Feb. 27–Mar. 5 ❘ Paralyzed
Poem and discussion centering on the account of the man with palsy who was lowered through the roof on his bed to be healed by Jesus, as recorded in Mark 2:1–12.
Paralyzed
Maybe you’ve never decayed
like a leper thrown to the desert,
or bled inside for years
like an unclean woman in hiding.
Maybe you’ve never reached your whole life
for God’s blessing with withered hand—
but I know some kind of pain holds you close.
Like you, I was desperate.
I couldn’t walk to Peter’s house,
press through crowds, climb walls,
pry up roof tiles. I couldn’t
lower myself into Messiah’s lap.
Friends had to haul me bodily,
heave me to the brink of salvation.
And when I emerged,
buoyant as birdsong,
all burdens shed but bedroll,
my friends met me again.
We walked home together,
breathless as we laughed and talked
of old springs that poured from split rock
and bread that used to drop from heaven
like honey.
To read more of my poetry, visit www.facebook.com/latterdaysaintpoetry.
For questions, comments, or concerns, contact me at merrijane.rice@gmail.com.
Feb. 20–26 ❘ It’s Hard to Be Little
Poem and discussion centering on the part of the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus counsels his disciples to ask, seek, and knock, as recorded in Matthew 7:7–11.
It’s Hard to Be Little
When my math homework makes me angry,
Dad says, “Ask for help when you need it.”
Then he sits down to figure the problems with me,
sometimes Googles the answers.
But when I wanted to push the trampoline
up to the house so I could fly
off the roof, he said “NO.” Really loud.
When everyone’s in the car waiting
but I can’t find my shoes,
Mom says, “Open your eyes and look.”
She points to patent leather toes poking out
from under my bed. She sees everything.
But when I wanted to peek at my Christmas presents,
I searched from guestroom closet
to basement cold storage with no luck.
Mom wouldn’t give me even a little hint.
Both of them say it’s not polite
to run into the neighbor’s house without knocking
even if I need to use the bathroom
and I can’t make it home in time.
So I always knock. Now.
I’m still nervous about when to ask
and when to think about it some more,
when to look harder and when to sit tight.
I only sometimes guess what they want—
but somehow they always know what I need.
Maybe that’s what makes them
the boss of me.
To read more of my poetry, visit www.facebook.com/latterdaysaintpoetry. For questions, comments, or concerns, contact me at merrijane.rice@gmail.com.
Download a copy of the sheet music for “Ask, Seek, Knock” at SoundBooth Studios. For more music by Jennette Booth, visit www.facebook.com/soundboothmusic.
Order a copy of Messages on the Water at Amazon.
Feb. 13–19 ❘ On the Mount
Poem and discussion centering on the account of Jesus’s sermon on the mount as recorded in Matthew 5:43–48.
On the Mount
Love your enemy.
I looked at the group seated
in the green field at mountain’s foot.
No Pharisees were present,
no impertinent scribes to quibble
over who merited the name “neighbor.”
Bless those who curse you.
Do good to those who hate you.
I thought of all the sinners we served,
blessed without reservation.
We ate with publicans,
drank with Samaritans.
Who was he rebuking?
Pray for those who abuse
and persecute you.
I shifted uneasily on stony ground.
Did he mean for us to pity
those he called hypocrites, millstones,
thieves who nested in the temple?
Be perfect as your Heavenly Father,
who loves the just and unjust,
is perfect.
Might as well spin me into wool
and thread me through a needle.
My heart melted like mud in a downpour.
Maybe I was my own enemy.
Then, under the flood, bedrock:
With God,
all things are possible.
To read more of my poetry, visit www.facebook.com/latterdaysaintpoetry.
For questions, comments, or concerns, contact me at merrijane.rice@gmail.com.
Feb. 6–12 ❘ At Jacob’s Well
Poem and discussion centering on the account of Jesus conversing with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well as recorded in John 4:5–29.
At Jacob’s Well
Living water, he said:
not like a stream,
doggedly rushing down
to a dead sea
not like transient pools after rain,
stagnant and passive
as the sun sucks them dry
not like this well,
cool and deep,
cryptic in darkness
but a spring filling up,
bubbling over,
spilling through everyone.
Can you imagine a man
who would make fountains
of us all?
Yet as he spoke,
I felt the surge
within.
To read more of my poetry, visit www.facebook.com/latterdaysaintpoetry.
For questions, comments, or concerns, contact me at merrijane.rice@gmail.com.
Jan. 30–Feb. 5 ❘ Tempted of the Devil
Poem and discussion centering on the account of Satan tempting Jesus in the wilderness as recorded in Luke 4:1–14.
Tempted of the Devil
After what felt like forty days fasting,
I left church, famished. The devil said:
It’s not time for dinner, but
well past lunch.
You could eat.
“I do have a headache,” I thought.
I compromised and had a Diet Coke.
Then I was carried away by the Spirit
to nap. As I dreamt, the devil crept in:
You could have anything—honored
career, envied abs, chic wardrobe
of classic silhouettes. Go find yourself.
“Maybe,” I thought,
“Am I hiding in a department store dress rack?”
When I woke with throbbing temples, the devil
drove into me like an east wind spraying grit:
Squalling infant! Abandoned brat!
You are lost forever. Beg
for help all you want—no one cares.
