Welcome to the Abbey’s 63rd 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 December it is kinship with creation, drawn from the fourth principle of the Monk Manifesto: “I commit to cultivating awareness of my kinship with creation and a healthy asceticism by discerning my use of energy and things, letting go of what does not help nature to flourish.”
Photo Credit: “Snow Tracks” by Brent Bill
(please use this credit if you repost this invitation on your blog and link back to the Abbey as well – thank you!)
Write a poem about your own experience of kinship with creation or longing for it. Share it below in the comments with the Abbey community.
On Sunday, December 23rd, I will draw a name at random from those who participate and the winner will receive a space in one of my Self-Study Online Classes (with a choice from Soul of a Pilgrim, Eyes of the Heart, Water Wind Earth & Fire, Seasons of the Soul, or Lectio Divina)
68 Responses
Tried to send in a “contact comment” it wouldn’t mail? why is that? what is verification code? I’m confused about the intricacy of the unknowns who leave footprints in the snow. What color is snow? white! what color is grass? green! The questions are
tricky, aren’t they. Any color can be used for either snow or grass depending where a person is, how the eyes react to light, to space, to time, to Spirit! . . .
Just wondering . . . . that’s what life is all about, isn’t it! Wondering as I wander or journey on Life’s Path!
The Poems were wonderful in so many ways! I love this site, even though I don’t communicate often! I guess I’m hidden in that old OAK tree!
Shestelle
Who is Amber?
Does she leave the footprints
in the path of snow?
As I stand silent and invisible
at the heart of the giant Oak
She passes in the stillness!
winter mother
i come to the earth; she comes to me.
at first i judge her empty, barren.
where are her blossoms and seeds?
yet she pours out her life for me,
swirling and splashing joyfully
around the boulders of my discontent.
and when i am done complaining
(moaning that she is too cold)
she warms me with her sparkling smile.
she dances me through crevices
and into her palace of ice
where even shadows shine brilliant white.
come, she says, come with me.
enter the glory of His radiant light.
seek, seek the gift of endless giving.
in frozen wonder she teaches me…
i come to Him; He comes to me.
lovingly giving in endless praise.
Come … come to the quiet
It is the season to retreat
Even nature takes time to be
Enter the path to renewal
Thanks for the reminder!
Since I’m Swedish I hope it’s ok that my poem is in Swedish… but I translated it (without any artistic aspirations at all) so you can understand what it’s about.
Vintern är så poetisk i år:
ljuset som puder över de gula grässtråna,
den stålgrå himlen,
marken bar och stelfrusen.
Kylan.
Kylan som tvingar en inomhus fast man gärna velat vara ute längre tid.
Barnet som kanske finns eller kanske inte finns.
Det verkar så mysigt att ha en dotter.
Eller en son.
Winter is so poetic this year:
the light spreading like powder over the yellow grass,
the steel-gray sky,
the ground bare and frozen stiff.
The cold.
The cold, forcing me indoors though I would have liked to be out longer.
The child who might be or might not be.
It seems so cozy to have a daughter.
Or a son.
Beautiful.
Even in this desert,
cold and barren
with no sign of snow in sight.
Even with all the sadness
in the world,
I look out my window
and spy juncos dancing on the ground
and hear their tiny, glad song.
I am lifted out of myself
to a place of hope
where love and peace reign
Even here…
Kinship with Creation
Weather advisory
Dire predictions
Soft snow into blizzard
Ice and danger
Patience needed
Appreciation comes slowly
Sunny white stillness.
Health advisory
Dire predictions
Pain, suffering, tragedy
Patience needed
Recognize God’s presence
Love and grace
Peaceful stillness.
We break Bread together,
Break our night’s fast,
Smile with mouths shining with
Sun’s rendering.
This brings a smile to my own face. :)
As it should, Amber, as it should! Lovely.
Our Dawn Breakfast jA Dec 2012
Energy
Can neither be created or destroyed,
Only transformed,
I explain to my daughter.
Sun shines on Corn, Apple, Grain
Pig eats them, becomes
Weighty with Sun’s power,
Becomes
Bacon.
Hen gives us Eggs, which
I break into a sizzling pan;
Sunshine in golden Butter,
rays of heat and blessing
in the Bread.
We break Bread together,
Break our night’s fast,
Smile with mouths shining with
Sun’s rendering.
Refilled with Energy, we are part
Of transformation.
The Present Path
The light on this path is promising
It speaks warmly to me ‘hope, love, joy’
I find one or more in each present step
Where does the path lead?
I see my future footsteps ahead
A twinge of fear rises from my heart
Telling me of hardships yet to come
I walk in the present promise
The deep crunch of snow underfoot
“I walk in the present promise.” ~ I can imagine the light and the crunch of the snow drawing me back to the now.