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September 9–15 ❘ Slippery

Poem and discussion centering on the Lord’s curse on the Nephites that their riches would become “slippery” as recorded in Helaman 13:31–36.

Slippery

Signs are not for the ignorant,
nor prophetic warnings
for the untaught.
They are for those
who should know better,
those with learning enough
to twist words like green limbs
till they splinter.

My treasure is slipping away—
security, structure, predictable
rules for how life works,
touch, handshakes, hugs
and kisses, breathing close
together, family and friends
who one by one scatter
and pass away.

I read warnings in scripture
and am worried from my rut.
An ancient man shouts to me
from a high wall
that it is not too late.

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September 2–8 ❘ Famine

Poem and discussion centering on Nephi’s request that the Lord replace the war in the land with a famine as recorded in Helaman 11:3–5.

Famine

In the year we commenced
to kill one another,
Nephi sealed up the sky,

not as punishment,
but as drastic mercy
to shock us sane,

interval to fast and empty
souls of appetite, to jettison
excess and gain fullness,

to see others no more as prey
or flocks or herds or gold or silver
or fine-twined linen,

but as precious family
to whom we give
our last meager morsels.

The heavens grieved for us
as we dwindled and dwindled
beneath her clear, blistering,
sorrowful eye.

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August 26–September 1 ❘ Gadianton’s Band

Poem and discussion centering on the account of the Gadianton robbers as recorded in Helaman 6:18.

Gadianton’s Band

Let’s talk about
the management of the creature:
You have responsibilities,
family needs to meet,
innocent appetites to fill,

but you sow and sow and sow
and never seem to reap.
The same people grow richer,
the same names pass down
from chief judge to chief judge.
They grow fat on secret works
and knowledge you can’t access.

It’s enough to stir up anger
in the most patient heart.

Perhaps you need
a different kind of friend—
a spider who’ll spin subtle,
sticky webs to catch those flies
that feed on your despair.

You wouldn’t have to dip
your own skirts in blood—
I’ll make that sacrifice for you.

All I need is support,
permission to work,
your vote of confidence.

After all,
not taking sides
has its own consequences,
and you might as well throw in
your lot with someone who gets things
done.

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August 19–25 ❘ Alma the Younger

Poem and discussion centering on Alma the Younger’s desire to be like an angel and cry repentance to everyone as recorded in Alma 29:1–3.

Alma the Younger

I was no rebellious youth, but man
of unsparing education,
inheritor of holy privilege.
I willfully muddied the path
between life and destruction. Why
should I, so well knowing my aims,
be interrupted from hell
while ignorant friends yet burn?

Oh, that I could brand every heart
with the fire God snatched me from,
could blast the warning
that rings in memory and ignite
worldwide regret like wildfire,

could visit each divine child
with the same uninvited lightning
that struck me flat
but

I remain myself—a sinful man
who must submit,
acting as angel without
bellows or flames,

balancing eternal gratitude
and guilt for undeserved,
unsought mercy.

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August 12–18 ❘ Captain Moroni

Poem and discussion centering on the personal character of Captain Moroni as recorded in Alma 48:11–17.

Captain Moroni

Every good stratagem depends
on accurate intelligence.

Understand your enemy—
brazen idol gilded in grievance,
bold avenger of ancient wrongs,
blatant fraud from the beginning,
father of bluster and accusation,
wager of eternal extinction.

Understand your friend—
transgressor once racked and harrowed,
now cleansed and clear-sighted,
humble servant who divests power
to labor in vineyard and rescue
diseased trees.

Understand yourself—
tempered intellect stirred
by burning indignation,
determined doer of the necessary,
firm resister of iniquity,
heartsore seeker for peace.

Understand the mission—
not simply to win battle or war,
but to grip hell’s crumbling corners,
shake its foundation to pieces,
and blow the fragments
from human hearts forever.

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August 5–11 ❘ For Corianton

Poem and discussion centering on part of a letter that Alma wrote to his son Corianton as recorded in Alma 41:10.

For Corianton

To be a seagull—
to waddle over wet shore
and scavenge and cry and soar and bob
as tide erases all transient,
three-toed footprints—

is not for you. You can’t be happy
living by whim of appetite or plunder
nor can you embody sand
that hourly shivers and drifts
beneath water and wind.

You were chosen as sharp-eyed
beachcomber—to pick through litter
and uncover hidden treasures—
to discern translucent edge of sea agate
from brittle, bleached shell or bird feather—

to witness sun melt into ocean at night
and rise again glorious in the morning.

