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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)

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62 Responses

  1. ‘I am woman, hear me roar ‘- those are the words from the old Helen Reddy song – I am woman, if anyone still remembers it.

    I think those words fit well in well with this theme of fierceness and lions. For me, those words resonated back then and they still do so today.

  2. Guardian dream

    Out of my bed to arrive at this dream…
    **************************************
    Three bears walk alongside a vast green field.
    I alone in the middle; where to flee?
    Then seven lioness’s approach me.
    Standing breathless I ask how to be shield?
    Eyeing me a bear licks his furry face.
    One by one the lions circle my place.
    Their breath so warm, eyes so knowing, healing.
    ****************************************
    The message, “we are your guardians”…dream.

    Genora W. Powell 1/23/11
    Dream was in 2009

  3. LAUGHING LION

    Oh, Laughing Lion,
    why do you look at me and laugh
    with your savage smile
    and your weighty padded paws
    with their curved, cutting claws?
    You carefully discern my dilemma.
    You know the fears I try to hide.
    I yearn for you to tear open my thorny thoughts,
    to roar them into reality.
    I desire so wantonly to retrieve those hidden musings.
    I long so greatly for them to surface,
    to become a part of my psyche.
    But my mind is frozen with fear now
    and refuses to reveal them.

    Oh, Laughing Lion,
    let loose my pain.
    I need to be free,
    like you,
    to roar at the wind
    and let my secrets surface,
    casting my words without caution to the wind
    or anyone who will listen.

    Perhaps, I am not afraid anymore
    of those thoughts that would steal my sanity.
    Maybe I could laugh at them
    like you.
    I could be courageous.
    I could be full of life.
    I could let whatever comes boiling up
    stream out with no regrets.

    I need your confidence,
    your carefree attitude,
    the vigorous tilt of your head,
    that laughs at the world
    because you know it can’t harm you.
    I can only offer a mellow meow in comparison.

    I wish I had a majestic mane
    like you
    that I could bravely brandish
    in defiance and confidence.
    I wish I had powerful, surging, grasping paws
    like you
    that I could extend
    and tear open whatever was in my way.
    “I can do anything I want and you can’t stop me!”
    they would say.
    I wish… I wish…

    I wish I wasn’t lying.
    I am afraid.
    I am afraid of dying.
    At least
    let me laugh for awhile
    like you
    at death.

  4. why do i dream
    of a lion roaming
    free in my home

    mane thick as desert sand
    eyes of liquid gold
    soft steps, their intent unknown

    yes i left the doors open
    broke the leash
    lifted my face to the lightning

    that is why i dream
    of a lion roaming
    free in my home

    © 2011 Padmavani Karkera

  5. Dogs At My Heels

    ( For Mary, my little sister, who went before me)

    The Dogs are on my trail-
    I duck into the night Woods,
    Hiding from the full Moon,
    Hiding from killing Teeth,
    Hiding from deadly Fear,

    The Dogs are at my heels-
    I flounder in dark Thickets,
    Falling flat,
    Falling down
    And down,
    Falling into nettles that claw.

    The Dogs are at my back-
    I smell their rancid breath,
    Looking over my naked shoulder,
    Looking into red Eyes,
    Looking
    (Oh, no!)
    Into my Snarling Soul.

    No00000000!
    I scream at its Monster Face.
    Yesssssssssss!
    She yells back,
    Your Protector, I am.
    I have your small back.
    For I am
    Michael the Archangel,
    Shiva the Destroyer,
    Dakinis All,
    Warrior Athena,
    Mary of the Waves,
    Jize of the Hell Realms,
    Joan of Arc Shining,
    Holy Dogs with Teeth
    Bared-
    For you.

    I travel with the Dogs of my Soul
    Now-
    Through terror of the Heart,
    Through cells running Wild,
    Through a little sister’s Death,
    Through a longtime Lover’s Betrayal.
    In Winter’s knives of cold,
    Into Noah floods,
    And Hell fires,
    Up, up mountain sides,
    Down into claustrophobic
    Caves,
    I go with the Pack.

