Category: Poetry

FOR LIFE AND BREATH AND ALL GOOD GIFTS, WE OFFER THANKS, O LORD!

You wake us up each day anew
With faculties alive,
You let us freely breathe Your air
So vital to our being;
And for this miracle called Life,
We offer thanks, O God!

Your blessings come in friendships true
That show us how to care;
Your love for us transcends our ken,
Making life rich with kinships rare;
And for this miracle called Love,
We offer thanks, OLord!

You give us food to eat each day,
Appropriate attire,
A shelter from the sun and rain,
Strength for each loss, joy in each gain;
And for these miracles in life,
We offer thanks, O Lord!

Your love shines through our trials here,
In words of courage sweet;
You send us love from day to day
In nature’s great or gentle way;
And for the miracle of words,
We offer thanks, O LORD!

Penned: April 23, 1998.
Copyright (c) 2018 Dahana Baxter. All rights reserved.

Leaves – scintillating their sunrise psalms …
Leaves – coming astir to entertain the zephyr …
Leaves – sun-whet, selflessly supplying shade …
Leaves – preoccupied in banter with raindrops …
Leaves – lulled to vesper, in still silhouette at sunset …
Leaves – delightfully lifting their litany of rustling praise to God –
the Creator and Giver of all life.
 

Penned/completed: September 17, 1999.
Copyright (c) 2018 Dahana Baxter. All rights reserved.

If you say you love a brother,
And you know He stands in need
Of a helping word, or favour,
Then you, as Christ’s follow’r, heed
His petitions – though unspoken –
Or, his heart you may have broken…
Cede to him! – don’t let him ask?
 
Volunteer to share the burden
On your weary brother’s heart;
Be a flower in life’s garden –
Bare your soul and plough your part
Of the vineyard where you’re planted;
Share God’s love with him, undaunted
By your pride! – don’t let him ask!
 

Penned: 1991
Copyright (c) 2018 Dahana Baxter. All rights reserved.

We play life’s games
And fight life’s battles every day;
We use each other
To meet our goals in every way.
We share our struggles
With those who freely give their help;
But, when we’re blessed with ease and plenty,
Do we forget the hearts and hands
That helped us once ago to stand?
How strange it is that we oft become estranged
From the very ones God used
To help us so to change
When things were down and life was blue!…

But then, sometimes, life takes a
Sudden turn downhill ….
And as we take the humbler [Tumbler’s] view,
We then can learn ‘Tis sweeter still when we are
Re-united in heart
With those, whose love
Nor time nor fear can move apart.

Oh, we know that “United we stand and
Divided we fall”;
But re-united in God’s love
We’ll never truly part;
Riding in places high or low,
Whatever we do, wherever we go….

Penned:1985
Copyright© 2018 Dahana Baxter. All rights reserved.

Compassion …
“An abstract term”, you say …
Is it all that abstract, though?
Absent, … yes!
That’s what it is: driven away
By the very ones it united once ago!

Abstract … and yet, so active in each life
God touches in love.
Yes, active in Christ’s walk here on earth,
As well as in His courts above.

What is it worth?
How can we live so smug, content
To pass by on the other side;
While, all around us, lives are spent in
Great suffering and need?

But then, without compassion ,
And filled with pride,
Why would we ever heed
The cry of others?…

God’s compassion made us His very own;
That same compassion makes all brothers!
Show some compassion to a neighbour who’s down?

Compassion …
Abstract, you say?
Make it tangible!
Today!!!

Penned: January 1, 1986
Copyright (c) 2018 Dahana Baxter. All rights reserved.

Pressing on though things go wrong,
And singing as you go along;
Battling against all the odds,
Knowing that your cares, too, are God’s;

Smiling though you suffer pain,
Nor letting God’s love in you wane;
Forgiving those who do you wrong,
By God’s grace, with them suffering long;

Gath’ring fresh courage for every hill,
Saying, aye: “By grace I can and will”;
Sweetly accepting every loss
By looking to the Saviour’s cross:
Yes, PERSEVERANCE comes each day
You walk, by faith, Christ’s narrow way!

Penned: 1976
Edited: November 21, 2006, May 19, 2018
Copyright (c) 2018 Dahana Baxter. All rights reserved.

Adventist youth who know the Truth,
How does your garden grow?
Have you grown weary – ‘quite contrary’ –
While gardening here below?

Does your fruit-tree produce the thorns
Of anger and despair?
And, do you, sometimes harvest hate
From cultivated fear?

Are you surprised, when ill-health sprouts
From seeds of late hours sown?
And weeds of gloom strangle smiles of
Joy, … gentleness all gone?

Do seeds of selfishness run wild
And over-grow your plot,
Causing buds of good deeds to die?
D’you do that which you’d not?

O, hark! Ye planters of life’s sod!
Heed the Husbandman’s voice!
His grand array of seeds consider,
And quickly make your choice!

For, with the spirit’s seed of Love
Embedded in your heart,
Bright buds of Joy, Gentleness, and Faith
Will ne’er from you depart!

Thus, Peace, Long-suffering, Meekness, and
The Goodness of the LORD
Will grant you Temperance in all things,
As you obey His Word.

Then, let His Spirit tend each bud –
The ripe fruit He’ll bestow!
Adventist youth who profess the Truth –
How does your garden grow?

Penned: 1985
Copyright (c) 2018 Dahana Baxter. All rights reserved.

For years I’d lived a leper’s life
And known a beggar’s trade;
My ragged clothes were all I’d had,…
Seemed no one ever cared.

But then, one day, a kind One came,
Who pitied my despair;
His loving smile my spirits raised –
He lent a listening ear.

He told me of a great God’s love
For every suffering soul;
And then, He did it – touched my rags –
He touched and made me whole!

He bade me go a mile with him;
My love, it sent me twain.
I found that, walking thus with Him
Would mean eternal gain.

I saw my fallen rags – those
Ugly sins that I had worn,
And pictured, then, the heavy cross
Which, for me, He had borne.

My skin was clean, so was my life;
My leprosy was gone;
A Friend I’d found – a Saviour, too;
My whole life He had won.

He owns my heart, my life, my all;
He cleansed my sinful soul
That very day He touched my rags.
He came, and made me whole.

Penned: 1976
Published: 1997, American Society of Poets
Edited: November 21, 2015
Copyright (c) 2018 Dahana Baxter. All rights reserved.

Dear God,
Please bless each mother here;
Soothe every pain?… Dry every tear?
Guide each child loved by each Mum’s heart,
Protect each one when they’re apart.
Give each Mum wisdom, honour, strength
To conquer fears and doubts at length.
Grant her the vict’ry o’er each trial;
May she close each day with Your smile!
And when, at last, You come again –
Save each Mum here, I pray. Amen.

Penned: May 8, 1998
Copyright (c) 2018 Dahana Baxter. All rights reserved.

FOR:
Thorns, for us Christ wore in tenderest love,
Homes he has prepared, in heav’n above;
Angel-guards, for action ready away,
Never-failing compassions, new each day;
Knowledge, that for us He intercedes,
Shame he bore to cleanse all our misdeeds;

Goodness to us, pilgrims here below,
Inviting the sin-burdened His rest to know;
Victory he performs in us as we trust,
Illustrating the way of life for us;
New heavens and earth coming, oh! Sooo soon,
Grace to bring discordant hearts in tune –
WE GIVE THEE THANKS, O LORD OF LOVE.

Penned: November 24, 2005
Copyright (c) 2018 Dahana Baxter. All rights reserved.