Everything Happening – a poem by Chris Anderson

Everything Happening 


My roses are blooming, 
my yellow roses, and a child 

is dying of hunger 
or disease or a gunshot or grief, 

and someone is laughing 
and someone is crying,

and someone is lifting a cup, a star 
is exploding, a heart 

is breaking, the wind is blowing 
over a desert, over a forest,

over the sea, and it is morning 
and it is evening,

it is the first day and the last,
and every moment 

somewhere the Host is being 
raised in the air, 

in the air, in the air.

Chris Anderson is a Catholic deacon in Corvallis, Oregon, and everything he writes comes out of his experiences as a deacon and out of his experiences of faith, and doubt.  He is also an emeritus professor of English at Oregon State University.  He has published a number of books, poetry and prose.   Love Calls Us Here is forthcoming from Wildhouse Press.