your grace

spray me with your grace

until i am soaked in rain

of your love (reigning the world

to bind the wounds of deep hurt

caused by callous creatures, a disgrace

in heaven and on earth);

inspire and provoke deep within me

your forgiveness, a contrast

to my vengeance, revenge-filled

thoughts that translate

into my speech and louder acts

discrediting your image in me

henry victor    28.07.2010

my healing stones

bonnie, my friend, the native elder

offered my daughter

two palms and full of healing stones

now i play with, until my mind

overflows with, grace-filled healing!

these stones are not amethysts,

bloodstone or carnelian

neither are they red jasper,

white lace agate,

brown black purple white agate

the alias, coyomito agate

but simple stones of the simpleton

with red, pink, orange, and yellow

green, blue, indigo and violet

adding a few lime-green and blue-green

also silver-grey

brown, black, white, and gold

included among are some clear

but each one is powerful too

henry victor      08.03.2007

baffled by mercy

when i trust you

and put my hope hoping you

for me will make things work

with my field giving a plentiful harvest

and my cattle, numerously, multiply

you let me down badly

with your refusal

to open windows of heaven

for showers to fall on ground

instead

you open doors of pestilence

to strike my cattle

then i trusted you not

from you

nothing i expected

but you then

flood me with blessings, baffling

me with your unlimited mercy

henry victor     17.04.2003

painting fresh

let me wipe your canvas

erasing the previous scribbles

you may once again paint

paint your fresh pictures

your new grace, or roll

on it as you drool

from your soft lips

that have kissed me much

or can i pick the raspberries

from my bush i have grown

before, to me, you were visible

and blow the worms away

henry victor          22.07.2018

    

a peep

that was a brief visit

to heaven; just a peep

i should say, into the garden

in which the only work

is much play

and harvesting to eat

to be gaudy

and gay

enjoying the caretaker’s labor!

for sure, i never planted it prior

making me feel

as if i was there to steal

but the sturdy warden

had a smile

as a bird that alighted

on my shoulder too

place and people sure did woo

for me to stay

to continue my play

but i did change my mind, my way

henry victor      15.04.2007

to grace and mercy

water is murky and turbulent

and i lack the tail of a sea horse

to dance for joy with a partner

or to anchor self in my new house

neither do i have the advantage

to carefully camouflage like a chameleon

as i loiter among the many predators

lurking with strength and big numbers

hence i turn to grace from high above

and mercy of the conservationists

themselves struggling to retain sanity

in this arrogant insane community

© henry victor     18.08.2003

human genius

gigantic mountains, hills

boulders and rocks

rock-solid and impenetrable!

