Todotobetodotobe

Martha is alive
and well in America.
My To Do list
consumed me.

First, it was
“My life is a To Do list.”
Then, it became
“I am a To Do list.”

Often, as my To Do list
sat glaring at me on my desk,
I would get phone call
after phone call.

Nothing crossed off.
The edge in my voice.
Glancing at the clock.
Frustration building.

The Lord said to her in reply,
“Martha, Martha,
you are anxious and worried
about many things..”

Finally, I realized
that God had his own
To Be list for me.
Be open to what will come.

Really Be with people
in their lives.
When paper lists
try to taunt me,

I laugh and
remind them
that ”Mary has chosen
the better part.”

http://thisfarbyfaith.blogspot.com/2008/05/poetry-party-19.html

thanks as always, Christine!

Peaceful Sabbath we say,
“Come in peace, angels of peace”

Perhaps peace
is an emptying
after all…

(postnote:
The “Come in peace, angels of peace” is paraphrased from the traditional Shabbat song Shalom Aleichem:

Peace be with you, ministering angels
Messengers from the Most High
Who come from the King, the King of Kings
The Holy One, Blessed be He.

Enter in peace, angels of peace
Messengers from the Most High
Who come from the King, the King of Kings
The Holy One, Blessed be He.

Bless me with peace, angels of peace
Messengers from the Most High
Who come from the King, the King of Kings
The Holy One, Blessed be He.

May you go in peace, angels of peace
Messengers from the Most High
Who come from the King, the King of Kings
The Holy One, Blessed be He.)

Deb

Brother Benedict hunches over his desk,
scribing 73 rules for his monks,
beginning with the word,
“listen.”

The Abbess Petunia rolls over,
reclines and dreams the word,
“surrender.”

When we grant ourselves holy rest,
wisdom settles on us like dust between breezes.
The stillness that lies between our breaths,
gives our oblate hearts precious time to love.

Living in the eternal now
Fully engaged
in the activity of the moment

Letting go fully
When what needs to be done
Has been done

Responding with focus
Bringing energy and passion
To the work of the day

Is this what it means
To enjoy life in fullness?
Let it be

the day folds into itself
like small hands
praying at the side of the bed.

we are done
for now
with the trembling world
of necessary and unnecessary things.

now
we begin
to settle into ourselves,
into the undivided, unhurried place
that waited faithfully and with enduring patience
for our homecoming.

in this place
we are more near the Hope
which daily saves us -
closer to what language does not touch.

gradually
a thousand cares fall from us,
so that we are emptied of striving
and our binding self consciousness.

inside this vacancy we become less demanding,
more accepting
so that all our beautiful, empty hands will hold
is this one poem and contentment.

Salt on my lips
sand washes away underfoot
female without follower
no longer feeding my young

I hear seals–
left by elephant mothers
now journeying deep,
rolling in mating dances
beyond baby’s blurry eyes–

Gather in a wet rocky cradle
like a lap their mothers didn’t offer
Curl confident on kelp pillows
Play wargames, croak, open mouths

Show short sharp teeth
Hold back, not breaking the skin,
Still fat with milk,
hunting far in the future,

Dark water a playground
before school begins,
where teens shrouded in black
curse and spit–

My aging eyes can’t tell
male or female, as they shift
together, then part, beneath
the clatter of wings.

I watch gulls–
gray oars against gray sky,
lights on, race from this cove
beyond cow-trodden hillsides,
an arc away from now–

Circle turned back to times
I’ve heard them scream and drop,
called to a schoolyard harvest
of careless litter, land’s riches

offered by our overfilled children,
their sated appetites nothing like birds,
forever hungry, rushing on wings
held aloft by the breath of the sea.