Welcome to the Abbey’s 61st 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 October it is hospitality, drawn from the second principle of the Monk Manifesto: “I commit to radical acts of hospitality by welcoming the stranger both without and within. I recognize that when I make space inside my heart for the unclaimed parts of myself, I cultivate compassion and the ability to accept those places in others.”
Write a poem about this
commitment and desire.
What is it that you are called to welcome within?
What are the challenging voices knocking on your inner (and outer) door?
What happens when you begin a conversation willing to be changed by what you hear?
Photo Credit: Steven Elliott (please use this credit if you repost this invitation on your blog and link back to the Abbey as well – thank you!)
Share your poem below in the comments with the Abbey community.
On Sunday, October 19th, I will select one name at random from the submissions and the winner will receive a space in my upcoming online retreat – Honoring Saints and Ancestors: Peering through the Veil
October’s theme is Hospitality (Abbey Resources):
- Introduction to the theme
- Invitation to Photography (with Flickr pool link)
- Patheos article on Radical Hospitality and Holy Disruption
29 Responses
Holy Purpose
As long as our culture
operates by the economy of scarcity
and self-definition via competition,
we will always create an imaginary line
in the measure of productivity
beyond which many people will decide
they are entitled to hoard and hide,
without recognizing the way
this gating defies our holy purpose.
No longer do we have
the understanding that ability
is a gift to be purposed for creation;
instead we find ourselves
privatizing the math of creativity
with no possible factor beyond
the lonely little X of self.
Surrounded by our stuff,
we devolve into endless appetites.
Lord, help us find our way
back to the table of community
and abundance where none are uninvited!
Thanks for sharing this, so much food for thought!
Oh! Let’s Have A Party!
we’ll splash around like little birds
with never a worry at all
bring all your friends and neighbors
all are welcome
to swim in the river Jordan
to laugh and to play
all demons washed away
and new white garments to wear
all are welcome
we’ll share a potluck dinner
be sure to bring a dish to share
at the supper of the Lord
all are welcome
after the party
there is a special blessing
and a companion for the journey
the Spirit walks with us
and we walk with the Spirit
and all are welcome.
Thirsting and Once In Need
Twitter your criticisms loud
as you like; others will shout
you down for bad manners.
Some might look away, a few
even turn their backs, not sure
their voices matter. Count on
the quiet ones to make the move
first, prepare the slippery slope
for your first-time landing. Where
room enough can be made, they’ll
stand out by example, call for
the rest of us to see just how much
you are like their own brothers
and sisters, thirsting and once in need.
I’ll be posting this on my blog on Wednesday. A delight to participate. Thank you.
Room for all
Let come who will to bathe or drink
these playful drops so cool, you think
“how lavish God does pour upon
this water’d life whose life He’s won.”
And though the edge of this lagoon
is busting, full of those who soon
will push and tear and force their way,
yet those who see can laugh, can play.
For wherever all are welcome, there
is space for all, both rough and fair.
God it is who will decide
the ones who choke out love with pride,
instead the pain’d and poor, invite;
together, let us dine tonight.
family
decorum forgotten they
drink splash clean
themselves as well
as one another
some stand aloof
some annoy some carry
grudges
all receive the
invitation
drink splash clean
you belong to us
and we to you
Flying high, I hear delightful splashes
and laughter in your singing
and I wonder, I wonder as I wander.
Will you make room for me?
The Bread and Wine that lasts.
I want to become the gift.
BELONGING
To belong–
is to cross the threshold with muddy feet and cock-eyed cap,
carrying life’s bundle unchecked at the door.
To belong–
is to bless reach tatter and patch with as much honor as each gem and crown,
knowing the necessity of both.
To belong–
is to welcome beyond the Rules,
setting the table with a sheltering circle.
There is only so much room around the fountain
only so many places for delicate feet
to find purchase among cascading water
and the cacophony of fellow travelers.
Yet below the bubbling fountain,
there are unseen ever ready reserves,
enough for each to drink their fill.
Just as when you and I are talking
we go on and on together
with our glasses
constantly full.
I really love this image of the water beneath the fountain being enough for all.
I love this image, too!
Weave
the threads
and welcome
created cloth –
holy tapestry,
life.
Reprise:
Weave
the strands
and welcome
all you create –
living tapestry.
Be.