Welcome to the Abbey’s Poetry Party #58!
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! (permission is granted to reprint the image if a link is provided back to this post).
In the northern hemisphere we are entering the season of summer – a time of ripeness and illumination. Write a poem this week in celebration of summer’s glories and gifts. Let’s savor and relish the world’s fullness together through the written word.
36 Responses
Sit strong in your boat
Don’t mess with the sails…I’ve already set your course
I will show you
how fierce I AM for you
Sail sweetly, determinedly
along
The only thing you need to
carry with you is the burden
of being The Beloved
His breath fills my sails and takes me along the road from sunrise to sunset.
I don’t see it but like the air I know it’s there……giving courage, instilling hope, sensing peace even in the darkest moments and most difficult circumstances.
When the sails deplete I can rest from all that burdens and drains life from me….immobile from the strain and aches of such events that life unexpectedly brings.
His grace is sufficient
It is rainy and overcast most of the time here
I let it be my inner forecast all too often
Sometimes it takes music or poetry
To remind me the sun is still shining
And under the clouds, so can I
Walking in the fire
Dancing the sacred flames’ rhythm
Shining forth the sun’s brilliance
I must burn
Dancing the sacred flames’ rhythm
Love’s heat radiating
I must burn
In our abiding union
Love’s heat radiating
Shining forth the sun’s brilliance
In our abiding union
Walking in the fire
Sunlight, flood my boat with your warmth
Call to the wind to fill up my sails,
Whisper to the living water, quench my thirst.
Lord, your love fills me with the warmth of your fire
Spirit, you breathe life into my heart,
Father, you nourish me.
Hidden Picture
A woman lies in the sun,
a beach chair cradling her,
a cool drink by her side.
The sun warms her body.
The surf lulls her mind.
The smell of suntan lotion
and saltwater waft by,
redolent of childhood laughter.
She gazes beyond the horizon
as a paperback book
slips from her limp hand.
Where is Jesus in this picture?
Where is the bearded man,
whose eyes pierce the soul?
No one walks on the water.
No one teaches by the shore.
Perhaps the woman
thinks holy thoughts?
No – she does not think.
She just is.
Where is Jesus in this picture?
Jesus is the sun, the sea, the lotion.
Jesus is the woman, the waves, the sand.
Jesus is the warmth and the cool drink.
Jesus is the smell of water, the memories.
Jesus is the Sabbath rest, the fallow land.
something is wrong inside.
has the artist died?
the photographs have started
looking rather dreary.
i gloried in the spring
as forest and lilac exploded –
my shutter all aflutter,
dancing in the freshness.
it all looks so ordinary now,
so tattered, so worn.
even butterfly wings
seem faded and forlorn.
something is wrong inside.
has the Artist died?
has He left us here alone
nothing left to hope for?
“surrender,” He says.
“it is surrender that creates.”
and so blossoms wither to fruit,
to ripen in His light.
no, the Artist cannot die –
His surrendering eternal,
each dying is His own,
each fruit His own rebirth.
shedding wings and petal-beauty,
my heart too surrenders flight,
its spring resting in warm earth
to ripen in His light.
Sun shines
Warmly with light and heat
Moon glows
Quietly with wisdom
Bride’s face
Luminous with love.
Sun light fades
Moon glow dims
Mom’s face aging
Still and soft with love.
I wrote this on a beautiful spring day when I couldn’t figure out what to do with myself…
Spring into Summer
After months on end of gray day
after grey day, and every possible variety of rain
you’d think I would be happy to see the sun.
But there’s an uneasy restlessness, an unsettled-ness in me
that I can’t seem to shake.
Yard working, bike riding, hiking, picnicking, basking –
everyone else seems to know what to do on this sparkly day.
I feel lost, anxious, caught off guard,
as if I’m missing an opportunity, but I don’t know what it is.
I walk the neighborhood, try to cheer myself up,
and in the budding trees, the blooming flowers, the growing grass
I find the source of my discontent.
It’s a time of becoming, rebirthing, growing, changing
and like each tree, flower, and blade of grass
I am being called to come back in a new way,
to emerge from the darkness and quiet of winter
into the next stage of my own evolution.
Part of me resists, unsure of what that looks like,
afraid of what it might mean.
The wind whispers a reminder:
A tree doesn’t worry about what is expected of it next;
A flower doesn’t question whether it has enough resources to bloom;
A blade of grass doesn’t wonder if it’s the right shade of green.
The resistance says, well of course…trees and flowers and blades of grass
don’t have the capacity to worry and question and wonder.
Precisely, says the wind…
they simply keep reaching out to the One who created them,
their being-ness an example to those who are willing to learn.
Alizabeth – I love this! And I get it… :)
GRADUATION KIRTAN
He dreams of teaching physics to the blind.
Beats the tabla drum. Chants for wholeness –
Lokah samastha sukhino bhavanthu
Wind torn sign reads –
Congratulation Dr. Johnson.
He’s moving across the country
For three months internship.
Thirty people gather under
Gazebo shade.
Marsha blogs interior design
Sells pet insurance –
No health coverage for dogs.
Stays behind with a good job.
Fender T-shirt,
Tim plays lead guitar.
Lost one eye to cancer.
His arrowhead necklace
A gift for clarity.
Bri comforts trauma victims.
Expressions of scratched pastels
Speak buried words. Her career
On hold as she helps Tim.
.
Salute the Sun releases Natalie
Not to take care of everyone.
Reads the last three lines, Endless Love,
Over and over. Plays Harmonium, sings –
It’s all good. It’s all good to me.
Blue tongue, crow feathers,
And flower-print pants, Sarah
Describes her family in word fragments.
Justin teaches Frankenstein ethics.
Six years to finish his doctorate.
Lost seventeen pounds in two weeks.
The group joins in –
We shine like diamonds in the sun.
Everyone of us, everyone of us shines.
(c) Cindy Rinne