SAINT JULIAN PRESS

Ron Starbuck ~ Poet

A PILGRIMAGE
OF CHURCHES
​THE GREAT PLAINS
U.S. Center Chapel — Lebanon, Kansas
BEYOND MIDWINTER SPRING
MATTHEW 12:35-37 (NRSV)
35 The good person brings good things out of a good treasure, and the evil person brings evil things out 
of an evil treasure. 36 I tell you, on the day of judgment you will have to give an account for every careless 
word you utter; 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”

Beyond midwinter spring
When days are bright with sunlit hope
Where solitary dreams become a single
Dream of America — a promise fulfilled
Let us meet one another again
Without harsh words or brutal rhetoric
On this sacred ground in prayerful accord
O America attend our many voices
Let honored poets and storytellers speak
Across our history — spinning out
Verse after verse — story after story
Binding us together as a faithful people
Reconcile us from our tragic rage
And tyrannies of deceitful indifference
Let our cruelness wane — our enmities fade
Suspended in time between false and artificial
Discords washed away — given a new vision
As Christ restored sight to one born blind
Who made the deaf to hear and mute to speak
When he cried out “Ephphatha — be opened”
Stir our numb spirits in a Pentecostal flame
Burning away tired tongues and idioms
We bear this pain to know intimately
That in our suffering it is — we the people
In uncertain hours and broken foundations
Who must redeem history from human folly
And gain a unity within this blessed land 
Where we are bound together as one
Out of many one — across prairies and plains
Over great mountains and hidden valleys
Flowing peacefully down streams and rivers
Running in resounding harmony
In landscapes and people freed
From our terrible hurtful hesitations
To become no longer immigrant
Or stranger toward one another
To discover ourselves once more
Returning to where we first arrived
Picture
U.S. Center Chapel (Lebanon, Kansas)
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 Email: ronstarbuck@saintjulianpress.com * Web: www.saintjulianpress.com