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July 29–August 4 ❘ Remember

Poem and discussion centering on Alma’s instructions to his son Helaman about preserving their sacred records as recorded in Alma 37:13–14.

Remember

Reach back,
stitch mind to mind
with those who lived before.
Enlarge your memory piece
by piece until you’ve scrapped
together whole cloth
of God’s interaction with man.

Note the patterns,
how those who keep covenants
are quilted thick and strong
while those who rebel
are trimmed away like frayed
edges from torn fabric.

Now,
take up your small,
simple needle
and set your hand
to mending.

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July 22–28 ❘ Poor in Heart

Poem and discussion centering on Alma’s comparison of the word of God to a seed as recorded in Alma 32:28.

Poor in Heart

I used to be certain,
satisfied I had all truth
stored up tight.

Over time, I’ve wrung life
dry, licked it clean.
My heart is emptier
than a beggar’s cup.

Despised, deemed dross
by the lowest ranks
of respectable rebels
and heretics,

I now hunger so deeply
that I’ll plant any good seed once
to see what grows.

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July 15–21 ❘ Korihor

Poem and discussion centering on Korihor’s story as recorded in Alma 30.

Korihor

What I don’t know,
no one knows.
If I can’t see the future,
no one can.
If anyone exists but me,
they are bit players blocked
into the background of a story
I write, direct, strut, and star in.

And if I’m temporarily dumbstruck,
I have genius enough
to stage a comeback.
I can still connive, conspire,
beg my way to one more encore
before the final curtain cuts
my speeches into oblivion.

My words will yet be
engraved in history.
Just wait and see.

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July 8–14 ❘ Burial

Poem and discussion centering on the Lamanites who were converted to Jesus Christ and as a result gave up their weapons of war as recorded in Alma 23:7.

Burial

I am shedding my weapons
of rebellion piece by piece,
casting them deep into the pit—

sharp words that cut
and sting for weeks,
scar thick over years
of mindless repetition,

hard looks that slap
and bruise tender feelings
without reprieve or balm
of single cooling syllable,

poison thoughts that sicken
with rot, smear goodness,
and choke truth under
piles of grudge.

I’ve been at war too long,
merciless and hurting.
I bow down before you,
waiting for your blade to drop.

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July 1–7 ❘ Lamoni

Poem and discussion centering on King Lamoni’s imagined inner dialogue when he was afraid to speak to Ammon as recorded in Alma 18:14–15.

Lamoni

Grandmother taught me eloquence:
how to speak even in silence
when fear constricts heart and throat.

Grandfather taught me cunning:
how to trim and stitch opportunity
from unexpected circumstance.

Father taught me balance:
how to keep my feet when friends shift
beneath like gravel on mountain path.

Mother taught me love:
how it feels to be forgiven
for callow wrongs.

Ammon taught me how nurtured hurt
distorts truth like a dark mist,
blinding me to another Father

who teaches mercy—
how to honor good traditions
and let the rest melt away like frost
at touch of dawn’s outspread fingers.

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June 24–30 ❘ Amulek

Poem and discussion centering on Alma welcoming Amulek into his own house as recorded in Alma 15:18.

Amulek

When sun sloped over threshold
on slow, sultry afternoons,
I would watch my children play
in the yard—tumbling daughter
and round son, like the curly glyphs
that spilled from brush to page
at my writing table. My wife
Eztli would scoop them up,
each to an arm, laughter splashing
as she trundled them to hammocks
for songs and naps.

I will never see them again
in this life—yet I subsist
on God’s promise,
angel’s word,

and Alma’s welcome,
whom I now hear whimper
from down the hall
as he sometimes does
while he sleeps.

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June 17–23 ❘ Laden

Poem and discussion centering on Alma’s words to Zeezrom that this life is the time to prepare to meet God as recorded in Alma 12:24, 27.

Laden

I am not condemned by feelings—
moods that ebb or flow
like tides to lunar pull
of illness, hunger, hormones—

but by thoughts: little boats
that harbor in my mind
as I pace decks and count
and recount every sail and plank;

by words: hiss of fuse
and cannon crash, clang
of anchor and canvas slap
as I loose myself to battle;

by action: or more often inaction
to some lonely, desperate SOS
from foundering vessel warped
and torn by violent crosscurrents.

I am condemned by what I stow
deep within. Judgment
will be too late to offload
rotting freight at His feet.

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June 10–16 ❘ Dilemma

Poem and discussion centering on Alma’s great sermon to the people of the church asking them if they have been born of God as recorded in Alma 5:14–16, 48.

