Merrijane Rice Merrijane Rice

March 18–24 ❘ Not Mighty in Writing

Poem and discussion centering on Nephi’s assertion that he was not mighty in writing as recorded in 2 Nephi 33:1–4.

Not Mighty in Writing

When I write,
it’s a lecture you dismiss,
self-righteous sermon,
nagging prattle of younger brother.
My urging lies flat, an empty outline
you fill in with lifeless hues.
These words are sieve, not cistern.
All I pour in sifts through,
leaks away before it reaches you.

If we could speak face to face,
you wouldn’t need to intuit nuance.
Spirit would chase out darkness,
shine light on every hard-cut word.
You would hear, see,
understand.

Instead, I write,
and all these words of life
seem nothing more than sighs,
unforgiving whispers from the grave.

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Merrijane Rice Merrijane Rice

March 11–17 ❘ Unconditional

Poem and discussion centering on God’s unconditional love for all of his children as recorded in 2 Nephi 33:6.

Unconditional

I glory in plain-speaking, the austere
and careful art of being understood
and showing by one's words and works the clear
delineation of both bad and good.

I grasp the opposition in all things,
the need to study out and set apart.
Joy cannot be without matched suffering—
and yet, disquiet murmurs in my heart.

Adept at separation, I lack skill
in making peace with foes, in being one.
Peculiar as I am, I seek God's will,
but can't half emulate the paragon

of One who loves to infinite degree,
who pleads for both my enemy and me.

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Merrijane Rice Merrijane Rice

March 4–10 ❘ Isles of the Sea

Poem and discussion centering on the interconnectedness of God’s children no matter how far apart we may seem as recorded in 2 Nephi 29:7.

Isles of the Sea

we are small, but
not afloat or adrift—
far apart but connected
beneath ripples, waves—
our milieu from first to last—
our contrast, chance to stand
steady in storm, through rise
and ebb, through baptism
by water, by fire, by any-
thing, again and again
till end of days

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Merrijane Rice Merrijane Rice

February 26–March 3 ❘ Cheat

Poem and discussion centering on the lies Satan tells to gain power over us as recorded in 2 Nephi 28:20–22.

Cheat

Satan wants to persuade you
he’s a fairy tale, a metaphor
for human selfishness

to bore a hole into your heart,
bind you thread by thread
with flaxen cords of flattery

to convince you
life’s too short not to indulge,
just this once, every day

to distract you as he swaps
pride for joy, bitterness
for wisdom, gluttony for peace.

Heaven knows, he really wants
not to exist at all—but since no rage,
no misery can snuff his soul,

he’ll instead teach you he isn’t real.
Then he’ll make you pay
to the uttermost.

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Merrijane Rice Merrijane Rice

February 19–25 ❘ Feast

Poem and discussion centering on Jacob’s words to his people after they had separated themselves from the Lamanites as recorded in 2 Nephi 9:51.

Feast

We sit in a clearing
as wind pulses through trees,
moves hearts to quiver.
We gather close, tuck children
like chicks under wing.
We feel like the last people
at the end of the world,
alone escaped of Israel.

Jacob interprets Isaiah
by God’s gift. He speaks of hand
stretched out, ready to winnow
and whittle a remnant.
We feel the old story flow—
riven cities and abandoned families
sink deep, new layers
we know ourselves.

We pick through ancient words,
glean our shade by day, beacon by night.
The future seems aloof—we scarcely dare
to hope for someone soon
to part the curtain over tables laid
with fresh bread, water drawn
from saving wells, fruit
so sweet that tasting tunes
our tongues to angel song.

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Merrijane Rice Merrijane Rice

February 12–18 ❘ Like Flint

Poem and discussion centering on Nephi’s determined character as exemplified in 2 Nephi 7:4–11.

Like Flint

All these years I’ve chipped
words from living quarry,
honed bright, unstained
instruments sharp enough
to pierce calcified hearts.

I’ve made a bow with spring,
arrow shafts from what straight
sticks I could find.
I’ve sought guidance
for the hunt.

My face is set,
bolts ready to fly and scatter
encompassing sparks.
I will not be ashamed.
Not anymore.

