Love

Flood the Zone

Posted on September 29, 2025 by backfromtheborderlands

Flood the Zone

Darkness is a vacuum, a void

Light is life

What would our world be

Without the sun

You are the Light of the World

Flood the zone

Fill the dark haunts 

With light

Fill the violent place

With life

Fill the hard hearted

With love

Fill the areas where evil abounds

With acts of goodness

Be anchored in Love 

Don’t get swept up

Into the vacuum

Caught in the net

Of darkness and dark deeds

We know what they are

We have a conscience

We have a soul

Instead let us tap into

The streams of light and life

Love is the strongest

Of all powers

May our lives be

Lit by the light

Of love

© 2025 Julie Clark

Categories: Faith, Hope, Life, light, Love, Poetry | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Standards

Posted on July 11, 2024 by backfromtheborderlands

What standard will you use

When it comes to others?

Will it be the one you learned

In the building

Under cross and steeple

From the preacher

Thumping and waving

His Bible?

From the evangelist on

On the street

Sending everyone to hell?

Or will you listen

To the One they claim to follow

“Be compassionate,

Judge no one,

Condemn no one,

Forgive and give”

The standard I use

Will be the one

I am measured by

So best to go easy

Be kind, and patient

Learn the art of Love

Directly from the Master

2024 Julie Clark

Categories: Faith, God, growth, Life, Love, Paths, Poetry, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

The Actions of Love

Posted on May 27, 2024 by backfromtheborderlands
Photo by Jasmine Carter on Pexels.com

The actions of Love

Love is active

 lived out

Worked out

Grown, nurtured,

Planted, tended, watered

Takes thought

Planned 

And spontaneous

Springs from a well tended heart

Ready to take action 

When needed

Love can be interrupted

Change course

Find a new way when blocked

Always finds a way

Love says yes

Love says no

Depending on what is needed

It listens

It calms

It protects

Love provides a nest

A home

Opens the doors

And all the windows

Love gives a little push

Out the door

A gentle pull

And goes with you

Wherever you go

Love grows

Like a seed or a cedar

Love spins like a spider

Or a planet

Love is at the center

Of all

Love is everything. 

Categories: growth, Love, Poetry, Trees | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

What Jesus left out

Posted on January 15, 2024 by backfromtheborderlands

,

Have you ever noticed how

Jesus left a few things out?

Like when he picked up a scroll

And started reading

Isaiah 61

In the synagogue?

He left out the vengence of God.

How he wouldn’t stick to the script?

Or stay within the rules of protocol

Or status quo?

Remember how 

He didn’t pray for God

To slay his enemies

But prayed

Father forgive them

At the cross?

He even taught us

To love not only God, neighbor, and ourselves

But also our enemies

He wasn’t afraid of stepping

On anyone’s toes or

Provoking their anger

He disrupted their narratives

And challenged their self-assurance.

He wasn’t afraid of anyone,

The truth, or even death.

He wasn’t just being contrary

Remember he loved these people

And wept over them

He must have hoped

His shaking and poking holes in

Their thoughts and prayers

Would wake them up

Move them to action

Turn them around 

To follow him.

Julie Clark © January 2024

Categories: Faith, God, Hope, Love, Peace and Reconciliation, Poetry, Prayer | Tags: , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Broken Open

Posted on December 4, 2023 by backfromtheborderlands
Photo by Alexander Grey on Pexels.com

There is nothing like grief

To break open your theology

Which just might need to be broken open

It is too small

Has not made room for suffering

Which the world is full of

Has made God into a tribal god

Instead of the Creator of all

Whose name is Love

Who holds us all together

Every one of us and every living thing

Hold this grief and broken theology

Until it lands in a more spacious place

That includes all

Send no one to hell

Only into the arms of Love

Categories: Advent, Faith, God, grief and death, lament, Love, Poetry | Tags: , , , | Leave a comment

Sorrow and Love

Posted on October 1, 2023 by backfromtheborderlands

Woke up to an ache in my heart 

An old friend lost her granddaughter 

Weepy all day

feeling grief for my friend

Have you noticed 

When you open your heart to grief

All the sorrow of the world 

Comes squeezing in?

And the world is full

And the earth groans

Loss and love are holding hands 

The loss of a precious one

Is too vast for one person to hold

Maybe when we grieve with others

We help carry that heavy load

Categories: Autumn Poems, grief and death, Love, Poetry | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments

From There to Here

Posted on March 21, 2023 by backfromtheborderlands

There he is again

The little boy showing up

Holding his broken heart

Looking for that love

That never seems to be enough

There she is again

The little girl hiding behind

Her mother’s skirt

Not sure the world

Is a safe place after all

These wounds we carry

From there to here

From then to now

Haunt us from time to time

When they show up

Pay attention

Reassure

The child within

Yes, there is enough

To go around

Yes, love will take us through

All the way

To the end

© 2022 December Julie Clark

Categories: children, growth, Life, Love, Poetry | Tags: , , , , | 2 Comments

Repair

Posted on October 4, 2022 by backfromtheborderlands
Photo by energepic.com on Pexels.com

Repair 

Could we just move

Towards each other

Instead of listening

To the voices inside and out

Telling us how divided we are?

Could we remember

Laughter and friendship

Kindness and love

Sorrow and grief

We have tasted together?

Perhaps repair

Does not always need

Many words

But slow movement

Back to each other

A gift, a call

A jar of pickles

We know love is action

Not just pleasant thoughts

And feelings

These times need creativity

To create new ways

Of reconnection

Of loving one another

Our neighbors

Even our enemies

© Julie Clark 2022

Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com
Categories: Autumn Poems, Love, Peace and Reconciliation, Poetry, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , | 1 Comment

Two Years In

Posted on June 10, 2022 by backfromtheborderlands
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

Two years in

Not normal now 

never will be

Never was

We can’t go back 

Normal was never 

Ever

Normal

For everyone

All we have is

Now

Today

What will we do

With it?

We can’t get our

Dead back

Whether

From disease or

Gun shots

So we must

Grieve and lament

Mental health?

Anyone not 

Been depressed or anxious

Lately?

So we must

Seek peace and community

Two years in

And a million miles away

From what any of us would 

Choose for ourselves, 

Our children

And grandchildren

What choices do we have?

We can choose

Love, kindness, forgiveness 

We can choose a path

Of generosity and peace

We can turn our weapons into

Tools for living, farming, building and

caring for 

One another

It’s time for a new pledge

Not to a flag

But to our Creator

To our common humanity

To the planet we share

A pledge to share our resources

To help those less fortunate 

To make amends

For our wrongs

No more excuses

No more denial

To Restore the earth

To take care of this

Precious planet

We call home

To be makers of peace

Not war

Categories: children, Faith, grief and death, lament, Life, Love, pandemic, Peace and Reconciliation, Poetry, Prayer, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , | 2 Comments

A Dream Gift

Posted on April 20, 2022 by backfromtheborderlands
Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

(Every now and then I have a dream that really sticks to me. I sense there is a message for me. In my dream I am cleaning my friend’s mountain house. We are leaving and she and her family are on their way. They arrive before we are finished. I keep cleaning. She says to me “I have something for you”. I have to stop cleaning to receive the gift she has for me. It is a beautiful bracelet.)

Sometimes we have to stop

To stop being useful

To receive the gift

The gift of being

Truly loved

Categories: dream, Love, Poetry | Tags: , , | 2 Comments

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