Dilemma

Have you asked yourself
how to navigate to freedom
when no corkscrew paths twist
away from consequence?
Everything swirls and funnels
from first great cause
to last effect,

nadir where you choose—
where Christ hangs

on time’s chiasmus,
freeing every generation
since the war in heaven.
You are caught between
corner stone and stumbling block.
Will you break or be broken?
Ask yourself.

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June 3–9 ❘ Costly

Poem and discussion centering on some of the reasons the people of the church in Zarahemla began to grow proud as recorded in Alma 4:6–8.

Costly

Come, feel this linen.
Finger its tightly twined fabric, hold it up
to light and see it flow like finest silk—
expensive, yes, but worth the price
for one who takes pride in appearance
as a person of your means would,
a person who’s earned wealth by industry.
Robes from this will make your envious friends
grieve.

New clothes don’t suit?
Then please have a seat, take meat with us,
fresh from our plentiful flocks and farms,
prime stock held in reserve for discerning
appetites too sated to eat for need.
Let us tempt your greater emptiness
with fare full-flavored and fragrant.

No? I see
you are a person of discretion and taste.
But we have many worthy entertainments
for your perusal. Set your heart on any
clever book, gilded toy, or silver-plated vanity.
It’s yours for a trifle—precious little affliction
to gain all your will and pleasure.

Unless you’re another one
of those scornful believers
who judge and persecute us
for our harmless comforts
or who beg undeserved share
in what we can ill afford to give.
Come, let me show you
the way out.

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May 27–June 2 ❘ Alma the Elder

Poem and discussion centering on Alma’s concerns for his son as recorded in Mosiah 27:8–9.

Alma the Elder

In wilderness and bondage,
I raised my son to serve and suffer
injustice in peace, to pray
with silent eloquence that only God
could hear and answer.

In comfort and freedom,
he’s become what I once was—
learned and cocksure,
nimble with words, fiery
advocate for what he says
is common sense. He twists
religion to suit passion, lures
the simple and innocent for sport,
crushes them under an avalanche
of argument.

God says I must blot out
the unrepentant.

But I was saved long ago
by bold sacrifice,
and every day I pray
for another Abinadi.

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May 20–28 ❘ By the Waters of Mormon

Poem and discussion centering on Alma’s invitation to his followers to be baptized as recorded in Mosiah 18:8–10.

By the Waters of Mormon

I stood all night at forest’s edge
to hear Alma make his case:
         What have you against this promise?
         To share our burdens makes them light.

I once mourned with a neighbor,
sat in awkward silence while she wept,
felt unearned guilt for something I didn’t do
and couldn’t fix. Was her loss restored
by my imperfect comfort?
Will mine be if I trade my right
to reject, retract, or take offense
in exchange for the heavy obligation
to love even the unlovable?

Yet his curious words drew me
like a baited hook, pricked me
with half-defined hope.
The group moved toward water,
but I hung back,

still undecided, weighing
the cost, wondering
what to tell the king.

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May 13–19 ❘ Abinadi

Poem and discussion centering on the martyrdom of Abinadi as recorded in Mosiah 17:1–10.

Abinadi

I thought I saw fire
in young Alma’s eyes.

I knew his father—
original settler with Zeniff—
saw him smile with pride
as his rangy son outpaced other boys.
Even then, they played at war,
though reined in by watchful parents
when tempers flared.

In those days I spoke carefully,
persuaded in meekness,
mindful that heated warnings
could bake hearts hard as clay
over glowing coals.

Now, I erupt blistering ash, smoke-
signaling the conflagration to come.

I do not regret my life,
though it ends like grass
in a roaring furnace.

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May 6–12 ❘ Wisdom

Poem and discussion centering on the words of King Limhi comparing wisdom to a woman as recorded in Mosiah 8:20–21.

Wisdom

is a shepherdess. She guides
through narrow gorge
toward cote’s safety and guards
from predator who taunts
her flock as senseless sheep,
mocks their simple trust as fault.
The beast slavers, snarls, darts in to scatter,

but cannot break the mass.
Hold fast, little lamb. Remember,
no hidden hunger lying in wait
can strike and strip your hope
down to bone—not
when you pasture
with Wisdom.

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April 29–May 5 ❘ All Beggars

Poem and discussion centering on King Benjamin’s statement that all people are beggars before God as recorded in Mosiah 4:19.

All Beggars

Less than dust,
I scrape, scratch,
grub for something to fill
more than stomach
more than a day.

I plead and pray,
woo and worry the Lord.
He pours in, coaxes out
till I unfurl like flower
toward warmth and light,

then He turns, tips
my vision earthward
where others still search,
still hope like so many seeds
to sprout in the sun.

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