unto the taking away of their stumbling blocks

. . . unto the taking away of their stumbling blocks.

First Nephi. Chapter Fourteen. Verse 1.

The blocks that I have stumbled over in a long career

Have given me respect for God (and just a touch of fear.)

For I have dealt with obstacles that would not go away

Until I fell upon my knees to plead and sob and pray.

And even then some challenges have never been removed;

I guess they’re meant to chasten me until my faith is proved.

If life were very easy and all barriers did cease,

My faith would surely dwindle and my pride would then increase.

So I will not complain about the stumbling blocks I face

(but in this game of life, oh Lord, could I just have one ace?)

**************************************************************

“. . . even a false hope produces better results than no hope.”

From the Lexington Herald Leader

The faith of a Christian brings hope,

Which strengthens my chances to cope

With life’s little quirks

As well as big jerks --

It helps me to climb like a rope.

From the Wall Street Journal. Saturday March 24 2018.

Recently, people started complaining that Amazon’s

digital assistant Alexa was bursting out in laughter at them

—for no reason whatsoever.

It ain’t a laughing matter when my smartphone jests with me;

I don’t like belching ringtones or a steam calliope.

When streaming adult movies on my laptop late at night

I’m getting the Three Stooges in a substitute pie fight.

And ordering from Amazon is getting to be tricky;

Packages arrive addressed to ‘Milton Q. Zwicky.”

Why this sudden sense of humor in our cyberspace?

How come at the ATM I’m squirted in the face?

Could it be the Russians playing havoc once again,

Making of our infrastructure some loud comedienne?

I think I’m going off the grid before it grows much worse --

Otherwise I’ll soon be texting rancid nonsense verse!

the path is unclear

the path is unclear

the hazy brown leaves diffuse

the unpatterned way

the seeds are like rocks

the seeds are like rocks

dull and immobile and brown

their promise is yet

neighborhood of one

neighborhood of one

goes wherever the rain stops

shoes dry off slowly

open the door

open the door now

the winter is passing by

finding is easy

beauty is absurd

beauty is absurd

in the wan light of winter

when tree bark is pearl

A man among the Gentiles . . .

And I looked and beheld a man among the Gentiles . . .

First Nephi. Chapter Thirteen. Verse 12.

A man among the Gentiles may be wrought upon by God

To leave his home and fam’ly for a purpose far abroad.

A woman, too, is often stirred to valor in the home

And need not find excuses to meander and to roam.

Even children can be moved to sacred things exclaim

That shut the mouths of tyrants and put demagogues to shame.

The finger of the Lord may touch whomever He may choose,

And if I’m ever touched again I hope I’ll not refuse!

From the Washington Post. Friday March 23 2018

U.S. stock markets ended their worst

week in more than two years on Friday

after China threatened to respond in

kind to President Trump’s imposition

of $60 billion in tariffs on Chinese imports.

When shooting off his big bazoo

Let’s hope Trump knows what he’s to do

When nations combine

To commerce confine

And stock markets go in the loo.

When Haspel’s nomination was

announced earlier this month,

McCain warned that she would

need “to explain the nature and

extent of her involvement in the

CIA’s interrogation program”

during her confirmation hearings

and that she “must pledge without

reservation to uphold” the prohibition

on torture.

When torture is used for the good

It’s often so misunderstood.

The pain so produced

Has never seduced

The CIA into falsehood.

Weeks after the White House released

its budget request, which provided a

massive increase in defense spending,

Congress took over and added even

more money for ships, aircraft and

missile defenses in what amounts to

a spending spree on major weapons systems.

Nobody has ever gone broke

With making the weapons that croak

The world’s residents --

In fact it’s immense,

The money they make with one stroke.

From the New York Times. Friday March 23 2018

In the Pacific Ocean between California

and Hawaii, hundreds of miles from any

major city, plastic bottles, children’s

toys, broken electronics, abandoned fishing

nets and millions more fragments of debris

are floating in the water — at least 87,000 tons’

worth, researchers said Thursday.

The Ocean decided one day

To make messy mankind sure pay

For all of their trash,

So made a big splash

And flooded Bangkok to Marseilles.

The W.T.O. fancies itself a United Nations

for global commerce, a place where its 164

member nations convene to hash out clear

rules of engagement, seeking to defuse conflict.

But as the United States and China, the two largest

economies on earth, edge closer to a trade war,

the organization established in 1995 to prevent

such hostilities appears increasingly impotent.

There once was a global cartel

That ruled how to buy and to sell.

But Trump and Jinping

Have stepped in the ring

To spar, sending world trade to hell.

John Bolton’s appointment as national

security adviser seems to many around

the world to represent President Trump

unbound, and they are trying to puzzle out

what exactly that means.

With Bolton now driving the bus

There won’t be too much to discuss.

Korea, Iran,

Still need a hit man;

But Mitt Romney won’t let him cuss.

There was an old hawk name of John

Who didn’t like words, only brawn.

He got a new job

Within the Trump mob,

To wield a big scary baton.