When He Planted in the Earth When He planted in the earth a tree of life, a tree of death (the latter with a curse of woe) did God say that this was good? And when He placed upon the grass the serpent Satan and his crew, did He ever stop to think why the Devil envied God? When Adam spied inside the bower that Eve was naked and alone, Was it Satan, was it God Who put the worm in Adam’s blood? And when God wept and cried some more inside a cloud of smoke and gas, was it then he

Image, Idol, Dream Abraham prepared a table before me Even as I spoke harshly of the desert’s hot kisses. He moistened my head with oil. “You are safe,” he said. “My people will fight for you.” If I was a fugitive, I was no longer a stranger in his tent. He filled my cup to the brim As if I was a visiting king. I said: “I have found satisfaction in God. I need nothing else.” We sat and ate. He talked of Abel and Seth, Of the riddles of Shem and his book of secrets, Of his own

Promise to Abraham Abraham, it is time to leave your lonely tent. Find a vacant spot in the belly of your heart and learn to fear the Lord. Stop seeking the wind that blows this way and that; come out from behind that fig tree and walk straight. Do not hide your thoughts from me or turn your hand to smooth things. Abraham, you are a dry land without green shoots. But I am making you a gift of wild grasses and flowers, of flowing rivers and fertile soil. It will be for you an