Rieppe's Recipes: OneMan Meals "Collard Cream Soup"

(photo by: Doru)
1 can of Glory Foods® Sensibly Seasoned Collard Greens
cook for 3 ½ to 4 min let sit for 1 min and drain water
3 heaping T of Breakstone’s® Sour Cream (since 1882)
stir into the collards, which will have cooled considerably
2 oz of Kahlner’s Louisiana Hot Sauce
slather this on with liberation.

"She Cornered Continents"

(photo by: Dianne Varner)
She cornered continents with her eyes
and voyaged with her soul.
She startled pirates in disguise
and freed them from control.

She erred where every error berths
and trusted not in trust.
She searched for something more than worth
and sailed for truth or bust.

She worried not in our affairs
and counted not her days.
She rarely cared for other’s cares
and sighed at other’s praise

I found her walking on the beach
beside me east and west;
I knew she walked beyond my reach,
despite my pure request.

Since then I hear her in my dreams
hum songs that poets sing;
She travels by so close it seams
her eyes are beckoning.

by Wm. Rieppe Moore

this won't take long

if the picture isn't enough, then you either need a new computer (probably a Mac with superior screen and video) or you need to hit yourself in the face. because i am no longer a ninja, or perhaps never was a ninja, or perhaps simply guised myself as a ninja for fun, or perhaps ninjas are dim-witted and indifferent to logical analysis. rrrrg! like the title to this bodacious post, i commonly inform ninjas, "this won't take long" just before i cut them through. rrrrg! let's be honest, pirates are less mysterious and more candid. "cut to the chase matey and forego the imperious nubiety", happens to be a common phrase in battles we pirates use as we are forced to exert our fighting abilities over the banal ninjas who talk too much about spacey eastern mythologies, and pointless hypothosis. rrrrg! i once witnessed a ninja describe how the inner membrane of a anemone relates to combat, right before i killed him and his dozen-or-so comrades for their ponderous stupidity. rrrrg! killing ninjas is a moot activity any more. i wish it was as fulfilling as it once was, but once you realize their sundry shortcomings, your encouraged to be lazy, and you quickly learn how kill ninjas in your sleep. rrrrg! so i dreaded my friend, Fay's hair and we took this picture and then i realized what is so clear to you and me and everyone else, i am forever and always a pirate. rrrrg!

"I Discover Something"

(photo by: Martine Marche)
Searching for scattered
constellations, I discover
something else.

Just before a sonic boom
a cloud appears behind a cloud
melting darkness in
purple iridescence;

Drops of rain fall
like halfpennies, more as
a technicality than necessity.

Through the splintering
lights I see my friend
posing before the spectacle
like a boy being
addressed by his mother.

Gnarly neon lines creep
to destination and hang
on the clouds for
divine show-and-tell.

Muses play tricks on an
undulating poet while
sirens whine for company
and philosophers hold
hemlock to the sun
and laugh.

A quarter of the sky
irradiates, while the other
portions look on from
the jealous rooms
of unaffected darkness.

The storm rises on the
sky, refuses to threaten,
and continues to
strike awe

As heavenly horses pull
the Prophet on a
chariot of fire
crossing over the storm;
they acclimate,
galloping thunder.

I look on as Elisha
must have, convinced
and alone.

Pushed by zephyr's high
winds the clouds disperse
and I peer through these gossamer lines to
see what's happening
outside.

by Wm. Rieppe Moore

Dear Nearly: Part 15 "Tinnitus"

unfortunately, our relationship now suffers under the effects of your dabbling in the affairs of my family. my Mother has recently undergone immediate hearing loss (IHL) in her right ear and in her left ear she hears the tinnitus bell's incessant chime. Dr. Hill has prescibed her with some anti-viral medication and a steroid to stem swelling, but you and i both know with whom her best hope remains. seeming and attempting to create a wedge between my Mother's senses from the others; you might have partially taken her hearing but she remains spiritually undichotomous. so supposing you might disentigrate my relationship with her and her relationships with the rest of the family, you miss your mark terribly and, Nearly, i should say although you almost took her hearing, you might have chosen a less egregious more promising tactic. (photo by: annonymous)

an arrow in the trees

(this was written on June 20, 2006, almost a full day after i taught from Romans 5:8 for the Wednesday night chapel at Bethel Christian Camp) you wouldn't believe me if i told you, but i sat down in a rocking chair on the Boat House porch overlooking Lake Urquart to pray about a message i was to give to the campers at Bethel last night, and i looked across the Lake to observe in the trees there, the shape of an arrow pointing to heaven. as i sat down, heavy with prayer and burdened by ineptitude, i asked for no such sign. but as i lifted my eyes to perview the crooning guards of Lake Urquart on the eastern shore, i saw in them an unmistakable sign, which i took as a reminder that although i was timorous about speaking to the children of the subliminal and fantastic love of God, ultimately God sustains control and will act according to his wise purposes. he draws children, inmates, vagrants, and vagabonds to himself with open arms, despite the perceived incoherance of his children. i have visited that same rocking chair on that same porch of that same Boat House several times since and i have yet to see that same arrow in the trees.