Empty phrases I prepare
Piles of rubbish, rags of dirt
to be justified
Selfish pleasures I pursued
Gluttonous knowledge, impostor power
to be god myself
Brittle, sun baked bricks I’ll lay
Rebel blocks, fist-shaking heights
to be glorified
As the winds of calamity take breath
As the clouds darken and the ocean stills
The world stops
and I am afraid
A storm is coming
A jealous God, thunderous, wild, frenzied
Rides on the storm
Whispers through the rolling thunder
Speaks in crashing light
A thief he seeks to find
What Almighty God walks?
What all-seeing God seeks?
What all-knowing God asks?
What sovereign God regrets?
The one who promised painful seed
The one who kills to cloth
The one whose righteousness I have
The one in whom I hope.
Poem taken from the 2019 edition of Artos, the literary journal of Bethlehem College & Seminary students. Photo by B. Fulks, BA ’20.