JK Miller

I praise you, lord

You knit me together and

gave me a name.

You loved me into existence.

I will not pass away.

Thank you for

your precious gift.

Though it is hidden, I will spend

my life finding it.

Then, I will bestow it.

With all your children, Lord,

I praise you.

I praise you

with the snails and kites.

With the alligators and the bears,

with the sheep and the wolves.

With the black flies that bite,

I praise you!

With the quasars, pulsars, and black holes—

with all the light—

I praise you, Lord!

You made me in your likeness,

a glorious spirit

with an eternal destiny

in your great universe.

from dirt

I am as a plug of tobacco, chewed and spat

upon the ground.

People see the stain. They carefully step around.

Eventually the earth recoils.

Yet, the hem of your robe sweeps

and soaks out evil.

I am as the dirt, trampled underfoot.

A laughing world scuffles by,

rushing to its summer games.

But you stoop. Your face shines upon me.

You cup me in your hands

and call down the rains.

I am as the mud, splattering the revelers’ thighs.

They run to sinks and showers

to clear away the slime—

before it can soak and settle into rhyme.

You rub a little in their eyes.

They will see what you see.

I am as the wet grass,

overgrown with fears, crying in my tatters.

Birds pierce me for the worms they snatch.

You part the pain and sorrows,

and wipe away the tears.

Now I am as the father.

Now I am as the son.

Now I am as the holy ghost

in the sweet community

of One—

Trifolium pratense:

clover of the meadow.

JK Miller is a former third grade dual language teacher. He lives on the edge of cornfields. He started submitting poetry in 2025. He is the first place winner of the 2025 Helen Schaible International Sonnet Contest. He is the author of the chapbook Bicycling Poems  and Rye & I  (Bottlecap Press, October, 2025 and January, 2026), and his poems have appeared in many literary journals. In the summer of 2025 he completed a solo 1,335-mile bicycle ride from his house to his son’s house to see his newborn grandson. You can follow him at https://jkmiller.blog/