Six years ago after the terrorist violence against the LGBTQ+ community at the Pulse nightclub in Orland FL, the organizers of a vigil in Walla Walla, WA asked me to offer some words. This poem is what I shared.

Earthquakes of heartbreak 

Breakbeats broken 

By bullets spit in hate. 

Oh God, Oh God, No. 

Four-dozen beloved

reflections of the Divine 

Shattered.

Lord have mercy

Embrace these beloveds lost

As the pulse of their sweet salt-rivers of life

Join the soundings 

Deep in your eternal ocean. 

Deep, that beat, your pulse divine 

Flowing through us

Sap and spirit, 

Fierce Love Supreme

Pulsing through those who dance 

Pulsing beyond the spitfire of hate.

Pulsing in pride and desperate joy

Pulsing again – in the beauty of the beloveds 

Living on 

Glittering sweet 

With salt-crystal streaks

Tears and sweat and stardust.

Oh pulse of the nation, quaking

Be at peace.

Be at peace.

But may the flow of your fierce love never rest.

(June 2016, Rev. Nathaniel Mahlberg)

(Image: “The Passion of Matthew Shepherd” Icon by William McNichols, S.J.)