying croaking frogs
that tore me up inside.

And then those pesky chirping birds
kept on and wouldn't quit!
The peace and quiet fell away.
I thought I'd have a fit.

Emotions begged for me to scream
but logic's chains were fixed.
It seemed that I was torn in two
as all the truths were mixed.

A duck was splashing water and the
crickets pierced my ears.
I even heard a car horn then
that brought me close to tears.

Enjoy the outdoors?  I could not.
The banks were on my heels!
And though I was not guilty, they
had voided my appeals.

My mind was racing to and fro.
I willed to run away -
where I could start a brand new life
where peaceful was the day.

Then wings of sev'ral hummingbirds
had winnowed that still air
which moved me ever closer to
an attitude of prayer.

They seemed to not be bothered by
the things that bothered me.
I once was blinded by this earth...
but now, at last, I'm free!

©2016 louis gander - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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September 3, 2016

Very Same Dreams 9-3-16


We fam'lies of leaves were hanging in trees.
Each fam'ly had dreams that were strange.
We all had our reasons for various seasons -
traditions that we wouldn't change.

Now none had predicted that we'd be conflicted
from each on our very own trees.
But roots had ambition to send us nutrition,
yet never a leaf could they please.

I also was one who was selfish with fun.
I knew it and God knew it too.
So loved He the world, a baby was curled,
in manger while chilly winds blew.

I was not above all the leaves of God's love.
No better was I than the rest.
So dropped. I to knees and prayed for all trees
and asked that all leaves would be blessed.

Yet root was the scholar, so it gave a holler
that not over it would they dwell.
The root, very tough, said he'd had enough -
and that's when the most of them fell.

Now when they sought Heaven they all were forgiven,
(at least that's what they had believed).
Yet oh, so enthralled, were the faithful God called -
but not those of them self-deceived.

Then one breezy day, winds tore us away.
We landed in faraway streams.
The next springtime rain it happened again,
when new leaves had very same dreams.

©2016 louis gander - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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August 27, 2016

Liberty 8-27-16


It's a slippery slope
on which there's no hope
from the peak of pure liberty.
And just one exception
brings great tribulation
that most of the masses can't see.

Just one politician
that's on twisted mission
can push us down slippery slope.
And not one Republican
or Democrat can
throw out a life-saving rope.

For once we are thrown
out there on our own
there's no one who cares- not a whit.
When they start the fights
to take away rights -
we'd better climb back and not quit.

©2016 louis gander - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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August 20, 2016

In God I Trust 8-20-16


I thank you Jesus, for my birth
and all this beauty on Your earth -
for me to see.
Oh thank you Jesus, for these eyes -
though tears run down my cheeks from cries -
in thanks to thee.

I thank you Jesus, for soft song
when all the children sing along -
angelic grace.
And thank you Jesus, for these ears
as music soothes, then disappears
all I embrace.

I thank you Jesus, for my age
that's numbered here on final page
I can't oppose.
I thank you Jesus, for each breath
that You've blessed me up to my death,
as Heaven knows.

I thank you Jesus, for my life -
though others' sins that brought me strife
was so unjust.
But thank you Jesus, I'm restored
through grace and peace within You Lord.
In God I trust.

©2016 louis gander - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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August 13, 2016

Just Like Them 8-13-16


I was a feather floating free
with all my friends and family.
I followed them.
I learned to fly.
I learned to lie
and blow around this empty sky -
...just like them.

In wind, I did a somersault -
was told that nothing was my fault.
I followed them.
Without a care,
I learned to swear
and then accepted any dare -
...just like them.

The wind had tossed me to and fro,
first left, then right you'd see me go.
I followed them.
I learned to think.
I learned to drink,
precariously on the brink -
...just like them.

The gusty wind had taken toll.
I found myself in deep, black hole.
I followed them.
Like feather in
the wayward wind,
but learned that day that I had sinned -
...just like them.

©2016 louis gander ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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July 30, 2016

From Humble Root 7-30-16


A green and fragile leaf, was she
and unimportant she would be.
She was depressed.
For she was small, not very big
attached so lightly to a twig -
so she was blessed.

A small and simple twig was he
which held the leaf that waved so free.
He too depressed.
He feared, with wind he'd be detached,
yet to a branch, he was attached -
so he was blessed.

A small, but stable branch was there
which seemed to bend but didn't care.
It too depressed.
Afraid of wind, its life was grim
and so unlike the larger limb -
yet it was blessed.

A large and stable limb it was,
but it, unhappy too because,
it was depressed.
It exercised.  It was a 'hunk'
but wasn't an enormous trunk -
yet it was blessed.

A giant of a trunk was it?
It had opinions so unfit.
It too depressed.
It stood unmoved with haughty face
there over root on its own space -
so it was blessed.

Now root was happy.  It could sing.
It fed and nourished everything -
up to the leaves.
And it was not presumptuous
when it supplied its sustenance
to all the 'least of these'.

That root was humble under sod
and faithful to creation's God -
and it would thrive.
But then wind timbered trunk and tree!
Oh, what had happened?  Could it be
the root's alive...?

...to grow another tree, no doubt.
From humble root, a humble sprout.
Do you now see?
Take care then where your faith is at
so you do not end up like that
ol' timbered tree.

©2016 louis gander - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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Study Notes for pastors & Bible Study groups:
The leaf, the twig, the branch, the limb and the trunk were not blessed because of what they were attached to - but rather because of the nourishment they received from the unseen root.  We are not blessed because of who or what (spouse, church, political party, elected officials, possessions, money) we are 'attached' to but rather we are blessed because of our Lord Jesus Christ and what He has done for us.  If our faith is in man or things, then one day we find ourselves on that ol' timbered tree.