We arrived late at Pentecost,
after the fun was over,
Peter’s sermon finished,
the baptisms completed,
and the minutes written.
What was there left?
Let this be recorded
for any who, as they read,
employ their ears
as much as their eyes:
We found a communal Gift,
priceless yet free
in that heartwood where
the Carpenter had carved
a vacant space.
This Gift we found
filling that Christ-hollow
(at the end of the day
when the curious had gone
home to their boredom)
Was the Soul of love;
not the old stuff, hedged
with conditions and exemptions,
but a new joy-love ready
to embrace the world.
