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October 27–November 2 ❘ Nauvoo House

Poem and discussion centering on the construction of Nauvoo House, inspired by Doctrine and Covenants 124:4.

Nauvoo House

I’d like to buy stock
in a boarding house of the Lord
somewhere safe and secure,

a stake in a perpetual timeshare
to be recorded and remembered
from generation to generation,

a sanitarium to rest from all toil
on the healthful banks
of a slow, winding river

to be no more a vagabond
seeking the bread of life
but take up the work of Forever

if such a place exists to welcome
a stranger in a strange land.

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October 20–26 ❘ Hiding Place

Poem and discussion centering on times when we seek God but feel like we can’t find Him, inspired by Doctrine and Covenants 121:1.

Hiding Place

I see your pavilion’s faint outline
pitched in open field,
banners flicking and flashing
in the sun, hitched horses at ease,
the camp milling about
on important errands.

I try to move forward,
but the ground gives way
and I find myself slogging
through a nightmare mire,
never progressing toward
a goal I can’t quite remember.

When I call for help,
the quartermaster perks up
and turns—but where are you?
Your tent flaps never part.
I cannot see you, though I know
you are somewhere.

Maybe you are hiding in wind and sun,
or in concerned eyes of camp followers.
Maybe you have descended below,
beneath the mud, and only wait
to receive my feet.

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October 13–19 ❘ Tithing

Poem and discussion centering on the law of tithing, inspired by Doctrine and Covenants 119:3–4.

Tithing

One-tenth of my interest annually
is 876 hours per year—

attention paid during meetings,
scripture study, family home evening,
ministering assignments, callings,
activities, service projects,
temple sessions—
even rounding up,

all my time spent in worship
tallies to a deficit.

Yet at annual settlement
I declare my balance paid in full,
having padded my little pile
of minutes with a heart overdrawn
in prayer, ever pestering the Lord
for more of His Spirit,

beggar that I am.
Are we not all?

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October 6–12 ❘ Treasure Trove

Poem and discussion centering on where the real treasures in life are to be found, inspired by Doctrine and Covenants 111:10.

Treasure Trove

My parents paid for Sunday shoes
and music lessons, children’s
encyclopedias and youth trips,
New Year’s Eve breakfasts
and offerings to the church
subsidized by selling scrap gold.

They patched together dollars
like a quilt to spread over multitudes.
Some monetary investments withered,
but their garden multiplied tomatoes
and spun off subsidiary zucchini
to feed the neighborhood.

They sometimes worried
they would outlive their means,
but there was always treasure
in their home—jewels cut and polished
by education, love, and discipline
held to catch the Light,

eternal increase willing to spend
and be spent in the cause of the Lord.

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September 29–October 5 ❘ Rushing Waters

Poem and discussion centering on the sound of the Savior’s voice, inspired by Doctrine and Covenants 110:3–4.

Rushing Waters

His voice is in
the constant flow of rivers
running through, over, around

surge of waves
in endless sift of shell,
stone, sand

rattle of rain,
clipped and clean,
punctuated by thunder

crash of geyser
erupting revelation
held back too long

splash of startled lake
when skipped stones ripple
and shiver out new visions

rush of blood pulsing
in ears that hear
echoes of a great heart

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September 22–28 ❘ Overtaken

Poem and discussion centering on God’s unchanging nature, inspired by Doctrine and Covenants 106:4–5.

Overtaken

Though unchanging as a mother
with hands stretched out
to a child testing first steps,
God is adaptable.

He suffers us gladly, tinkers
new ways to treat old complaints,
tweaks a way for us to accomplish
what He commands,

while we who waffle between day
and night are rigid, impatient in pain,
freezing each other in place for past wrongs,
determined not to heal or be healed.

He wants to remake us in His image,
to imprint us like fresh clay,
but we are brittle. We have snuffed
the lamps and huddle under blankets,

unable to tell our own Father
from a thief in the night.

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September 15–21 ❘ Stewardship

Poem and discussion centering on centering on what stewardship means to me, inspired by Doctrine and Covenants 104:14.

Stewardship

This flower-print dress with ruffled trim
belongs to God, as do these red ballet flats.
All my attire is His—whether I plan or buy
on impulse, I use money He lends
to clothe myself.

The dishes in my cupboards
and food in my fridge are all His.
He lets me decide what to stock,
how much to eat, who to invite
to dinner or give a plate of cookies.

Everything I provide for my children,
whether bed or book or toy,
is a gift from Him. I represent
the Lord by what I choose to impart
or withhold—education, advice, attention,
patience in the face of anger,

beauty for ashes,
joy for mourning,
faith instead of despair.
God keeps meticulous books,
fulfilling every jot and tittle,
holding all to account
down to the last mite.

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September 8–14 ❘ Holy Places

Poem and discussion centering on how our homes can be holy places that protect us against the wickedness of this world, inspired by Doctrine and Covenants 101:22.

