“Church To Me” is a lyric poem with strong elements of spiritual skepticism and romantic devotion, blending confessional and secular hymn traditions. Its central theme is the replacement of institutional religion with a beloved person as the locus of transcendence, grace, and moral reckoning, without requiring faith in God, heaven, scripture, or organized worship. The voice is a first-person speaker who is unapologetically flawed, agnostic, and self-deprecating, yet experiences the beloved as a sacred presence. Structurally, the poem uses a repeated refrain across five quatrains, each rejecting a traditional religious element before affirming that the woman’s supernatural quality provokes the same awe, sanctuary, and moral gravity as church. The language is plain, rhythmically steady, and undercut by earthy imagery that grounds the spiritual claim in bodily, lived experience. Written for the “A Shattered Cup of Doom” novella, this poem appears in the “Second Shards of Broken Glass” chapbook.
“CHURCH TO ME”
i don’t pretend to be an angel
i’ve done my share of evil deeds
but something in her, supernatural
seems so much like church to me
i don’t intend to go to heaven
just roll my carcass to the street
but something in the air about her
seems so much like church to me
i don’t depend upon some jesus
cannot believe what i can’t see
but something in her eyes, like lightning
seems so much like church to me
i don’t attend saint paul’s on sundays
i naturally just oversleep
but somehow she’s my sanctuary
seems so much like church to me
i can’t defend the holy bible
i cannot reckon what it means
but something singing in her whisper
somehow seems like church to me
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