Broken Brick Haiku

A friend of mine has a book in the works concerning various aspects of theology, incarnational ministry, community, and disaster work. He keeps on his desk a broken cinder block that he found in the ruins of a building after a tornado in Canton, Illinois, July 23, 1975 . He keeps it as a reminder and as a prompt.

In preparation for his book, which is nearing completion, he asked me if I might have something poetical that I could contribute as a sort of preface to the work. Knowing his fondness for haiku I sat down to write something for him that would combine the concrete image (pun intended) with a scriptural theme. I wrote two variations which I've sent to him. Whether or not he uses either one, or the other, or both...


a broken brick
from whirlwind rubble
even stones cry out


a broken brick
from whirlwind rubble
upon this I’ll build