Holy Places

I watch the sunset from the corner
of Country Mill and Western Drive
and note how rooflines echo Frary Peak
on Antelope Island—bent pyramids
black against the sky and rimmed
with light like glowing magma.

These homes are little mountains of the Lord,
hollows filled with congregants
who follow daily ritual—eat, sleep,
breathe, read, pray, succor, sacrifice,
speak key words from memory
again and again and again,

and when one forgets, another whispers
cues into inclined ear, restoring the rhythm.
All are connected by lines of light,
tethered to a central point
so as day draws down and wraps
shadow around and between them,

they are not alone. God, who knows
what grows or crumbles within,
holds all loose threads in hand
and pulls them taut, thrums them
like the strings of an instrument
to fill His temples with music.

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September 1–7 ❘ School of Prophets

Poem and discussion centering on how the Lord teaches us about Himself from the time we are very young, inspired by Doctrine and Covenants 97:1–5.

School of Prophets

In the church nursery,
we prepare every needful thing:
books and puzzles for gathering,
songs and stories for learning,
animal crackers and water for filling,
toys for winding down.

We give space to the boy
who cries himself to sleep on the floor,
patience to the girl who bowls over
her friends with too much excitement.
We wipe noses and sanitize hands.
We spread laps to sit on and arms to enfold.

Perched on tiny chairs,
we say, “Jesus loves you!”
and each child responds in turn
“I love Jesus!”—bearing simple
testimonies by the spirit of prophecy
foretold for little ones of these last days.

Together we learn scripture
and study precious mysteries
reserved for the pure in heart.

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August 25–31 ❘ Intelligence

Poem and discussion centering on the eternal nature of intelligence, which cannot be created or made, inspired by Doctrine and Covenants 93:29–36.

Intelligence

In my mind, this sunset seems to melt
in a puddle of passion, entwined
with the skyline as it blushes pink.

In reality, the sun is 93 million miles away,
blasting through an earthly atmosphere
that cannot register embarrassment.

I am a tiny speck trapped here,
a next-to-nothing body confined
to a far-flung, water-drop planet,

yet I can read faint lines scratched on paper
and by them understand thoughts and acts
performed two-thousand years before my birth.

I can catch insubstantial syllables on air
and through them grieve at someone’s suffering
or ride another’s joy heavenward,

and though sun and sky are not aware
of me below their glowing pas de deux—
though they are not even aware of themselves—

I am aware of them. Tonight,
I imagine they are in love,
blossoming in wistful embrace.

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August 18–24 ❘ Not by Constraint

Poem and discussion centering on the Word of Wisdom, inspired by Doctrine and Covenants 89:1–21.

Not by Constraint

To me, the weakest of saints
with little judgment or skill,
is given a word of wisdom

adapted to my capacity—
though I find it hard to self-regulate
and too often try to fill deep emptiness

with something solid,
as though a temporal repast
could stick to spiritual ribs.

When the world entices me
to partake of its delicious, desirable
lies not meant for body or belly,

the Lord says I am free
to see temptation as a clarifying offer,
and choose to leave the Destroyer’s fare
on the table.

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August 11–17 ❘ Light of Christ

Poem and discussion centering on how the light of Christ makes all creation possible, inspired by Doctrine and Covenants 88:6–13.

Light of Christ

God said:
Let there be light
and where light is,
life erupts.

On surface,
green plants transmute
sunshine to sweet and fat—
a sacrament all creation craves
for daily communion.

Beneath, earth holds
infrared reserves, vents heat
through deep seabeds to warm
those creeping things
that sun, moon, and stars
can’t reach.

Ultraviolet sanctifies,
anoints our world in ozone
to protect from burning.
X-rays reveal hidden breaks to heal
and uncover corruption
to cut out.

Invisible waves carry words
through air to ears that hear;
spectrum colors stream
to eyes that see messages
in electromagnetic vessels.

Truth sits at my bedside
in a book that dispels darkness
like a lamp in the night.

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August 4–10 ❘ Lost Light

Poem and discussion centering on how light represents Jesus Christ in my life and how I depend upon His light for daily survival, inspired by Doctrine and Covenants 86:6–10.

Lost Light

I feel the loss of You in winter’s onset
when days grow short, when cold
saps green-gold life from trees and plants
till their brittle limbs crack
and crumble to dust.

I feel the loss of You at sundown
when darkness floods over me,
leeching color from earth and sky
till hope’s last drop has pooled
and drained below horizon line.

I feel the loss of You when fog
or smoke clogs heaven with ash
and smells of burning
out of time and season
like a misplaced omen.

In gloom, I drink in winking stars,
bright moon, twinkling party lights,
rippling reflections on water,
scattered glitter, lightning bugs,
wood fires in stone hearths,

any light I can scavenge
as I live the minutes, hours,
days until You dawn on me again.

