First Person

My God is Dead

posted February 08, 2012
by wmyers








my god is dead,
he dies everyday
then lives again:
he dies with the wildflower, the grass and the caterpillar
then lives again in the tender green shoot and the new-born butterfly.
my god is alive,
he lives everyday
then dies again:
he lives in the graceful huntsman, his wife and their hounds
then dies again beside the river with the arrow-stricken elk.
my god is the god of
all that is quickened
and all that is still,
my god is the god of
the   read more >

The Grace of The Material World

posted December 21, 2011
by wmyers








By Wayne Myers

When someone's dog slips its collar
and runs across the yard to lick
my hand or when
a hummingbird stops and hovers
right in front of me and slowly
draws closer until it's close enough to
bow upon the dazzled air and touch my nose (very
gently) with the tip of it's microscopic
beak or when
the wind and the ocean and the stars cascading
overhead suddenly blur together and become one thing,
one seamless, immeasurable moment   read more >

   

more articles >

Marks House Shelter Reopens in Lompoc

    After being closed down for eight days, Marks House homeless shelter in Lompoc reopened on Wednesday, January 25th.
    The City of Lompoc still holds ownership of the Marks House’s property, but Good Samaritan, Inc. is providing shelter services at the location, including drug and alcohol treatment and detox.
    In fact, two Lompoc homeless shelters, Marks House and Bridgehouse, received eviction notices from Lompoc Community Housing Development Corporation (LHCDC) on January 12th. The night after the notice was served, residents were told they would have to leave.  Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, January 16th, was the last day of operation for the two shelters. .
   “When they woke up on the 17th, they weren’t allowed to live there anymore,” said Mike Foley, the executive director of Santa Barbara’s Casa Esperanza homeless shelter.
    LHCDC reportedly   read more >

A Solution for Homelessness in Lompoc

    By Joshua Hall, MS

    There has been the closing of the two main homeless shelters in Lompoc, Ca because of apparent mismanagement and lack of revenue.  This is another example of extreme stress on the County's publicly-funded mental health system and programs for homeless residents. The responsibility for the failure of the shelters lies partly with the misguided approach they, and other programs, have employed. 
     The management method described below has shown its effectiveness in a number of locations recently, but usually where public money hasn’t been available to "throw at the problem". For example, there is the new family homeless shelter in Williamsport, Pa. This 501(c)(3) charity earns its operational costs by having a collection center for used goods and a series of outlet stores where discounted goods are sold after being refurbished and cleaned by the people who are receiving care   read more >

more stories >