Monday, June 27, 2022
Drifting
In one life
Memory is like a sea
Always filling it’s banks
Yet, always adding more
Every person
Every event
Every day
Every moment
Today, we gathered
In your memory
I saw family and friends gather
I saw memories shared
I saw the goodness of a man
Rehearsed by those he knew
In this sea of memories
I found myself drifting
I had chosen no direction
I went where the sea directed
I saw small groups gather
Eventually to scatter
Then regroup with others
As the memories flowed
I saw the parts and pieces
Scattered about
Begin to coalesce
As the picture of you emerged
This sea
This ever expanding sea
Filled the entirety of the house
It carried our hearts with grace
Peacefully
I drifted
In the sea
Of memories
We gathered to say ‘goodbye’
Yet, found ourselves saying ‘hello’
We gathered for a purpose
Yet, found ourselves drifting
Drifting
© Ron Simpson Jr.
June 27, 2022
Monday, June 20, 2022
Sunday, June 19, 2022
The ‘Missing You’ Space
You left a few months prior
To Father’s Day in 2007
This is the sixteenth one
Without you here
I don’t know if I thought
There would be a certain number
Of days, or years, or holidays
And suddenly it would be tolerable
There will always be an empty space
Time does not erase it
Busyness does not fill it
Acceptance does not alleviate it
Thoughts racing through my mind
Will always eventually find the empty place
There are stacks of memories within
Assorted sizes, lengths and weights
Yet, there was room for so much more
There were volumes still to be said
There were holidays and birthdays
And every other days waiting to be added
Sometimes, especially days like today
I will linger for hours in the missing space
I listen to the echoes of our conversations
I relive the laughs, the tears and the in between
It never fills the missing space
It doesn’t take away any of the missing
But there is a measure of joy found
Spending this precious time
In my ‘missing you’ space
I love ya, Dad
© Ron Simpson Jr.
June 19, 2022
Father’s Day
Tuesday, June 14, 2022
Dad
I saw you tonight, Dad
You were timeless
I was as I am now
I saw you from behind my eyes
Where you live still
Where you always will
Where death is not final
I saw you tonight
Where memories
Where new stories
Commingle freely
While my body
Fitfully slumbered
While my eyes darted
I saw you tonight
Still stubborn
Still carrying your joy
Still smiling
Lingering
Even after I reluctantly woke
Finding happiness
Where I thought would be sadness
I saw you tonight, Dad
Arbitrarily
Without rhyme or reason
Just showing up
Out of the blue
Bringing a pondering
Obviously
But most importantly
I saw you tonight
Dad
© Ron Simpson Jr.
June 14, 2022
Saturday, June 04, 2022
Words
Hosea instructed the Children of Israel to “take with you words” when approaching the Lord. He further charges them to offer words covered with their brokenness.
Words
Words change
when covered
with brokenness
Words
in their original state
belong to everyone
However,
when you take a word
carry it through the storm of emotion
and personal experience
it changes into something brand new
This newness
transfers the ownership
of the word
These words
now belong to the writer
or the speaker
It is in this sense
we offer not the word only
but the passions and experiences
accompanying them
By doing so
we peel away
the barriers of anonymity
and begin to see
our differences are small
in comparison to our commonalities
There is more which unites us
than there is which divides us
When we use words to divide
we do them a disservice
When we use them
to hurt
to incite violence
to tear down
to destroy
we have abandoned
the true use of the words
Collect
Build
Unite
Empower
Words
“Take with you words”
Covered in your brokenness
© Ron Simpson Jr.
June 4, 2022
Tuesday, May 03, 2022
The Fallacy of Your Choice
I have heard your cries
You stand on your truth
You weep tears mixed bitterly
You say you are crying
For those unable to cry
For themselves.
Spare me the histrionics
Of your hypocrisy
Where are your cries
When they are crying in hunger?
Where are your cries
When they are dying
From gun violence in schools?
Where are your cries
When they are murdered
At the hands of thinly veiled protectors
For existing while being black?
Where are your cries
When one billion children worldwide
Live in poverty?
Where are your cries
For those whose cries
Are continuously unheard?
This is the fallacy of your choice
You choose not to hear the cries
Of poverty or those broken by it
“Whoso stoppeth his ears
at the cry of the poor,
he also shall cry himself,
but shall not be heard.”
This is the fallacy of your choice
Inasmuch as you choose to stand
With the oppressors of women and men
Ignoring the stains of their sin
“Who will stand up for me
against the workers of iniquity?”
This is the fallacy of your choice
While you stand against one
Yet you seek to cover a multitude
You think the Lord doesn’t know
“Hast thou seen
what the ancients
of the house of Israel
do in the dark,
every man in the chambers
of his imagery?
for they say,
The LORD seeth us not”
This is the fallacy of your choice
While you seek to govern
What is not yours to govern
“Because the carnal mind
is enmity against God:
for it is not subject
to the law of God,
neither indeed can be”
This is the fallacy of your choice
© Ron Simpson Jr.
May 3, 2022
Friday, April 29, 2022
Fragments
Scattered
Blown by the winds
Pieces of a life
Chasing
Like sand
Escaping my fingers
Trying to hold them all
Words
Ideas
Desperately
Dissolving
Becoming pieces
Years
Months
Weeks
Days
Hours
Minutes
Seconds
Fragments
Trying to put them back together
Pages out of sequence
Losing time
Everything happening together
Memories commingling
Losing friends
Losing family
Losing you
Losing me
Fragments
Scattered
Life is lost in my mind
I am
Lost
In my mind
Can’t make you see
Can’t make you understand
My life unraveling
Connections disappearing
Floating apart
Life dissipating
Memories
Living in memories
Of others
Fragments
Scattered
© Ron Simpson Jr.
April 29, 2022
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