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Invitation to Poetry: Moments

Welcome to our 39th Poetry Party!

I select an image and suggest a theme/title and invite you to respond with your poems or other reflections. Add them in the comments section and a link to your blog (if you have one).  Make sure to check the comments for new poems added and I encourage you to leave encouraging comments for each other either here or at the poet’s own blog.

Feel free to take your poem in any direction and then post the image and invitation on your blog if you have one and encourage others to come join the party! (permission is granted to reprint the image if a link is provided back to this post)

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Poetry Party Theme: Moments

Art and poetry are essentially about savoring a moment in time, looking and listening closely and breaking open its gifts and basking in its wonder.  Last week I posted a few words and a video link about the moments that make up our lives.

I took this photo at the beach last week. I love this woman’s pensive look, I wonder what her experience is of this moment in time.  Is she fully present to the beauty before her?  Is she dreaming of the future?  Is she contemplating the past?  For this week’s Poetry Party I invite you to write a poem about a moment in time.  It could be something entirely ordinary that when tended reveals something sacred.

© Christine Valters Paintner at Abbey of the Arts:
Transformative Living through Contemplative & Expressive Arts

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Monk in the World Guest Post: Michael Moore

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Wisdom Council member Michael Moore’s reflection on Sabbath and Silence. I am thankful to Christine and the Abbey community for this opportunity

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27 Responses

  1. “In the Moment”

    hey kids
    I’m “in the moment”
    my old lips
    freshly lovingly applied
    with l’Oreal’s coral gloss
    grip
    like a lipsticked worm
    my pure white filter tip
    I inhale deeply
    good good smoke
    fills my lungs
    pours out my smile
    I’m just like you
    flawed
    beautiful
    and I know it

    Dedicated to the smoking hot beautiful old lady in the video

  2. A MOMENT’S THOUGHT
    a pensive moment
    stirred up by thoughts
    of you drifting by on
    a cloudy day

    a flash of your
    laugh as you ate
    strawberry shortcake
    celebrating life

    your lips pursed as
    you plucked at them
    while confronting
    challenge freely

    your arms and legs
    as they whittled
    away to nothing
    fighting a losing battle

    all of this in caught
    in a circle of light
    the tilt of my daughter’s head
    with curls so like yours

    the battle won
    in the grace of a new
    creation that
    echoes of you

    © 2009, T. Stewart

  3. Touched

    “Look”, she breathed.
    Framed perfectly
    by land and tree in black silhoutte.
    Fire sinking to meet it’s own illuminated pathway across the ocean.
    A moment where time and eternity intertwined.

  4. ON A LOG

    The woman with white hair
    sits at the edge of the woods
    contemplating green, contemplating
    not-green.

    The leaves of summer
    are fallen onto the dry twigs of winter.
    She is toward becoming a twig,
    becoming winter.

  5. Even though this was written for Inauguration Day, I have also realized that it could apply to other moments of life – like a wedding day.

    Inauguration Day 2009

    There is a moment, sometimes,
    that clearly separates
    the memory laden past
    from the unknowable future.

    This is the space for imagining
    all that could be
    with one who calls out
    the best in us.

    It is a shining moment
    that gathers the light
    and all our attention,
    a triumph, not to be seen again.

    We hold our breath,
    keeping the treasure in our grasp,
    just a bit longer,
    not wanting to lose its luster.

    Inspiration is in the air
    and gratitude
    that the long, unyielding road
    has led to this day, this moment,

    When one young man
    gives us every reason
    to believe again
    that yes,
    yes, we can.

  6. Hi Christine et al–
    I thought I submitted something but I guess I didn’t. It was a poem-on-the-spot, but it was something like this:

    The turning point
    is a moment
    when responsibility for
    turns to responsibility to
    and we are whole.

    No past
    No future
    only present possibilities
    in which past and future
    are cleansed and readied.