SERMONS.....

Spoken, uttered, even shouted

expressed oral sounds

push air and ear drum

transporting thought, emotion, data,

news, hope

evaporate, vanish, disappear, dissolve

heard or unheard,

create no scar, leave no stain,

mar no surface, make no print,

score no points,

like distilled water, leave no ring,

like frost at noon, fog in autumn,

light after "off,"

crab walk on beach;

an offering in smoke, only for moments,

quickly passing window shadows,

post-echo silence

to be filled with newly uttered

percussion, vibration, persuasion,

accumulating like dust

blown by spirit wind

blowing clean without trace.

Richard E. Lake