yet, the human genius, the soft

diamond cuts through to create

a path to eternity

© henry victor        01.06.2017

dance with peace

alone i stand short like that smashed glass

ready to be scattered, to be interred inside

a grave yard with my brokenness

in body, mind, soul, and human ties

but with full of sap, that thick and thin

life affirming and life giving spirit alive

with masks thick and thin discarded

for dance naked with no dress rehearsal

to continue into eternity, a land

absent of ego and confusions

with love reigning and love raining

continuously i shall dance with peace

© henry victor     12.03.2012

soaked in silence

she is either deaf

to hear that loud pulse

caused by my faltering heart

or, is extremely venomous

to sting with a single word

‘drama’, that made me dumb

to speak another word

like a father to daughter

but grace from above

or, from deep within

made me enjoy with ease

that silence above clouds

floating to and fro

aimlessly as a bitch in heat

while stillness from beyond

filled my heart with peace

© henry victor            18.04.2012

walking Joseph’s path

as i struggle inside the well, like Joseph

who was thrown into for his bloated ego

and boundless ambition, will you cease

listening to my groans and inaudible prayers

as i struggle inside the prison, like Joseph

who was thrown in for his imprudence

and lack of tactical strategies, will you ignore

my loneliness with my feeble will to escape

as i struggle inside a strange land, like Joseph

who by the inescapable fate and destiny

strong as death walked into, will you cease

to take account of my presence in your world

© henry victor     04.08.2003

gray jay in my campsite

like that camp thief, the gray jay

boldly inviting herself

into my campsite, my grace to enjoy

i bravely venture into your precincts

hoping you will take note of my presence

and drop scraps of manna

or at least, take pleasure

in my being in your vicinity

that you may in your sketchbook

sketch my form and note my color

to later open your guarded tablet

to cross check and tick my name

© henry victor     05.08.2003

grace i seek

i seek that grace

that sought me at Calvary

i seek that grace

that paid for my release

i seek that grace

that erected an altar in my heart

i seek that grace

that ordained my soul a priest

i seek that grace

that is absent in hypocrisy

i seek that grace

that overflows in common sense

© henry victor     03.09.2003

hovering of your grace

i covered myself, head to foot as a woman

under the tight rule of bearded Taliban

yet there were those who saw my nakedness

or declared the colour of my undergarments

reading within me evil inner intentions

but with the hovering of your grace

my walk with no covering below waist

still covered all my stark bareness

as i roared, and roared like a free lion

© henry victor     21.12.2003

shifting my space

in days of my blindness

recompensed by rare pleasure

and fueled by ever-growing lust

i went into eventful spaces

occupied by men and women

with desire

and living for delight

but in these days of illumination

rewarded by a recurrent poise

and encouraged by an evolving

hermit within

i go now into empty spaces

not occupied

by deaf and blind creatures

dumb to transmit

the sacred within

henry victor     09.06.2003

Emma and Eva

your ways in the world, for me at least

is always a mystery, and often
very irritating to my sensibility!

Emma at her old age turns to you with great love

but all she reaps in that turning is more pain!

Eva despite her own misfortune works so hard

to care, but hardly anything comes easy on her way!

in this, how do you expect me to announce

your providence, your intimate presence
with those who call your name!

i pray that you heal Emma

and make the burden easier for Eva
proliferating your presence in their path!

 

late hour

the clock alarm rang at 4.00 am

i woke and pressed and i am
out of bed only at 6.14 am!

the bed is warm and i pull

my blanket right up to my neck
rolling and curling to make
my body more comfortable!

later, i call that my laziness

chaining my creativity and eroding
a life of potentials and this is where i am
now when i turn to you to confess
my wasted aeons and i beg for grace!

my repentance for the left-over days

i realize, is not deep enough
to turn my life inside out and make
a new path, to joy, i may walk!

hence i cling to you at this late hour;

please, push me not out of your abode
though many a chance i have missed!

for you and your hug, that grace is all

i need to which i am now a sure slave!

no magic

my love for ease prevents that release

of the creative energy
stored deep within my soul
my fear to take risk fails to kick

the engine that needs a kick-start

leaving me in bed
to the comfort of that lie:
my body needs more sleep

i then turn to you for cheap grace

believing the unbelievable
until you kick me on my face
to pull myself together

and work hard for my release

or, to be damned in that relief of my own
more sleep and slumber
that knowledge, in my mind, increase:

that with you there is no magic

turning stones into bread
or, skipping the consequences
of my acts – good, or bad

while i focus not on the worth

of wealth, immerse me in the wisdom
that makes you to send the sun
shine on both good and evil

and the rain on wheat and weeds

viewing the wayside pampas grass
in the same way
you glance at the great oak

my will

am i overly stubborn in imposing my will

rejecting your will, in my failing to see grace
in freight unloaded, regularly, at my feet
or, am i lively, very vibrantly, otherwise

adding life to a decaying soul like the mountain

lion, the cougar, pouncing dissolutely at the hunter
with his gun like will hounding the creature
who as a hermit already withdrawn to a cavern

my quest, however, is for wisdom, that light

from the abundance of your mercy to isolate
the black thread in the dusk of my life, and yield
to your will even in my defeat suspending mine
 
15.07.2014

‘lord have mercy’

i, like a feather fallen from an unknown

bird, am drifting alone, blown in an arid terrain
that wilderness of a loveless world
watered, enriched by the scarcity of gold

that mammon, an idol washed and worshipped

with liturgical music, pious rituals, and spiced
with sacred silence, with and without a person
in priestly garb, naming me, victor barren

the wind here fights and battles with emptiness

breathing out the refrain, but occasionally, ‘lord
have mercy’, while the lord of the creation
like Jesus of Nazareth naps on the boat’s stern!

28.06.2014

 

fences and thorns

i settled, earlier, with quietness

even when thorns pricked as i picked
the flowers, or at times the fallen petals
capturing in my mind the beauty

and the fragrance making self, my heart

to leap and dance to the beat, the music
you write with your constant dance;
but a perpetual pricking of the thicket

and the endless bleeding of my hand and feet

makes me wonder whether i have strayed
away from your garden into a cacti jungle
or is it that you resent my love to jingle

with your beauty and fragrance

in flowers considering it a pilfering
from the garden you are jealously guarding
with fences and thorns that prick!

henry victor     05.06.2002