www.servingjesuspoetry.com
  • Author's Testimony & Introduction--FAQS
    • Table of Contents
  • 1 His Kingdom to Prepare
  • 2 My Choice Companions
  • 3 Companions
  • 4 Companions II
  • 5 A Mother's MTC Farewell
  • 6 Who Will Dare for Christ
  • 7 To a Chosen Generation
  • 8. I Feel Such a Strangeness
  • 9. Not Me
  • 10. My Brother's Father
  • 11. Not Far Away
  • 12. Questions for Our Leaders
  • 13. Questions From Our Leaders
  • 14. The Visit
  • 15. Show and Tell
  • 16. Within Our Slumber We Will Dream
  • 17. Servants in the Shadows
  • 18. Joya Escojida/Chosen Jewel
  • 19. Las Aguas Del Senor/The Waters of the Lord
  • 20. Come Fasting to the Meeting House
  • 21. As Voices Join in Sacred Sabbath Worship
  • 22. A Child's Baptismal Day
  • 23. In Temple White
  • 24. Temple Hill
  • 25. This Precious Day
  • 26. The Translators
  • 27. I Your Husband Who Have Fallen [First Poem of The Repentance Trilogy.]
  • 28. The Wife's Song
  • 29. Remember Not Past Years
  • 30. A Priesthood Lullaby
  • 31. The Season of Our Need
  • 32. Cherished Daughter, Valiant Servant
  • 33. Daughter, Hear and Heed Your Savior's Voice
  • 34. Bird Mom
  • 35. Eric's Song
  • 36. A Wedding Song of Praise
  • 37. Testimonies to My Daughters
  • 38. Prayer for a Caring Granddaughter
  • 39. Firstborn Son and Firstborn Daughter
  • 40. Father's Day
  • 41 The Hospital
  • 42. The Children of the World
  • 43. For the Healers of the World
  • 44. Simple Heroes of Our Day
  • 45. To This World So Prone to Peril
  • 46. Somewhere
  • 47. Servant of Servants
  • 48. We Wish That You Were Here
  • 49. The Teacher
  • 50. To Protect Marriage and Family
  • 51. Earth's Unborn Children Weeping
  • 52. Prayers for the Peacekeepers
  • 53. That Patriot Dreams Will Come to Pass
  • 54. We Would Do It All Again
  • 55. So Much More
  • 56. Passage and Pilot
  • 57. Because of the Son
  • 58. Growing Up
  • 59. The Olive Leaf
  • 60. Until All Are One With Him
  • 61. Death Has Not Won, But Lost
  • 62. Call to Arms
  • 63. When All Is Done
  • 64. How Rarely Have I Come This Way
  • 65. At a Place So Very Different
  • 66. My Best Years Lie Ahead
  • 67. Sons of Zion, Jesus Calls You
  • 68. Come, Sing Your Song to Me
  • 69. May It Be Always So
  • 70. Until Safe in Heaven's Embrace
  • 71. Seek the Spirit
  • 72. Undertow
  • 73. If I Am Given Time
  • 74. Sons and Daughters, Heirs of Promise
  • 75. Wrestling for a Call
  • 76. When Everything is Ready
  • 77. One Thousand Times
  • 78. Tearful and Fearful I Prayed Through the Evening
  • 79. Tell Us, How Do Servants and Teachers Like You Come Along?
  • 80. Blessings for Beloved Servants
  • 81. Our Gayla's Free at Last
  • 82. I Am a Witness of Your Worth
  • 83. I'll Live With You Again
  • 84. Brother, Friend, and Fellow Servant
  • 85. Grieve Not for Him
  • 86. Press On From Payson's Hill
  • 87. The Righteous Live in Me
  • 88. Homecoming
  • 89. In Honor of My Friends Unseen
  • 90. [An Invitation] We Call to You
  • 91. Fellow Americans, Let Us Talk
  • 92. Brothers and Sisters, Fulfilled Together
  • 93. What We Have Lost in Our Digital Paradise
  • 94. Running Out of Time
  • 95. Ere You Hear the Sound of Battle
  • 96. 21st Century Gadiantons
  • 97 The Setting Apart
  • 98. What Do You Say?
  • 99. To a Woman of Tempered Steel
  • 100. A Correction Soon Begins
  • 101. The Quiet of the Morning
  • 102. Slippery Slope
  • 103. Stormy--We've Got to Stop Meeting Like This
  • 104. Warriors of the Mind and Soul [Poetic Process Discussion]
  • 105. He Wrote Just as He Lived
  • 106. Life Singer
  • 107. Zion's Daughter Leanore
  • 108. Does Your House of Worship Now Seem Lonely
  • 109. Crucify the "Old Man of Sin"
  • 110. We Loved Them Once
  • 111. Winter's Mothers God Holds Most Dear
  • 112. Lord, Please Forgive Us Anew
  • 113. Patriot's Faith Will Triumph Yet
  • 114. Indexing
  • 115. I Am Liberty
  • 116. The Beauty
  • 117. To Aid the Innocents Abused
  • 118. A Noble Bugler Has Returned
  • 119. The Music of the Lord
  • 120. Frog Cat
  • 121. God's Storms
  • 122. The Daughters of the Lord
  • 123. Come Back, Before Our Souls for Error Yearn
  • 124. Don't Tell Me That My Time Has Come
  • 125. From the Dust [Comes The Book of Mormon]
  • 126 To See the Sun Again
  • 127. Mourning America
  • 128. For Baby Adam
  • 129. Despedida Ansiosa/Anxious Farewell
  • 130. Between the Lines
  • 131. Will You Ever Ask the Questions
  • 132. The Days I Spent With You
  • 133. For Nelda
  • 134. The Covenant Path
  • 135. Heartland Dream
  • 136 We Sent Our Very Best
  • 137. Sisters of the Covenant, Daughters of God
  • 138 Sisters Share Their Cheerful Hearts
  • 139 God Looketh On the Heart
  • 140 What of Me?
  • 141 The Return
  • 142 Latter-day Defenders
  • 143. "Come and See, Come and Help, Come and Share"
  • 144. The Best of Father's Seed I've Known
  • 145. [Complete, but pending.]
  • 146. When the Days of Wait Are Over
  • 147. Red Kettles and Silver Bells
  • 148. Victory
  • 149. He Lacks Not Faith
  • 150. "Am I a Friend of Jesus?" [Spring 2020 Semi-Final Examination]
  • 151. Christ is Our Refuge Once Again
  • 152. Until We Kneel at Our Savior's Feet
  • 153. Where You Stand, You Should Still Lift
  • 154. No Day Shall Pass nor Night Shall Fall
  • 155. We Pray for You
  • 156. Bountiful Harvest
  • 157. A Message of Peace and Love
  • 158. Israel, Israel God Shall Save Thee
  • 159. For Those Who Wait
  • 160. Friends Who Intercede
  • 161. Young Women's "Frog Camp"

