Kings of Leon - Last Mile Home acoustic version (Lyrics video)

Heard this tonight and it spoke to the poet in me. It took me to a place called yesterday. Most of us have such a place in our lives. It proves to be a source of both great happiness and at times extreme sorry. I'm feeling a little melancholy tonight and was reminded of the words of a pastor/poet from the middle ages named John Donne, "Tell me where all past years are."

Then I recalled a poem I wrote a few years ago called, I Can never go Back.


I Can never go Back


There was a time, a season
a period in my life, when it
was enough to know the fish
were biting and school was
out for summer.

That's when boys played
hard and outside all day.
It was Baseball, Football
Hide-N-Go Seek, 'Ready
or not here I come.

The rules were simple then.
We had to be in before dark,
wash our hands before dinner
and sitting around the table
was like being in church.

But, that was before the city
and an interstate encroached
upon the sacred battle fields
of a boys imagination.

The fields and woods I once
roamed have faded away and
when I look for the place I once
called home, it's no longer there.
And now, I can never go back.

www.camdockery.com

More felt than Heard

I met a poet today, though
he did not look like a poet.
But, while passing me by
I saw the tear on his cheek
and a look in his eye.

Exposed and vulnerable
I watched as he cried.
Something in me resonated
as something in the poet died.

The pain on his face, spoke
to the wound of my yesterday,
in a language more felt than heard.
And as he paused to glance my way
a more obvious thought occurred.

Few are the days when two souls meet.
Was this by chance or destiny?
So, like a dance no one leads
rhythm was veiled in mystery.

Now in the mirror it’s his face I see
and the poet I met- looks a lot like me.

- Cameron Dockery

www.camdockery.com

Easter and the Grace Notes.

In my personal preparation to celebrate The Resurrection I looked over a few of Phillip Yancey's thoughts on grace and my heart was once again moved by the unmerited favor of The Living God.

What is a Grace Note?

(WEBSTER)

“ A musical note added as an element;

 A small addition or embellishment.”

I first came across the “Grace Note” when reading Phillip Yancey’s book, “What’s So Amazing about Grace?” At the time I had a working understanding of grace because I had experienced the divine and unmerited favor of God. I knew there were two types of notes. The first of which resembled those things I took in college while the prof was lecturing. The purpose of those notes were to aid in my study.  Then there were those weird marks written on sheet music. 

Yancey taught me the meaning of the grace note in reference to music. It is, as Webster defines, the embellishment. That little note added as an ornamental element. I have never recovered from that concept.  It is the grace of God that redeems and restores the human condition and it is the grace of God that brings the heart of fallen humanity back into rhythm with His purpose. We are simply rescued by His unmerited favor.

And after the fact it is His grace that sustains as we begin to walk out our faith and grow more into the likeness of Jesus Christ.

Her name was Mary Magdalene and at one time she was foul and demon possessed. Yet, she waited by the tomb on the Resurrection morning. His name was Peter and he cut and ran in the Garden of Gethsemane. Yet, he died as a martyr for the faith and was crucified upside down.  His name was Paul and he passionately pursued and persecuted the church. Yet, he went on to write, “Love is patient, love is kind, love never fails.”

Musically speaking, the grace note is an ornamental embellishment. To we who have been rescued, redeemed and restored by the life, death and resurrection  of Jesus Christ, there are grace notes written into the song of our lives and these notes are more than ornamental and go way beyond embellishing. They are life changing and transformational. They do more than alter behavior they change the heart and in the words of Phillip Yancey, that my friend is exactly what’s so amazing about grace.

If you have never read it, may I recommend: What's So Amazing about Grace?

Blessings

www.camdockery.com

The Morning After

The world is broken and stands in need
of a serious fix. It's been this way for a
very long time.

It began with a question on the day
paradise was lost. Eve was deceived,
but Adam, well he was just plain stupid.

Sin enticed and intoxicated;
then left, we his children,
with a devastating hangover. 

Now it's the morning after and
everyone has a headache. We
rush to work and then race home,

stopping by the market to grab dinner
and stock up on a few staples. Things
like, Nyquil, Tylenol and Ibuprofen.

Something to deaden the pain and
get us through the night. Yes, these are
are the lightweights,

but personal experience has taught us
too much about the other the other stuff.
It was hard to stop once we started and

now we just can't go there again. We have
to find be a better way. More than a Band-
Aide, this world needs a solution.


www.camdockery.com

Rome and Russia

Rome and Russia
(Products of Decision)

.

I wonder if Caesar remembered the Rubicon
as the Senate raised their knives, and if Brutus
regretted the taking of an old friend’s life.

And if Nicholas remembered Tolstoy when
when Lenin came to power, and if Catherine
held her children during that last horrible hour.


-Cameron Dockery

GRACE & POETIC IMAGINATIOIN

(Robert Frost)

The epitaph on his gravestone reads, “ I had a lovers quarrel with the world." These words describe the life of Robert Frost. He was raised in poverty, but attended both Harvard and Dartmouth. And though he failed to graduate from either university he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize four times and called the poet of the twentieth century.

When I read Birches emotion wells up in my spirit as I am drawn into the poet's heart. He reflects upon his yesterday with redemptive imagination and shows the reader a work of grace.

…. So I was once myself a swinger of birches.
And so I dream of going back to be.
It’s when I’m weary of considerations,
And life is too much like a pathless wood
Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs
Broken across it, and one eye is weeping
From a twig’s having lashed across it open.
I’d like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over….

In the book of Psalms I find David, the poet of God, with a similar desire. For he says“…Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest.” (Ps.55: 6) David the son of Jesse who was called the sweet psalmist of Israel also wanted to get away from earth for a while.

I have a question for you about this thing called, "life." How is it working for you right now? If you are frustrated then may recommend the company of a couple of poets.

There is good news. While in this world there are occasions when like Frost, we walk through a pathless wood there is grace for the occasion. And though David may have been tempted to fly away and be at rest however at the end of the day he said, “As for me, I will call upon God, and the lord will save me.” (Ps.55: 16)

What birches were to Frost, and the dove was to David, poetry and literature represent to  me.  They each  provide an escape from chaos and a refuge from confusion. However at the end of the day, I find healing and rest are products of grace.

And so today I find the words of two poets who were separated by several thousand years and two different cultures express the same emotion and come to the same conclusion. This speaks to my soul and shows this world a reflection of grace