Welcome to Poetry Party #49!
I select an image and suggest a theme/title and invite you to respond with your poems or other reflections. Scroll down and add your responses 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) and encourage others to come join the party! (permission is granted to reprint the image if a link is provided back to this post)
On Friday, January 28th, I will draw a name at random from the participants and send the winner a free registration for the Lenten Online Retreat: Journey with the Desert Mothers & Fathers.
Roar, Lion of the Heart, and tear me open!
-Rumi
When I was in Vienna over Christmas I ended up in the hospital with a pulmonary embolism. Thirty percent of people die with this condition. This brush with death has had a powerful impact on me that is still shimmering across my life and I imagine will for a long time. In the quiet days of healing that followed my husband and I wandered the beautiful old city streets, cherishing one another, savoring life. In our explorations I kept discovering lions calling to me – in churches, on street corners, in building entryways, on door knockers.
When I returned home I went to see my spiritual director to share the story of this journey. We talked of many things, but one which especially resonated is that he said there was a fierce part of me that chose to keep living and I was being called to discover what that fierceness was fighting for. As he uttered those words I knew immediately that this was connected to the call of lions. There is a roar inside of me that is tearing me open to new layers of discovery.
What are the things of your life you are called to protect fiercely? Where are you being called to greater courage?
I invite you to write a poem about fierceness. Much of our talk in spiritual circles is about what feels good or pleasing, and while these are important, just as vital are those experiences in life that confront us with the underside of things, that call out of us a fierce longing and sense of the the fertile depths. Give your fierceness a shape or form, explore its roar through poetry.
(Photo of lion in Vienna)
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62 Responses
Where am I fiercest?
As mother, lover, pastor?
Lions roar within.
here I am sending the link to my poem about the fierce-ness of love and being hurt by it but still remaining open and optimistic.
http://bowerwood55.blogspot.com/2009/04/love-has-no-consideration-at-all-it.html
Fierce roars
of the lion
are invitations to
get close enough to be swallowed
by love.
To see the image created for this cinquain cut and paste this into your browser…
http://twitpic.com/3slqlw
Thankyou for allowing me to release
The lion in me & be free off the pain
I’ve carried through my life & be able
To have Christ as my carrier not the
Lion.
bloody thorns stir
ferocious grace unfurls
snatching love to self
hi– Maureen put out word on this challenge– a worthy one although I focused on a fierceness-by-virtue of need theme in my poems. all best– Jenne’ Andrews
see how silence rends the soul
shouting out
i see you
lioness of God
stalking my dreams
speak!
stretch me to fill your skin
let me drop my unnamed fears
and dance
fair and terrible
to the music of your roar
A Song of Fierce Avoidance
Like a lion, God, you hunt me without rest, seeking to draw me with gentle paws
to your mighty heart of love.
Heedless, I cling desperately to whatever briefly comforts me, often seeking
everything but you.
I claw and struggle, fighting to find my true self, amid a bramble
Of memory, sorrow and desire,
always trying to go back to a past that cannot be recovered,
to missed opportunities, wasted joys, and ignored blessings.
I stumble blindly through thickets heavy with memory, regret and grief,
knowing you are near, yet doing everything I can to escape
the inevitable snare of your love,
refusing to admit my need, reluctant to trust you alone
with my future.
Teach me the courage to allow myself to be caught by you –
and to become like a newborn lamb,
lying trustingly, resting my head against you alone for comfort,
the thunder of your love loud in my ear,
drowning out all other voices – even my own.
Loved your poem. It’s as if you were watching my life. I would love to do a paitnting or a series of photos of this poem. Blessings, Carol
Powerful words, wonderful calling home, calling for one to trust completely, letting the roar surround us. Nicely written. Beautiful images.
I have spent much of my life in a mode of fierce courage because my early life was one of extreme danger. Now I wonder if it’s ok to know that everything is ok. Now I wonder if I can relax.
no ! you can never let your guard down! stay sharp!