Welcome to the Abbey’s 62nd 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 November it is community, drawn from the third principle of the Monk Manifesto: “I commit to cultivating community by finding kindred spirits along the path, soul friends with whom I can share my deepest longings, and mentors who can offer guidance and wisdom for the journey..”
Write a poem about your own longing for community.
How do you connect with soul friends?
What are the gifts your community offers to you?
Photo Credit: Anna Seccombe (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, November 25th, I will select one name at random from the submissions and the winner will receive a space in my upcoming online retreat – Birthing the Holy: An Online Retreat for Advent with reflections by Macrina Wiederkehr, OSB and myself, and the wonderful art of Mary Southard, CSJ.
November’s theme is Community (Abbey Resources):
55 Responses
A poem about who I am in community:
Within my crazy quilt of life
I see what I have been –
A mother, sister, daughter, wife,
Within my crazy quilt of life.
Though sometimes laden with sorrow and strife
Love brings me through to win.
Within my crazy quilt of life
I see what I have been.
(c) 1974
A poem about longing for community:
We touch, just barely, with our eyes,
Then glance away, unknown.
You do not see my inner cries —
We touch, just barely, with our eyes.
My mind invents unfeeling lies,
So still I am alone.
We touch, just barely, with our eyes,
Then glance away, unknown.
(c) 1975
Alone in my thoughts
Heart yearning for connection
Soul friends meet me there…
If God were a woman (a modern-day premise),
Showing Godself in Trinity,
Perhaps it would look like this:
Mother, daughter, comforting friend,
Entwined as one, inseparability,
With no knowing where to find beginning or end.
Nor is God a man (going against age-old logic),
Looking on creation with standoffish pity,
Speaking softly and carrying a big stick.
God is love, dwelling among us, a fellowship of three persons,
Past, present and future – a total reality,
A fellowship of how we live, here and now, absorbing life’s lessons.
I feel a gentle, abiding presence in these words, Cindy.
Thank you. The picture just jumped out at me & these words came without much thought. Must’ve been the Spirit speaking.
Community
Common unity
Humanity
Reaching out to the other
Offering companionship
Offering forgiveness
Acceptance
And openness
To the unique individuality
Of each piece
In the puzzle of life
The mystery of
Community
Always at one
Linked by the invisible thread
In the heart
Of Love.
Always at one
Linked by the invisible thread
In the heart
Of Love. ~ these words sing to me!
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