To get the ball rolling again, I’ll start off with something short. It’s a poem I was made to revisit in a surprising “this-is-the-Lord” sort of way recently. It doesn’t rhyme and needs tweaking but hopefully the progression comes through. Henna, or Camphire, is a plant metaphor I wrote about a few years back, one that grew in a desert oasis (the same one David fled unto for protection from Saul). Today Henna has an even fresher meaning now; the Lord Jesus becoming even more so, “a cluster of henna-flowers In the vineyards of En-gedi,” Song 2:14!

Journey of Tears

Nipping foxes,
Trashing hopeful vines,
Noise and confusion, the wind howls, 
Trudging through loneliness, and —

Tears…
In a land,
No glimpse of God it seems,
Except there, in the distance,
The sight of blooming Henna, brings —

Tears…
Of delight,
Hope renewed with budding vines,
For Henna mean no more foxes,
Eating no more blossoms, again —

Tears…
Now waterfalls,
Eating from fruitful vines,
The Beloved is to me a cluster of Henna,
In an oasis of happy — 

Tears!

Ein-Gedi Botanical Gardens, Modern Day Israel

For more reading, see: “On the Scent Trail of Henna – Song 1:14