Exploring Faith Through Poetry: Clara Klein's Insightful Works

Clara Klein’s Bio

Freelance writer of faith for over 35 years and have been published in a number of Christian magazines and journals, including Valiant Scribe, Spirit Fire Review, Words of the Lamb, and others.

Location – United States
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/clearandbrightwriting

Homing in on Your Radar
By Clara Klein

Lord I’m flying upside down
and I can only see the sky.
Is this the way I’m supposed to be,
only heaven in my eye?

I can’t discern where I am.
How close am I to ground?
Obstructions veering past me
make a whooshing sound.

Am I falling or being lifted?
Do you hold me by a string?
Have I left the earth completely?
Am I held by angels’ wings?

I’ve lost my sense of balance
My inner compass out of whack
If I could lock onto your radar
I could find my own way back.

Crags and pits are nearly missed,
Your hand pulls me away.
Is the ride quite nearly over,
or will disorientation stay?

I think I’m losing consciousness.
My perspective needs realigned.
Help me home in on Your radar –
let me zone in on Your mind.

Guide me to safe horizon,
cancel this unbalanced debt
Bring me safely to your hangar,
landing in your capture net.

Immanuel
By Clara Klein

God sent his only son, His name Immanuel.
It means God with us and declares that He is.
We need God with us to direct our path.
God knew we needed to see proof of His love.
To validate our human experience
Christ takes up the earthly body.
The same blood runs through
his veins, he feels as we feel
physically and emotionally. But he is
the perfect union of earthly corporality
and Godly spirit – showing us
to what we should aspire.

We can understand God through
what He has created and given us.
To give us a living breathing
concrete presence of God.
Word made flesh. Tangible. Incarnate.
Christ Immanuel epitomizes the
fullness of God’s creation.
With each element and living being,
the Father’s love shines through the gift of beauty.
Pleasing to the senses, to the heart and
to our intuition as we accept what
our Father is capable of.
How wondrous it is, this life from nothing,
this circle of being in His care,
and humans at the apex,
culminated by Christ, the perfect
joining of divine and created.
With all the flaws of the body
but none of the spirit, we look
at Jesus and learn from him.
With this learning comes trust
In He who made him and all of us.
A creator who knows us better
than we know ourselves. And what
relief to acknowledge
and give it all to Him.
Christ came to carry our burdens
as we are unable to do.

Immanuel means bringing
God’s presence to man.
Jesus is the incarnation of God
into our world, created by Him.
God came to live among us,
be one with us, and He still
is through the spirit.
Yes, he succumbed to death
but overcame it. What more
can the human ask for?
Is not death our greatest fear?
As he returned to his father,
we desire for nothing less.
For to be with God is our
ultimate desire. To be without
Him sets us to panic. We, with Christ,
issue forth from the Father and when
our work according to His will is done,
will be rewarded with an eager trip
home to His side, where all will be well
in Immanuel perfection – perfect peace,
perfect fulfillment, perfect knowing,
that He was with us all along.
So we sing with joy Immanuel,
we give you praise for leading us
to our true home. Amen.

Prayer of an Old Woman
By Clara Klein

My time is near
The winter season approaches,
Though I know not when.
I have grown old before my time,
Troubles have wearied my soul.

My opalescent head is a crown of glory
Each glowing thread awarded for valor.
My visage is loosed and lies placidly.
Decumbent lids screen out the haze.
No longer am I distracted by the devil’s smoke.
Though my eyes dim, I see the unseen much clearer.
Things that were invisible now apparent to my inner eye.
And a back once firm against deception
Now softer and more supple,
able to bend with changing winds.
As my heart beats more slowly
It beats with much more meaning.
I feel my strength sapped
And cannot do what once I could.
My body slower moves, my thinking not as sharp.
I am more easily annoyed at little disturbances
Yet calmer in the face of bigger challenges.
Less afraid of the destination now,
Only annoyed by obstacles in the road
and wondering why everyone doesn’t just
take the straight road home.

No longer do I wish to wade through the mire.
The Lord’s light is a beacon that shines
right through it and guides me home.
Why does God take our strength at the end?
All we have left to do is float home to Him!
I make a sacrificial offering of myself.
Heaven is looking better than this earthly dwelling.

Warrior time is over.
I’ve fought enough for ten lifetimes.
The fight will always be there,
so I leave the future to the young ones
hoping I taught them well.
In my aging I can still teach and
be an example. The crone still can heal.
Then I can look back with acceptance
knowing I made the most of God’s gift
to me and have seen the seed take root.
Wondering only if I accomplished
everything God wanted me to –
He knows the answer better than I,
by my side all along.

I seek acknowledgement for the past,
and soon He will recompense
me beyond measure. Heaven
supercedes all imaginings
and will at last be my true home.

My springtime was glorious,
though I sweated through the summer.
Now the autumn sunset is beautiful
and the night will be brief,
then eternal sunshine will be ecstatic,
a refuge of perfect belonging and
acceptance. With appreciation and respect,
the care I need and perfect love.

The Whim of God
By Clara Klein

We live and die at God’s whim.
It’s not just His will be done,
It’s His whim.
Because so much of it
doesn’t make sense.
I spend hours, days, years
Praying in supplication
For His blessings.
Living day to day in hope
I’ll make it to the next.
Yet the next just brings even more
Unfathomable distress and misery.
The authors of the psalms knew this
ride – up, down, hitting hundreds
of obstacles along the way.
When will rest come?
I really need to rest.
So rest I receive, only to catch my breath
before the next onslaught of bad luck.
And I scream and scream –
God give me a break.
Hasn’t He had enough whimsical fun
At my expense?
And I wonder
if He’s listening.

The Sacrosanct: Separation of Body and State
By Clara Klein

Whose body is it, anyway?
If you remove the child’s body
from the mother, does one
or both have to die?

Many people make up
the body of a country.
If a large portion are removed,
does the body suffer?

Non-essential parts of a body
can be removed and still the body
carries on, but with phantom
sensations of what was lost.

Who determines the extent of excision?
Those in the know – holistic or streamlined?
Those in power – by popularity or corruption?
Does the patient have a say in the surgery?

“If your right hand is your problem,
Then cut it off and cast it away.”
Is the body saved or the hand wasted?
Selective salvage or radical operation?

Elderly and invalids are similarly thrown
away, inconvenient to quality living,
as authorities push the boundaries
to eliminate undesirables in the populace.

We need to ask ourselves
where to draw the line,
if there should be one at all,
lest all bodies eventually disappear.

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