    We are Fierce Ones-
    We run for our lives,
    We hunt for our survival,
    We kill to keep our young safe.
    We are My Snarling Soul,
    My Master,
    ( You know it!)
    Holy, holy, holy
    Hound of Heaven.

    (2/23/2011)

  6. for so long
    caged
    by beloved family
    responsibilities

    now
    the bars are down
    where
    will the beast prowl?

    fire
    ready to blaze forth
    devour

  7. What I Learned from the Lion

    Though most fade by daylight,
    this dream lingers a lifetime.
    First image, first imperative.
    Six-year-old self tells me again at twenty,
    more fully at fifty – listen.

    Hear the fear the heart awry
    breath broken shallow/held/gulps
    feel the lion looming in shadows
    of the bedroom feel belly tighten
    frozen legs beg to run arms torn
    between flailing/fending
    or holding tight to make myself
    small.

    Roaring from the edges of my world
    the lion comes to me
    fiercely
    dream-slow,
    so close he nearly topples me,
    sits as if he means to stay
    here all my life. When I think
    I cannot wake, shake off the terror,
    the lion leans into my fear,
    places his head against mine.
    His mane caresses my face
    cheek to cheek rubbing
    soothing
    sobbing releasing
    nothing to fear
    no thing, fear
    no fear.

  8. I Fall. Fearless. In Love.

    Silence roars
    against the painful stillness
    breaking
    my heart
    into a thousand shards
    crying for release
    from the battlefield
    of life
    lost
    in fear
    of the pungent
    hot
    breath
    of the lion
    breathing
    fiercely
    down my neck

    Courage knocks
    I ignore
    my heart
    beating.

    Silence roars
    hot breath
    bearing down
    pushing
    prodding
    probing
    my will tangled up
    curving back
    into myself
    helplessly
    flailing
    against courage
    lost
    within
    the lair
    of the lion’s mane

    Courage whispers my name
    I hear it
    falling
    asleep.

    Silence roars
    I awaken
    and hear
    the beat
    of my heart
    pounding
    fiercely
    against the fear
    of falling
    into gentle arms
    of nothing
    more than who I am
    when I
    let go of fear
    and fall
    into the One
    who Loves me.

    Silence roars
    I roar back
    The lion retreats.

    I fall.
    Fearless.
    In Love.

  9. Weak for so long
    Identified with the Lion in the Wizard of Oz
    Where was my courage?
    Where was my strength?

    I cried out to God to help me
    I cried out to God to take care of me and my children
    I cried out to God to rid my family of Satan’s grasp

    Weak for so long
    I wanted to be strong
    I wanted to take control
    I wanted it to all go away.

    I cried out to God to get me off the Merry go Round
    I cried out to God to take away the pain
    I cried out to God to make it all right.

    And then I found it
    The courage to stand up for myself and for my children
    The courage to stand against the damage being done by addiction
    The courage to pack my bags and leave.

    I cried out to God again and again
    I cried out for an end to the misery
    I cried out to God to make it all right.

    And God said: you are strong
    Only you can make it right again
    Only you can walk the path
    Only you can acknowledge the past for what it was and look forward

    I am strong
    Still crying out to God, but now with more thanksgiving and less complaining
    I am strong
    Courage was the path…I just had to agree to walk on it!

  10. I got caught up in a couple thoughts about what makes me ferocious, so I have two offerings…first, loving kindness:

    take this bread and cup
    all that thirst
    all that are imprisoned
    come to me

    all that thirst
    beyond the false satiety
    at the corner store

    all that are imprisoned
    by walls named
    poverty and circumstance

    come to me
    and receive
    loving-kindness

    ~Terri Stewart, January 2011

    http://cloakedmonk.wordpress.com/2011/01/23/loving-kindness/

    and amma whale…

    amma whale
    sings a lament
    waiting for a sign
    that her children
    have not abandoned
    her

    ignoring her cry
    pursuits of life
    becoming
    pursuits of death
    becoming locked up
    in a cage made to
    perform for others

    amma still sings
    as her song
    echoes through time
    and space
    searching for her dears
    calling them home

    those that have ears, let them hear

    ~Terri Stewart, January 2011

    http://cloakedmonk.wordpress.com/2011/01/23/amma-whale/

    Thank you Christine!