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Merrijane Rice Merrijane Rice

February 5–11 ❘ Opposition in All

Poem and discussion centering on Lehi’s teachings on the necessity for opposition in all things as recorded in 2 Nephi 2:11.

Opposition in All

God eventually moves you
to the other side of everything.
Your team loses.
You disappoint a friend.
You raise teenagers
and morph into your mother.
You shuffle around in the same
comfortable justifications
your enemies broke in years ago.

Experience gives us options,
clothes choice in clarity.
We arc through life
from child to ancient,
descendant to ancestor.
We answer prayers
and wrestle out blessings.
The pendulum always swings
back to God.

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Merrijane Rice Merrijane Rice

January 29–February 4 ❘ Tapestry

Poem and discussion centering on the Lord’s patience with even his most disobedient children as alluded to in 1 Nephi 20:9–10, 18–19.

Tapestry

We are woven threads,
warp and weft that touch
at just one point,
then branch off crosswise.
We diverge,

but can’t escape each other
without tearing ourselves.
Perhaps God suffers long
because of this—His love

dyes deep and true.
Thus we see even Lemuel
escaped the waves. Laman
also reached the promised land.

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Merrijane Rice Merrijane Rice

January 22–28 ❘ Downstream

Poem and discussion centering on Laman and Lemuel’s complaint that the Lord didn’t make things known to them as recorded in 1 Nephi 15:6–9.

Downstream

I pray a river, a rush
of words drowning out all
possible conversation.

You somehow slip
responses in the current.
Small inspirations

sail downstream.
So few, I complain,
So hard to understand.

You sigh. I eddy
in my murmuring pool,
wondering why, if

You are always there,
You make no such thing
known to me.

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Merrijane Rice Merrijane Rice

January 15–21 ❘ Great and Spacious

Poem and discussion centering on part of Lehi’s dream as recorded in 1 Nephi 8:26–27.

Great and Spacious

You think you’re eating fruit,
but all I see is insubstantial air.
You pantomime a feast,
children playing at nonsense.

Your narrow mind
only comprehends strait paths
while the whole world lies
abroad, a sweet mystery

to savor. I want to gorge
on warm security of wealth,
respect from the reputable,
room to move about and choose.

I’ve had my fill of your visions,
sick of exhortations and mock love
forged from constraint.

Listen to me now
as I roar from my window.

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Merrijane Rice Merrijane Rice

January 8–14 ❘ Killing Laban

Poem and discussion centering on what Nephi did to recover the Brass Plates as recorded in 1 Nephi 4:7–18.

Killing Laban

An awful gulf divides
foolish boy 
who admires fine swords

from heart-sick man
who cuts through sinews 
like Abraham offering sacrifice

if he hadn’t been stopped
by the angel who argues
and wrestles to submission.

I am not a mighty poet,
and these plates are small,
so I won’t write how I still wake at night,

but instead beg mercy,
wretched as I am,
for the part within me

that hesitates in retrospect
at what it means to always
go and do what God commands.

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Merrijane Rice Merrijane Rice

January 1–7 ❘ Testimony

Poem and discussion centering on the witness statements at the beginning of the Book of Mormon.

Testimony

It’s instinct—
we witness to each other
without effort,
build up or claw down
by what we give and withhold,

as if we were still spirits
at war over Christ,
who has now triumphed,
yet we bicker over who to follow.

Hold these words—
heft them. Bite down
to test for gold.

You choose what to believe.
Why not something beautiful?

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Merrijane Rice Merrijane Rice

December 25–31 ❘ Judgment Day

Poem and discussion centering on John’s descriptions of the earth in its celestial glory as recorded in Revelation 20:12; 21:18.

Judgment Day

History is deep sediment
melted together past telling
except where patterns repeat,
burn through to surface—
Sodom is Nineveh is Babylon is Rome.

There are those who regret
but don’t repent—
ears stopped tight,
hearts hard as bone,
senses dead to pleasure,

but your remorse throbs
with bottomless accusation.
When you reach breaking point,
break open to God.
He will read through you

as through transparent glass,
make you understand and understood.
Distinct yet enveloped.
Enduring and still malleable
as pure gold.

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Merrijane Rice Merrijane Rice

December 18–24 ❘ Anna, a Prophetess

Poem and discussion centering on the story of the prophetess Anna as recorded in Luke 2:36–38.

