Abram

Responding to Genesis ch. 15

Haiku of promise

The great patriarch

has a vision from the Lord;

he's told, Do not fear!

The Lord assures him:

I am your shield, Abram; your

reward shall be great.

I am childless, Lord,

so a slave born in my house

is to be my heir.

God took him outside.

Look at the stars, your offspring

will match their number.

I brought you from Ur

and gave you this land! But how

will I know? asked Abe.

Bring some animals,

cut them in half, make two rows,

said God. Abe obeyed.

At dusk Abram slept.

A terrifying darkness

descended on him.

At night a smoking

fire-pot and a flaming torch

passed between the rows.

God makes covenant

with Abe: To your descendants

I'm giving this land.

© Ken Rookes 2025

Days of Darkness

 

Eschatological haiku

The days of darkness

are coming upon us all;

the sun will be hid.

The moon will not shine,

and the ever faithful stars

will absent themselves.

We might all be lost,

unable to navigate,

or to find the way.

Will he be coming,

the sky-sweeping Son of Man,

to bring us all home​?

Read the signs, he told

his friends. The fig tree’s lessons

are long forgotten.

The generation

did, in fact, pass away; He

must have got it wrong.

My words will remain

when all else is gone, he said.

Ah, Lord, but which ones?

When not expected

the Master will return. Be

about his business.

© Ken Rookes 2020

Not yet enough

 

Days of darkness,

days of fear.

The sun is hidden,

Even the moon directs its light elsewhere,

bending its rays away from planet earth.

The stars absent themselves,

as if there is not yet enough darkness.

The shadows expand and creep to embrace the forlorn landscape,

growing warmer every day.

The Son of Man, they say,

comes in the clouds to gather the elect.

Does he?

There are signs for those who can read,

but the good christian folk cannot see them,

having found more earthly distractions.

The fig tree’s lessons have been forgotten.

The generation did, in fact, pass away,

as have hundreds since.

Must have got it wrong.

His words, Mark tells us, will remain for all time.

The good christians all concur,

but find it hard to agree on which ones.

The story tells us that the master will return

at an inconvenient hour.

The faithful servants will not be fazed.

© Ken Rookes 2020

The sun will be darkned

In ancient writings

the sun, moon and stars

combine to herald the coming

of the new age.

The laws of physics are cast aside

as the sun draws its blinds,

the moon withholds its light from the earth,

and the stars are swept into glowing heaps,

having fallen from the sky.

Outrageous metaphors,

emblazoned in the heavens

to signal cosmic events

and to fanfare the advent of the Son of Man;

whatever that means.

Something to do with Jesus,

and what he came to do,

and be. Something to do with

defiant love, reckless compassion,

and a quixotic commitment to justice, peace

and hope.

It could happen.

© Ken Rookes 2014