Take to Writing

Take to Writing Offered by Doug Blair (Waterloo ON) in tribute to a dear friend and brilliant poet, Anthony Gomez of Kentucky. Passed on to the King’s mansion this April 2020.

Posted on ​April 11, 2020

The button says “write” I believe that I must As my hands go to keyboard With my heart tuned to trust.

And so late is the hour But I already slept And the sleep worked full measure

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Now a rendezvous kept.

For my Lord touches heart strings And the thrill take these words And I know as the page fills That my lines Christ has heard.

In a world lost to reading And the powers of thought May the Spirit use poems That my Master has brought.

Worthy Sample from Anthony Gomez JULY 2, 2017​ / ​ISSUUDOTCOMSLASHDEWANE​ /​

Back in 2013 AG and I sparked up an animated friendship on a Christian Writers’ Forum he helped to administer. This is one of his, that really grabbed me with image, depth and thankfulness. Enjoy…oh, and he is seldom one for titles:

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Renegade with a heart?

At the end of the line, a new start?

You don’t make sense to my senses nothing invested, yet countless recompenses eres’ turn to hences, arthritic legs jumping fences in the service of lengthy sentences Confused but not beyond belief belief is all i have that counts one iota dressing wounds with it like a salve failing this here and now perpetually taking what You send too casually defense mechanisms in layers dissolving

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breaking down the broken, then breaking that down more demolishing all that stands between ‘eye’ and You what would You have me do? i wait and wait for You no sooner do i begin to feel like i’ve faded from Your view the world pulls me down with crushing, joint grinding, gravity then You remind me, everything You said was TrueIn this filthy shell, how do You tolerate my smell? “unfit to untie Your sandals” and was he not the greatest among these? then what of the likes of me? and these tears… please tell me someday…

You know everything, what are they for? i’m hurting and I don’t know why,

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i love You like i do, it is a mystery of Word and Spirit, and all my many words, no matter how I arrange them… seem to know any more than i do,

but they don’t speak to me,

as they pass…

through me

wringing tears from out of my mind

and the salt…

stinging my heart

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Anthony Gomez, Moncks Corner, S. C.

So Full, Anthony, So Full AUGUST 31, 2013​ / ​ISSUUDOTCOMSLASHDEWANE​ /​

The following has been provided by​ Anthony Gomez of Moncks Corner, South Carolina​. He has volunteered to share occasionally, and believe me, the images will bless.

“A Strong Delusion”

2 Thessalonians 2:11,12

It’s futile to think that garnering popular opinion, seeking consensus among peers shall be of any consequence overall. The approval sought after in polls, petitions, protests, stand-ins, tea parties, and such. Listen, satan will validate your stance and your parking voucher too.

Stand beside you and pump his fist, hold up a lit candle and sing Kumbaya with you, cheer you on… he’ll lead the wave. He will embolden you, he will incite you, he will encourage you to do unconscionable things you never before considered or wanted to. He will cloud your eyes from truth, instigate rebellion by influence, all the while twisting free will into subjugation as long as allowed to. Join his gang, his club, his lodge, wear 6

his colors, come on board on an ill-fated ship. Have a sense of family, of belonging, the world loves it’s own.

“satan has a plot.”

“God has a plan.”

God sends you what you need, might be a can of sardines when you prayed for a steak but satisfying nonetheless. satan gives you what you want. At first glance it appears the same, until you twist the can open and out pop snakes. He will cause strife and division. He knows our weaknesses and attacks with laser targeting pinpoint precision. Muddle our minds with petty concerns given undue priority. Seek to redirect and distract us from a higher calling’s inheritance of authority. Without Jesus, it’s a snakebite without antidote. It’s a slow death by poison or at the end of a hangman’s noose.

Insidious and sly, the temptations dangled right before our eyes. Straight from hell, his touch akin to a molestation. At times, on a pulpit, even at an altar, into Judas at the last supper.

All the places we gather to seek after God, and HE is telling us constantly, through whomever is willing to serve, what lives in us has nothing to do with temples nor anything crafted by the hands of man, or the world.

