Having Gone
‘You don’t got to go – you get to go
And, having gone, disciple’ – His parting words
To us most strange and precious –
‘Having gone’, indeed.‘Like seed’, He said, ‘like seed, good seed
A farmer scatters on the ground –
Ground of his choosing – but yet
Seed cleaned of weeds and blemish
Spot and stain
Prepared to be new crop
Upon the land –
His land’.Like seed, as well, perhaps
In that, few seeds of their own will and power
Fly off themselves to distant lands and shores
Yet fly they do in guts of birds,
The whirl of upper winds,
And wash of lapping wave.Far distant shores indeed
As seed inside the fruit
Is carried off
So unbeknownst to bird,
Then bird of prey,
And so on up
The chain of food,
Then passed on out
In fertilizing way.Life has swirl and whirl enough –
Sufficient to ensure that seeds be scattered round
Sufficient to the day thereof.
So having gone – disciple –
Mentor those around
Not as obsessed
Or timely pressed
Or even more than once,
If once accord your time and place;
Relax – have fun
And if the time or circumstance
Permit – disciple – as
With you –I mentored you – then mentored how to mentor two.
Now you go too
And having gone, through business
Trials, or daily round
Wherewith you’ve found
Yourselves out there
On foreign ground
Or ’cross the street,
Disciple – Mentor
As I you
Have done.And when you do, think back,
Think back to what I did –
With ‘Judaism lite’ broke down to two –
Love God, love neighbor too –
Start there with that
Build out from there
With things that bear
The relevance of
Salt and light and
Leaven to
The lives and culture
That are theirs.Baptize – just burry them – when they
Like you find selves quite dead
To all the crazy world which round
Them swirls – that they
Like you can rise anew
To life on other side
Of pond – no more
To that respond but
Now in Spirit walk
And not just talk
Who’ve seen the light shine through your eyes
Express surprise and crave its source
For their lives too –
Disciple – Mentor as
I did for you –
Love, as I also loved
You too.So, having gone – disciple – not under pressure
From above but gifted, as in love
You then respond to those who’ve
Heard your voice – their shepherd’s
Voice in daily walk you’ve
Made amidst the
Swirling clay
Around you both
Out there –
You, having gone.navigation