Small voice

Responding to 1 Kings 19

Haiku of hope

He's in deep trouble,

Elijah. Happens when you

stand against evil.

Jezebel the queen

sends word: Sort out your affairs;

tomorrow you die.

Elijah shoots through,

fleeing for his life. Frightened?

What do you reckon?

He left his servant

at Beer Sheba and headed

off into the bush.

After a day's march

he cried: Let me die, O Lord,

I have had enough!

He got up, ate, drank,

and travelled forty more days;

reaching mount Horeb.

In a cave God spoke:

Why have you come, Elijah?

They seek my life, Lord.

They turned from you, God,

they have pulled down your altars,

and killed your prophets.

Go to the entrance

of the cave. Watch; you will see,

your Lord passing by.

A great wind split rocks,

an earthquake shook the mountain,

and then came a fire.

Sheer silence followed.

In the silence God is found,

not in flash display.

Return Elijah;

it will be all right. Know this;

you are not alone.

© Ken Rookes 2025

Stripped, beaten, thrown in jail

Responding to Acts 16: 16-34

Haiku of freedom

The fortune-telling

slave girl made heaps of money

for those who owned her.

The slave girl followed

Paul and Co. These men, she cried,

tell God's salvation.

Annoyed, Paul ordered

the spirit to leave the girl.

It left her at once.

The slave-girl's owners,

were not happy at the loss

of their enterprise.

Paul, Silas, were seized,

dragged before the magistrate;

They disrupt our life!

Attacked by the crowd,

stripped, beaten, thrown into jail;

poor Paul and Silas!

Praying and singing

as the earthquake struck; the doors

opened, chains fell off.

The jailer panicked.

Paul cried out: Don't harm yourself,

we are all still here!

Sirs, what must I do

to be saved! Trust in Jesus,

you and your household.

The guard took them home,

made them welcome, dressed their wounds

and offered them food.

The gathered household

hears the word of love and grace

and all are baptised.

© Ken Rookes 2025

Sheer silence

 Haiku for the fearful

Fearful Elijah

receiving Jezebel’s threat,

decides to clear out.

Hiding in a cave

on the holy Mount Horeb

he hears God’s question.

I have done your will,

Lord, and my life is at risk,

so I ran away.

Stand on the mountain,

wait and watch, because the Lord

is about to pass.

In turn, a great wind,

an earthquake and fire surround;

God is not in them.

A sound of silence,

sheer and still, tells Elijah

that the Lord is here.

In silence, stillness,

mystery; God’s voice. Questions;

perhaps some answers.

The question is asked,

and answered. Return, Prophet,

and get on with it.

© Ken Rookes 2022

Prison

Deep within the hidden recesses of the lockup
the two men could be excused
for nursing their recently inflicted wounds
in silence. Instead they sang their songs
like kids at a camp, unconcerned
about mere details such as melody.
Their loud and sometimes tuneful voices
sporadically stumbled upon a harmony;
(almost certainly by accident).
The other prisoners enjoyed the diversion
along with a rare laugh.
The newcomers were quite mad,
but you had to admire their spirit.
Some of their co-incarcerates were impressed,
joining in the prayers
and entreating, in their own way,
that their gods and perhaps even this new divinity
might deliver them.
When the earthquake came and the chains fell off
they thought that some deity or other
must have been listening, but the short one
called Paul, managed to get them all to stay.
They listened as he explained
that walls and chains are an illusion
and that the only real prisons
are the ones inside. They only half believed him,
but they stayed anyway,
and often argued about it afterwards.

© Ken Rookes