Visit the Abbey of the Arts online retreat platform to access your programs:

Invitation to Poetry: Fierceness and Courage

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.


Vienna001

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)

*Note – the comments are moderated and may take a few hours to appear (those whose comments have been approved previously will appear instantly

You might also enjoy

Monk in the World Guest Post: Mary Camille Thomas

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Mary Camille Thomas’s reflection “Beholding God’s Sanctuary.” My Grandma Sammie knew many psalms by heart and could quote them chapter and verse.

Read More »

62 Responses

  1. 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.

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. 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.

    1. 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

  5. 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.