Poems and Other Pieces features various poems, essays, articles, songs or sermons that either I have written or someone I admire has written. In either case, all of these have helped shape my attitude toward God, his presence in my life, his activity in the world, and the overall craft of writing. Here I feature a short piece (Letter To My Son) that expresses an enduring faith my wife and I have in the provision of God for our children. Below that, I feature an older poem (One Less Fall) written by retired professor, Ed Harkness, who I had the privilege of hearing speak during my college days. I hope you enjoy.
Letter To My Son June 8, 2026
Dear Ellis
This letter is from both your mother and me. And our words here are much more than well wishes over all you've endured and overcome, undertaken and accomplished in your 18 years of life. Instead, we write a kind of declaration of what we believe is true over the whole of your life, beginning to end—the miracle you are as light in the world. This has always been in our hearts.
Your mother and I have always believed you are gift from God. Initially, and most excitingly, we affirmed you as a gift to us only and to our growing family. Eventually, however, and perhaps more reluctantly, we came to accept you as a gift well beyond our home and into the world at large. How we have upheld this belief, clung to it at times, opposed it at times, clutched it in our hearts, and endured with it over years is the real work of our parenting. Only God’s infinite grace will prove our efforts worthy.
Without question, where your mother and I have failed you in our words, in our actions, in our attention or care or love (and indeed we have), God has prevailed mightily. He always has and does even now set his sights on something more than mere repair work (He is not in the business of mending regrets). With this mind, be abundantly confident that God will create in you and through you something so exceptional as only to be defined as miracle. That is God’s promise to you and to us.
In a day or two you will graduate from high school. You have come through to the end of a journey of sorts, a pivotal pathway of unique challenges, aspiring progressions, and devastating setbacks. And though you are, in one sense, still in the care of your parents, you are in a more real sense, free. You are free to come and go as you choose; free to live and love and serve as you like. You are free to be light in the world or not to be. We can only pray you choose wisely, not out of obligation to please your parents or teachers or friends or even out of religious duty, but out of an experiential assurance that God will prosper your obedience.
Ellis, as you well know, your mom and I love you dearly and deeply. We take immeasurable delight in all that you’ve become. But again, what we write here is much less about the singularity of your graduation night, your transition to college, your progression onward unto wherever, and more about the whole of your life and our overwhelming hope in God’s provision as you move ahead. That said, we commit (as best we can), to seek God’s best for you in every way. We believe for you a tenacious ambition in your college experience. We believe for you a confident wisdom among your social circles. We believe for you a gracious discernment in who you seek to date and marry. We believe for you an unhindered passion to raise children and provide for a family. We believe for you the gifts of voice, influence, respect, honor, enduring loyalty and effectual legacy in every opportunity God allows.
To you, Ellis, all our heart. Your loving parents.
“I brought you up from the ends of the earth and called you from the farthest corners. I have said, ‘You are My servant. I have chosen you and not rejected you. Do not fear, for I am with you; do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will surely help you; I will strengthen you and will uphold you with My righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41).
You can follow Ellis on Instagram@ellisbehrens | My own work is included in Poems. The work of other writers I admire is included in Other Pieces. Some ways to connect with me are included in About Me.
One Less Fall by Ed Harkness, 2009
From here you can smell the age of the year in the air, its odor of decay, the river sheen a slurry of cottonwood and pine, hill and sky.
Grass has gone tan on Clemens Ridge, that slope we always meant to climb to take in the wider view. Kingfisher, you say,
your favorite, chittering upstream, then down, like we do on our walks, together and alone. It gets harder, though, to see the end
of earth tones, to face the empty face of what’s to come, where now we’re borne on the river’s clatter at this low water time.
You say the boulders look like bones in the current. Only this late do they emerge exposed like black eggs, hidden
more often than not, as some thoughts are, the ones that lie in the deeper channels. All the summer warblers have moved on:
grosbeak, tanager, siskin—gone. The land prepares for hard freezes, then snow, then a season of pallid light.
One less fall. Now, though, afternoon sun reveals more of what we love. A gust of wind scatters the last papery
aspen leaves in a swirl of joy. Some sail all the way across to Old River Road. Those that light on the river will travel far.
Jerry Seinfeld interview w/ Graham Bensinger, August 2024
Below is a 5min interview with Jerry Seinfeld. Whether or not you’re a fan of Seinfeld, what he has to say about stage presence, humor, fear, writing, preparing, and not giving up is (for me, at least) both fascinating and reminding. Enjoy.
“It’s not the easiest thing to try and put a smile on a face. But it’s always worth it.”
Poems and Other Pieces 
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