All Categories - Dave The Poet

Week 29 : Burned Bridges

11/19/2017

The bridges to home
All have been burned
The path to Grandma’s house…
Somewhere it turned

No turkey dressing
No holiday cheer
No tree-lined street
Down which to steer

Bags of groceries…
All empty now
No grain in the bin
No harvest to plow

The sparkling lights
The warm oven smell
Black olive fingers
Stories to tell

That scene is not…
What’s here on the street
Just gutter and clutter…
Nothing is sweet

Lights all aglow
From the windows at home
Festive inside
And they’re all alone

Out on the street
With nowhere to go
Bridges all burned
Nothing to show

David Kettler
11/23/16

Week 28 : Garments of the King

11/19/2017

Wrapped so tight in swaddling clothes
Above the Angels sing
A garment He would not outgrow
As child or as King

A servant’s towel by Him was gird
To wash the others feet
He humbly took the lowest place
Though they had sought retreat

The garment of the common man
He wore and slipped away
When they had tried to make Him king
He knew a better way

The garment that they took away
Would not be torn in two
He wore the grave clothes that were ours
He died for me and you

Wrapped in linen for a time
The grave could not contain
The One whom royalty adorned
Through suffering and through pain

Now He wears His priestly robe
A shining light to see
Rightfully clothed as King of Kings
For all eternity

David Kettler 10/25/17

Note: This is dedicated to Cam who was our visitor from
Manitoba Canada and spoke on this in Visalia.

Week 27 : Dust

11/19/2017

The Dust blows through town
homeless and transient
Lacking substance
To the one
who’s wiping it down

Far from something
Yet, part of everything
The end of life
As well as the beginning

An irritating invader
Mantle squatting pest
It lays in disgust
Taking its rest

Choking the one
It earlier formed
Taking the breath
The Lord adorned

A reflection of my past
My future I trust
From mantle to graveyard
From dust to dust

David Kettler

10/21/17

Week 26 : Bit of Ear

11/19/2017

She brought water from on high
And it quenched my thirsty soul
From our dear old brother Amos
These rainclouds they did roll

A flood of hope came pouring down
It softened my parch-ed ground
Fresh seed then was planted there
A home is what it found

Just a little-that is all
We need to give to Him
He will do the miracle
The iron it will swim!

Two poor feeble tired legs
Or just a bit of ear
Now in Faith-give them to Him
And He will draw so near

The places that those legs will go
The things that we will hear
When we in Faith just offer Him
A little bit of ear!

So the rain came pouring down again
The thirsty hearts were drenched
Our souls they were so very fed
Our thirst it was so quenched!

David Kettler
October 30th 201

Week 25 : Create An Atmosphere of Love

11/19/2017

Create an atmosphere of love
Where none existed before
Make creating the joy…
Rather than the chore

Create an atmosphere of kindness
When stress filled words take flight
Return them with understanding
A caress in the darkest night

Create an atmosphere of calm
When chaos can only conspire
Birds gather around the feeder
Not the raging fire

Create an atmosphere of love
They don’t create themselves
Brightest flowers bloom in sunshine
Not tucked away on shelves

Create the love in each other
By being the love that you seek
The love you nurture in secret
In the loudest crowd will speak

Create an atmosphere of love
A place it will love to go
Make it very comfortable
And love you will always know

David Kettler
October 8th 2017

Dedicated to Doug and Katie

Week 24 : Not Pointless

11/19/2017

I rake the falling amber leaves
With cascades more to come
But it really isn’t pointless
To cold grass growing numb

The precious warmth of sunlight
Could mean life instead of death
To tender grass that’s growing
In winter’s chilling breath

Shoveling snow from the sidewalk
…another storm on the way
Certainly is not pointless
To the friends who are coming today

Cleaning things that will soil again
Washing what’s been washed before
Pouring grain into an empty bin
Opening again the closing door

Teaching once more the lessons of life
Young ears have heard again & again
The same old stories that Grandpa told
Sometimes with a different spin

Adding more wood to the fires that burn
Knowing the dawn will bring cold
Sweetest slumber while clock dials turn
None are pointless…when the story’s been told

It isn’t pointless; it’s not in vain
Labor that’s done in the spirit of love
Bridges built or foundations lain
When prompted by the one above

David Kettler, 11/29/15

Note: Raking the autumn leaves while more were falling right behind me, I remember thinking how pointless! This poem then started coming to me…no, it’s not pointless!

Week 23 : To The Coast

11/19/2017

I went to the coast
She opened her arms
Her gentle breeze
Her sparkling charms

The crash of her waves
The salt in her spray
The subtle hint
Of a better day

Kaleidoscope show
From light upon high
Helped me to know
My dreams they were nigh

So long in the valley…
…the valley so drear
I knew right away
Something better was near

A few miles west
To the sun-drenched coast
I found what was best
And my heart loved most

She opened her arms
She need not boast
There’s no more to say
When I go to the coast

David Kettler, 2/20/16

Week 22 : Words Fail

11/19/2017

Week 21 : On That Day

11/19/2017

On that day, terror came to take away
Everything we’ve come to know
With one big blow…but it didn’t go
Rather, freedom tastes much sweeter now
Our resolve to not allow…our knee to bend
Or our heart to bow

On that day, terror took our wings away
Friendly skies were turned to gray
And held at bay…where the buildings lay
Quiet skies, once lined with vapor trails
Now void of all details…the silence broke
By mourners wails

On that day, pride arose as buildings fell
The crash had sounded freedom’s bell
To what effect…time will tell
Hand in hand, differences were put behind
Our memory can best remind
How our brotherhood …is best defined

On that day, we found our hero’s true
Strong and brave now get their due
The price was paid…their spirits flew
Clearing dust, showed a courage few have known
Revealed a nation that had grown…
Fear we had, now has flown

On that day, evil came but did not stay
Now freedom rises like morning day
Hope arose where ashes lay
Freedom’s dawn…is here to stay

David Kettler, 11/28/01

Notes: I wrote this poem two months after 9/11. It was on an old computer that was never backed up. All I had was a printed hard copy and because of that it was over-looked for my poetry book. I was at the gym in Norco California the morning of 9/11. My friend Chris was acting strangely and finally he told me what he had seen on the news. We all went over to the TV’s and watched what we still at that time did not understand as the first and second planes hit the towers. Later I went to a grand opening of one of our customers…a business coincidently owned by a Middle Eastern gentleman…He told us that he had canceled the event and while we stood there in his showroom watching the TV…the towers fell. I don’t remember if any of us cried, but I remember spending the rest of the day in a total haze not really knowing what to do. A Day or so later, my neighbor Tom was one of the only planes in the sky, flying a UPS 767 to NY full of supplies. He said it was one of the most surreal times of his life. No sound in the headset.