135.  Heartland Dream

PictureChurchofJesusChrist.org

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Chicago, IL 
Temple







​Key and Trigger:


Despite recent, moving, spiritual experiences, the discord of current events has provoked some occasional contentious dreams.  I learned, late in life, the need for immediate, formal prayer by my bed when I am disturbed by the first hint of a spiritual attack--on the knees pleadings, struggling with the Spirit, invoking the enabling power of Christ's atonement--seeking Jesus' light to banish the darkness.
 
In the early hours one morning I awoke from an unwelcome dream experience and poured out my soul asking for a more uplifting event.  I was subsequently graced with a vision of Chicago, my youth, and the awesome men and women who had mentored me decades ago.  Much of that story is told in the "free verse" piece, No. 107, "Zion's Daughter Leanore".  Here is a different approach:


135. "Heartland Dream"

In the deep of the night came a dream of my Fathers,
Of the people and places I knew long ago.     
Praying for Jesus' light I again felt a yearning,
For days, long since past, that had helped me to grow.
 
As if on wings of angels I traveled far Eastward,
To the Heartland I’ve not seen for so many years.
It was far from the “gathered” a few Saints were building
A new Stake of Zion from faith, struggles, and tears.
 
With the eyes of the Spirit, I saw my young parents
Leave the safety and ease of their mountain retreat.
Trusting all to the prophets, and grace from the Savior,
They would heed a rare call with their questioning feet.
 
To the great Windy City *  they came, although fearful,
That they had not the strength to survive “off the vine”.
But they brought in their frail hearts a graft of the Kingdom,
And they planted it there, in a soil Divine.
 
All around them a vast horde of strangers were toiling,
Seeking for the world’s treasures and praise from the vain.
But, undaunted, these labored to build up God’s Kingdom,
In a place mostly known for its gossip and trains.*
 
To my ears came a roll call of those who were valiant.
To my mind came the sight of dear Founders, long dead.
To my heart came a message of "Offerings Accepted".
To my eyes came unbidden tears onto my bed.
 
From small things there arose valiant works to God’s glory,
And a Temple of love for the Lord came to be.
The descendants of those who I saw in my vision,
Will forever sing praises of those “planters-of-seeds”.
 
At some grand future day all such stories, together,
Will be shown as a tapestry of the Divine.
We will see warp of service and weft of compassion,
Form a glorious picture made of God's holy twine.


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* "Windy City" was not originally a nickname based on Chicago's meteorology--but an allusion to the citizens' many "wagging tongues" gossiping so much as to create a great wind!  The Chicago Rail Hub remains the largest rail yard in the world--although air traffic has overtaken rail's former popularity.  Sadly, I have not visited my birthplace for more than 50 years. However, as reflected in No. 66, I suspect that, were I to visit, I would neither recognize the area, nor benefit from the experience.  "I have moved on"--and so has my hometown.

3 Nephi 18:24--"Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up—that which ye have seen me do."

AFTERWARD:

I was led to believe that the full view of such stories, which I did not experience, will only be revealed to the righteous.  Only glorified beings, "just men made perfect", can withstand the incomprehensible, blinding brilliance of such events in their fullness.  If we would see with the eyes of Deity, we must be like the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.  All others are limited to mere shadows and weak glimpses of the glory of the sanctified, and how the valiant are cleansed in the blood of the Lamb.