Shiloh
By Tim Shey
Brutal deathdance;
My eyes weep blood.
Pharisees smile like vipers,
They laugh and mock their venom:
Blind snakes leading
The deaf and dumb multitude.
Where are my friends?
The landscape is dry and desolate.
They have stretched my shredded body
On this humiliating tree.
The hands that healed
And the feet that brought good news
They have pierced
With their fierce hatred.
The man-made whip
That opened up my back
Preaches from a proper pulpit.
They sit in comfort:
That vacant-eyed congregation.
The respected, demon-possessed reverend
Forks his tongue
Scratching itchy ears
While Cain bludgeons
Abel into silence.
My flesh in tattered pieces
Clots red and cold and sticks
To the rough-hewn timber
That props up my limp, vertical carcase
Between heaven and earth.
My life drips and puddles
Below my feet,
As I gaze down dizzily
On merciless eyes and dagger teeth.
The chapter-and-versed wolves
Jeer and taunt me.
Their sheepwool clothing
Is stained black with the furious violence
Of their heart of stone.
They worship me in lip service,
But I confess,
I never knew them
(Though they are my creation).
My tongue tastes like ashes:
It sticks to the roof of my mouth.
I am so thirsty.
This famine is too much for me.
The bulls of Bashan have bled me white.
Papa, into your hands
I commend my Spirit.
Ethos
February/March 1997
Iowa State University
Genesis 49: 10: “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.”
Psalm 22
A Prophet's Eyes
The Passion of the Christ
New Jerusalem and New Shiloh
To the True and Everlasting Shiloh
Psalm 22: 1-21:
ReplyDelete"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?
"O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night seasons, and am not silent.
"But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.
"Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.
"They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.
"But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.
"All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,
"He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.
"But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts.
"I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly.
"Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.
"Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.
"They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.
"I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.
"My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
"For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.
"I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.
"They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.
"But be not thou far from me, O Lord: O my strength, haste thee to help me.
"Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.
"Save me from the lion's mouth: for thou hast heard me from the horns of the unicorns."
Dreams from the LORD 2007-2010
ReplyDelete1 January 2010
Last night I had a dream. I was at the lumberyard I used to work at in Ames, Iowa. I walked into the office and my boss said, “Hey, Shiloh.” We talked a little about the things of God.
At first, when he said “Shiloh”, I looked around to see whom he was talking to. Then I noticed he was looking right at me. I was a bit surprised because my boss was not a Christian.
A few years ago, I was walking through Carson City, Nevada and I heard this guy say real loud, “Hey, Shiloh!” I looked to my right and this guy was sitting in his car and he was looking at me. I recognized him and ran over to his car. This guy had given me a ride a few months before from Bridgeport, California to Carson City. We talked for a short while and then I hit the road.
He called me “Shiloh” because he had read my poem “Shiloh.”
Genesis 49: 10: “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from beneath his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be”.