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July 28–August 3 ❘ O That I Were an Angel

Poem and discussion centering on the key of ministering of angels, inspired by Doctrine and Covenants 84:26.

O That I Were an Angel

Of all the gleaming keys on God’s ring,
I’d choose the one that frees angels
from behind the door where I daily knock,

not to do as Alma wished,
to blare like brass and shake
all earth as he was shaken,

but to glide silently by
and bear up the broken,
rebuild them from inside out

where now I cannot reach.
If there were some law I could obey
whose predicated blessing

would bind the Lord and His hosts
to my direction, legions would surround
and brace loved ones with scaffolds

of strength they seek yet lack.
Perhaps I sin in my wish,
for the Lord remains boundless.
I remain outside His door knocking.

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July 21–27 ❘ Prayer Always

Poem and discussion centering on the things that get in the way of prayer, inspired by Doctrine and Covenants 81:3.

Prayer Always

I’ve sewn myself
a curtain of noise
from 15-second video
clips, audio books
         droning under

the persistent bludgeon
of daily piano practice,
background radio chatter,
and endless threads
         of conversation.

The cacophony swaddles,
         lulls, blunts
         all sensing.

God still hears my muffled
prayer beneath the layers.
He is needle quiet and quick,
piercing even thickest fabric
         with His careful stitches.

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July 14–20 ❘ Storehouse

Poem and discussion centering on the establishment of the Lord’s storehouse for the poor of His people, inspired by Doctrine and Covenants 78:3.

Storehouse

There are no shelves here. Instead,
we search each other’s faces
for what we need—

laughter, sympathy, bits of time
for sowing seeds, talents for sharing
cheerful stories or hearing quiet sobs
of loss, gumption for spackling cracks
before they spread, shoulders strong enough
to brace up load bearing walls.

We’ve never erected so much
as a backyard shed, but somehow
here we are building a kingdom
we can’t even comprehend, following
direction by direction of a plan
fed to us one step at a time

till one day all will be woven together
in this haven against the buffeting
and wind—even now, sometimes
I can’t tell where one of us begins
and the other ends.

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July 7–13 ❘ Redeemed

Poem and discussion centering on how we as fallen human beings have still been redeemed by our Savior, inspired by Doctrine and Covenants 76:25–26.

Redeemed

I am failing

like Lucifer child of dawn
beloved by Father and Son

I am fallen

like Eve like Adam
in a garden of stasis

I am damned to a standstill

like Alma sobbing
O Jesus thou Son of God
have mercy on me

I am desperate

like Abish yelling to the people
grasping the queen’s fingers

I reach out reach up

like all the works of God’s hands
groping for redemption

I am not Perdition

over whom the Heavens weep
and weep and weep

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June 30–July 6 ❘ Alpha and Omega

Poem and discussion centering on some of the ways the title “Alpha and Omega” applies to the Lord, inspired by Doctrine and Covenants 75:1–2.

Alpha and Omega

You are calm,
an encyclopedia from A to Z
explaining precept after precept,
calling and recalling me.

I am ornery,
cussed as a veteran rebel,
refugee of a district burned over
and over by shame.

I am always in the middle,
tugging at threads and trying
to pick little holes in the veil
to see through.

You are always wrapped around me,
shoring up against erosion,
reconfiguring pieces to fit,
from beginning to end.

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June 23–29 ❘ Father of Lights

Poem and discussion centering on one of God’s titles “Father of Lights” as recorded in Doctrine and Covenants 67:9.

Father of Lights

I remember being in a sunny kitchen
wearing a dress trimmed in rickrack,
small and angry, unheard in my demands
for a graham cracker. I must have been two.
No matter how I probe, I can’t peer back
before that memory’s edge,

but I existed. I’ve seen pictures
of a baby shower flooded with pink,
my dark head tumbled in dreams
while women around me ate cake.

Before that, I pulsed inside my mother,
trained to her heartbeat
and soaking warmth like an eye
drawing sun through a closed lid.

I lived even before that
in a place adjacent to this world
that no one remembers
but yet still is. From there,
Father set us little lights free
into this world.

I yearn for forgotten radiance.
I toe my way forward, fingers grazing
the wall as I move and feel about
to flip on the switch.

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June 16–22 ❘ Small Things

Poem and discussion centering on the small and simple things of the world that bring great things to pass, inspired by Doctrine and Covenants 64:33.

Small Things

When you were a child,
you drew close and held me still
with your small voice,
soft as a puppy nuzzling in
for caress and kiss.
You wanted to grow down,
you said, not up—
to be a baby again, always
swaddled and warm,
just this side of sleep.

Against your word, you grew
year by year, bit by bit,
sprouting gangly limbs
and facial fuzz, then whiskers
and just enough wisdom
to carry you away from me
on to bigger things.

But even from here I can see
it’s the little things in you
that catch light like the mother lode—
how you offer a word
and gift a smile to shift
someone’s heart,
someone’s whole world.

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