“JESUS SAVES”

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But we must open our hearts and our eyes and let Him in. Allow Him to work in us, through us, and in Him, close our eyes and ears if necessary even to those whom we love. Those closest to us, who refuse to accept, whose hearts are hardened and grown deaf. We serve a jealous God and He is always first!

In order for internal combustion to take place, two most essential things are required… a spark and fuel. You can spin the crankshaft all day long , but without either your vehicle isn’t going anywhere.

Meantime…

We’ve been given instructions, we have received assignments, we are running behind for the Kingdom’s work. To which, by choice we are obliged.

“Family Comes First”

We love to throw this one around don’t we? But do we truly know the definition of “family” according to Jesus’ Word? Do we really live by it? Do we help to enable, or look the other way from those we know are doing wrong? Are we aiders and abettors? Do we try to lead them to Christ? And if they reject… move on… “shake the dust from off our sandals.”

There is a stranger to us somewhere actively seeking right this moment, the very same words that have fallen on deaf ears.

Fervently seeking after hope, after a message, an encouragement, a promise, loving and kind.​ A teetering tottering

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mighty one whose legs are giving out and just needs a gentle nudge to rest on knees at the cross and discover a living Saviour. Such as these are our brothers, our sisters, longing to be awakened from slumber. They who “seek after the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness.” They “who are called according to His purpose.”

This is the bottom line we loathe to easily accept. This is the Truth and not a lie. The reality of awakening one day to a loved one ‘gone’. Left behind alone while we have been taken up. Don’t we want them to come with us? “…and do not lean on your own understanding” but oh we do, we do, we do… so much. And what seems right in our own eyes by our own measure, by our own reasoning is not even close to Truth. Even though sometimes it sounds oh so good inside of our own heads.

Does anyone truly want to know where I’ve been? What was I rescued from? I’ve shown glimpses, but can you truly handle the nightmares some of us have lived? I’ve yet to encounter any who could handle the full account. The deprivation, the horrors… or can I just say to whom I am beholden? Jesus! By whom I was delivered? Jesus!

Above all

Above family

Above friend

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Above spouse

Above comprehension

A name above all names

Holy and worthy to be praised

Thou art God alone!

Willing and able to listen

His hand on mine

the ink glistens

We move a pen!

Amen

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And this one Anthony liked. He spurred me on with comments the night that I wrote it. He could almost tell where I was headed in advance. We had gotten that close. We were that mutually supportive...Doug Blair

Wesley’s Horse JULY 16, 2014​ / ​ISSUUDOTCOMSLASHDEWANE​ /​

The little creature knew the roads.

From town to town his Friend

Would seek a fitting gathering space

To focus on life’s end.

No burden he, and speaking much

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To Someone Fatherly

Then speaking to assembled crowds

Pressed close that they might see.

And some would laugh with rude disdain

And some would nod assent

And some would cry out for relief

As Friend would urge “Repent”.

The creature tethered to one side

Heard thoughts rehearsed in mid-day’s ride

But now with pressing tears.

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And folk came forward to the man

Imploring more of Jesus’ Plan.

Been like that now for years.

A horse would think a paddock green

A suiting place for rest

But paths of love, with Friend above

Had suited this horse best.

https://issuu.com/blairdoug64/docs/beauty_of_a_horse__2_

Guardian Angels When the benefit of doubt has run out and recidivism‌

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in and of itself a prison Crying wolf! wolf! in the dark but no one is listening eyes aglare creep forward Fangs glisten the night sundered by a howl all eyes on the alpha male on the hill framed in moonglow speaks:

“leave them be pass them by these have been chosen to live make a way allow them to pass there is much easier prey to be had” “These bear the scent from whence they have passed and by Whom they have been sent my keen senses do not lie the hand upon them is known to me”

“They no longer walk in their own will not yet marked for the kill They are brethren 14

of believers in the Creator of all things” “The faint scent of fear around them but a vestige, of a trace, of an iota, within Grace a seal of safe passage a message hidden within They cannot yet see for themselves”

“It would not be well with us if we did them harm let them pass and see them safely through”

Psalm 91: 10, 11 10 ​no harm will overtake you, no disaster will come near your tent.

11 ​For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; Anthony Gomez, Moncks Corner, South Carolina (Image by Ron DiCianni)

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