Welcome to the Abbey’s 62nd Poetry Party!
I select an image and suggest a theme/title and invite you to respond with your own poem. Scroll down and add it in the comments section below. Feel free to take your poem in any direction and then post the image and invitation on your blog (if you have one), Facebook, or Twitter, and encourage others to come join the party! (If you repost the photo, please make sure to include the credit link below it and link back to this post inviting others to join us).
Each month we have a new theme and for November it is community, drawn from the third principle of the Monk Manifesto: “I commit to cultivating community by finding kindred spirits along the path, soul friends with whom I can share my deepest longings, and mentors who can offer guidance and wisdom for the journey..”
Write a poem about your own longing for community.
How do you connect with soul friends?
What are the gifts your community offers to you?
Photo Credit: Anna Seccombe (please use this credit if you repost this invitation on your blog and link back to the Abbey as well – thank you!)
Share your poem below in the comments with the Abbey community.
On Sunday, November 25th, I will select one name at random from the submissions and the winner will receive a space in my upcoming online retreat – Birthing the Holy: An Online Retreat for Advent with reflections by Macrina Wiederkehr, OSB and myself, and the wonderful art of Mary Southard, CSJ.
November’s theme is Community (Abbey Resources):
55 Responses
“Hands of Love”
We called ourselves “Hands of Love”
Where did you go, sisters of God
All my heart friends, taken, whisked away
Leaving me here to fend for myself
I know I’m not alone, but I feel sad, lonely
Six of you, one by one
My comrades, holy women
Each in a state of Grace, consumed by Love
Eternity has possession of you
Only acquaintances strewn about
My soul friends, my prayer friends
My sisters of love, daily tears flow
Earthly connection lost
But memory resides within
I search this earth, looking
Seeking to find a new formation
By which to pray, to play, to be with
Who understands me and I them
Where can I find sacred beings?
Susan H. Kasper
November 20, 2012
This brought tears to my eyes, Susan.
Together
My community
Variety of individuals
Caring and sharing.
Living together,
Questioning, searching, loving,
Seeking to know God.
Praying together,
Differences accepted,
My community.
This sounds like a rich community, Jan.
The Edge…
Come with me to a slender place
where earth and heaven meet –
To where the shadows are just as real
and when all time will disappear
and we are face to face.
Come with me to the finding place
where we can search and seek –
To where our fears are faced and fade
and we can taste the sweet perfume
of being face to face.
Come with me to another place
where time stands ever still –
To where the Pharisees cannot come
where Scribes cannot their law give tongue
and we stand face to face.
Come with me to the binding place
where we may speak our love –
From where the rhyming words have come
and we enact love’s contraband
by meeting face to face.
Come with me to a tender place
where feelings can be owned –
To where the bounds are opened to you
and I step close and life imbue
when we see face to face.
I am moved by the rhythm of these places and face to face encounters.
Oh, how we long for these places! Thank you for articulating them.
I am thirsty for companionship. Like a dog who has walked too far without a drink of water, I long for the refreshment and life that community brings. I invite others on this journey to be my companions. I need you.
People of truth, people of compassion, people of vulnerability,
please do not walk on without me.
Such beautiful and tender yearning.
Let us face the wind together
Mingled with dirt, salt, sweat, blood, tears,
Warm it with the fire within our bones
It is fluid, sometimes, harsh
Swelling over us
As we collapse
Smiles on our faces
I love the earthy humanity of this, Sheila.
Five women,
Soul bearing,
Soul caring.
Sisters in spirit only
Not by blood, but by spirit
Not by blood, but by longing
Not by blood, but by need.
I sense such a deep bond among you. Soul bearing, soul caring. Beautiful.
Sitting around the graveyard lunch table
Sharing a meal with “foodies” and barbarians
The lights are low in the wee hours of night
Each a history, a song, joke or insight
Each a chapter in a new story
Ahhh, community around a table. There’s something so special about the breaking of bread.
No, not a village
Rather, soul holding me close
A sacred shelter.
I feel a sense of intimacy as I image this sacred shelter.
here among friends –
I see the face of God,
I hear His voice
in their singing
here among friends –
all of us broken,
but still hoping
for a taste of heaven
we stand together
joyfully in this place
hands clasped together,
hearts open
here among friends…
I see the face of God in this poem, Joanne.
See God in faces
Community looks like that
All of creation.
What a lovely reminder.