I wept, groped about, then remembered:
I am a child of God. He sent me here.
I blew my nose and said,
“Go away, Satan.”
The devil departed
for a season.
To read more of my poetry, visit www.facebook.com/latterdaysaintpoetry.
For questions, comments, or concerns, contact me at merrijane.rice@gmail.com.
Jan. 23–29 ❘ Forerunner
Poem and discussion centering on the beginning of John the Baptist’s ministry as recorded in Matthew 3:1–12.
Forerunner
You will be the voice of one
crying in the wilderness:
Clear a path for the Lord!
Level a highway through this wasteland!
That is what the angel said to me
as I lay by my sheep in the field.
I had gazed long into heaven
absorbed by God’s operations,
scarcely noticing when stars began to gather
and joined in one brilliant blaze
like frozen lightning.
Don’t be afraid.
Father often told how he fell by the altar,
but I never understood
till my own heart leapt
like a young goat at lion’s roar.
The messenger spoke his piece untroubled,
told me who I would become.
But who am I?
Not one anointed,
not great like Isaiah or Elijah,
not a worker of miracles.
I have not so much as raised a single lamb
from death.
I am only a boy of the desert
who throws shouts across the emptiness
like stones from David’s sling,
warning of snakes and wolves,
looming storms,
wildfires in the underbrush.
To read more of my poetry, visit www.facebook.com/latterdaysaintpoetry.
For questions, comments, or concerns, contact me at merrijane.rice@gmail.com.
To download a copy of today’s poem from BYU Studies Quarterly, click here.
Jan. 16–22 ❘ Logos
Poem and discussion centering on truths about premortal Jesus Christ as recorded in John 1:1–14.
Logos
In the beginning,
God made a family,
pulled us drowning from shadow
into light.
If we could part darkness
now veiling stories first told
before earth was,
we would remember joy,
but also anxious questions
when we learned the path forward
meant some of us would slip
away forever:
What kind of parent sends a child
to certain death?
What unfinished soul wouldn’t pause
to weigh another offer?
How could we comprehend
salvation
in a strange world where night
would always follow day?
So in the beginning,
God gave us His Word—
eternal covenant
to satisfy the infinite
void.
To read more of my poetry, visit www.facebook.com/latterdaysaintpoetry.
For questions, comments, or concerns, contact me at merrijane.rice@gmail.com.
Jan. 9–15 ❘ From the East
Poem and discussion centering on the story of the wise men from the east as recorded in Matthew 2:1–12.
From the East
It almost feels like fate,
and yet I know it isn’t.
Just a chain of choices
long as life itself—
this I say, this not;
this I do, this not;
this I study, ponder,
believe—
until by twists and turns
I arrive here
to gaze upward at a new light
in heaven’s velvet veil,
a tear where God streams through
like lightning from a pinprick
or revelation from a whisper,
calling follow.
It’s another step
in the long progression,
one more choice:
stay a scholar only,
seeking and sorting ancient tales
in dark-paneled, perfumed rooms,
safely conjuring heaven,
ever learning but never knowing
or gather my gifts quickly,
run toward heart-thumping
pull of prophecy,
swing from stirrup to saddle
in a smooth leap,
and leave tonight to follow
the Star.
To read more of my poetry, visit www.facebook.com/latterdaysaintpoetry.
For questions, comments, or concerns, contact me at merrijane.rice@gmail.com.
To order a copy of the Mormon Lit Blitz Anthology, click here.
Jan. 2–8 ❘ Elisabeth
Poem and discussion centering on the story of Elisabeth and Zacharias as recorded in Luke 1:5–25.
Elisabeth
When Zacharias wrote,
God will give us a son,
I laughed within myself
like Sarah,
too brittle to laugh without.
Like Rachel,
I had waded through years,
watched God pour ever more
on the well-watered
as I withered.
Like Hannah,
I had vowed and prayed,
drunk with bitterness,
yet no Eli interrupted
to accuse or bless.
Then suddenly,
like sea split wide by shining path,
like sun and moon stopped still in heaven,
like all earth illuminated as fiery glass,
God gave us a son!
as though to laugh Himself
at time run out and life well-stricken,
to once again prove through me
that nothing is ever too late
for Him.
To read more of my poetry, visit www.facebook.com/latterdaysaintpoetry.
For questions, comments, or concerns, contact me at merrijane.rice@gmail.com.
Dec. 26–Jan. 1 ❘ Invocation
A brief explanation of how episodes will be formatted, plus a preface poem and discussion.
Invocation
My poems
cannot tell a sparrow’s song
or contemplate a petal’s curve.
They cannot roll the earth
or hold the sun
still.
But I breathe beauty and grace.
I weep gratitude for my place.
I stilt and stutter onward
still—
for God has told me:
write.
I will.
To read more of my poetry, visit www.facebook.com/latterdaysaintpoetry.
For questions, comments, or concerns, contact me at merrijane.rice@gmail.com.
Welcome to Follow!
Welcome to Follow: A Latter-day Saint Scripture Poetry Podcast. My name is Merrijane Rice, and I’ll be sharing my poetry with you beginning in January 2023 as we turn our attention to the New Testament for the “Come, Follow Me” study program of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
To read more of my poetry, visit www.facebook.com/latterdaysaintpoetry.
For questions, comments, or concerns, contact me at merrijane.rice@gmail.com.