Anna, a Prophetess

I was blessed, really—
so many widows are left
with small children to feed
and no means to do it
but asking alms at the temple gate,
poor mites.

My husband was better than ten sons,
though he gave me none—
only affection and tenderness.
Wealth to keep me comfortable
after his death.
More empty time than I could spend.

I had enough to tempt new suitors,
hagglers over my loneliness.
But I didn’t want another husband.
Why try fate?
Instead, I did what other widows do:
went to the temple to beg.

And how I begged—
poured out my youth in prayer,
troubled heaven night and day
for some small morsel to fill my barren fast,
pled with a vengeance
for the Lord to hear me—

until today, after eighty-four years,
I heard Him
wailing in the courtyard,
over-tired and wriggling in his mother's arms.
Some days you see in an instant
how really blessed you are.

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Merrijane Rice Merrijane Rice

December 11–17 ❘ Last Days

Poem and discussion centering on the Apostle Paul’s final days in prison.

Last Days

Chill of stone and earth
seeps deep into my bones
as if I were buried in this cell,
beginning to decay,

so I write for warmth,
to feel the Spirit as I did
when I testified face to face,
setting the world ablaze

in preparation for the Lord,
whose foot is poised
at the threshold, ready
to fall at any instant—

though He tarries longer
than I expected.
But I met Him shining in the sky
on the road to Damascus,

and I know He will come again
for me, for us all.

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Merrijane Rice Merrijane Rice

December 4–10 ❘ Revelation

Poem and discussion centering on the vision that John recorded in the book of Revelation as recorded in Revelation 1: 10–15; 10:8–11.

Revelation

God usually whispers—
skillful Author, shaper
of story, He foreshadows,
never gives away.

But in this vision, He roars
abrupt as lightning,
intense as liquid metal
or melted glass, tremendous
as thundering waterfall.

He fills me with a message
bitter as unmet expectation,
sweet as sure promise:
I am coming!

The kingdom of heaven
presses forward,
leans into my words,
ready for the seal
to snap.

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Merrijane Rice Merrijane Rice

November 27–December 3 ❘ Life Eternal

Poem and discussion centering on some of the symbols John used to teach about Jesus Christ’s nature as recorded in Reference 1 John 5.

Life Eternal

is this:
to be
God-born

by water
for birth, washing,
death

by blood
for family, sin,
sacrifice

by Spirit
for truth, light,
cleansing fire

to all agree in one
by plan, by execution,
by Word

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Merrijane Rice Merrijane Rice

November 20–26 ❘ Refining

Poem and discussion centering on Peter’s counsel to beware false prophets and teachers as recorded in 2 Peter 2:17.

Refining

In the last days,
you will find wells without water,
but not empty—

they bubble over oily darkness,
fuel for all-consuming,
inward fires.

Don’t fill your lamps from them.
Don’t touch match
to that slick of pollution.

Let Christ burn you clean.
He will take you from ashes,
pure and ready to pour.

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Merrijane Rice Merrijane Rice

November 13–19 ❘ If Any of You Lack Wisdom

Poem and discussion centering on the famous scripture that prompted Joseph Smith to pray as recorded in James 1:5.

If Any of You Lack Wisdom

I wrote to my people
a few words of counsel

and though I always felt
the weight of God’s call

I didn’t know how one sentence
could strike rough stone

and ignite purifying fire
across time and space

to cleanse a foreign world
I never imagined—

truth is worth telling
even if only one person hears

even if you’re only talking
to yourself

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Merrijane Rice Merrijane Rice

November 6–12 ❘ Author and Finisher

Poem and discussion centering on Paul’s description of Jesus as the author and finisher of our faith as recorded in Hebrews 12:2.

Author and Finisher

He doesn’t stop us
from wielding words like swords
or cudgels in His name
after the manner of our language.
We quote scripture, spare not
the rod, reason that we need
land blows only once
and they will learn,

but we never learn.
Fallen, broken, stunned by grief,
we stammer toward God

who wraps wounds in Word,
daubs written ointment deep
in weeping sores, massages
life back into bruises
with balm of His cadence.
In His lines laid down
like red ribbons, we read
and are healed.

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