Welcome to the Abbey’s 64th Poetry Party!
We are making a little departure this month from our usual format where I select an image for you to illuminate with your words.
This month the invitation is to write a poem inspired by your word for the year (and even though that drawing is over, you are still welcome to post your word there – and if you already shared a poem there, please share it again here to have them all gathered together).
I will suggest you make it an acrostic poem which is where each letter of your word forms the first letter of a line of your poem, but all poetic forms are most welcome here. Consider writing a blessing for the year ahead inspired by your word.
Scroll down and add it in the comments section below to share it with the Abbey community. Feel free to take your poem in any direction and then post the invitation on your blog (if you have one), Facebook, or Twitter, and encourage others to come join the party!
On Friday, February 1st I will draw a name at random to win a space in the upcoming online Lenten retreat with St. Hildegard of Bingen.
199 Responses
STILLNESS…
Stillness calls for my stewardship
Tells of times once remembered
In the ever beat of my heart’s desire
Longing to live in peaceful countenance
Listening deep beyond the idle chatter
Nearing my quest for home remembering
Ever present when I give myself to quietude
Simple in the ever presence of breathing
Stillness gives it watch over me
So much intimacy in this poem.
TRUTH is my Word for 2013!
T –
R-
U-
T-
H-
RECEIVE
Rely on the flow of spirit
Evidence of divine abundance
Caressing your senses and soul
Emotions of many colors
Inviting a new sense of aliveness beyond the world’s numbing
Valued beyond measure, know you are
Embraced by the love of Godd
Receive and be blessed!
There’s such a lightness and ease that comes through your poem for me.
Gratitude: A Blessing for 2013
God is here
Right now
And always
Turning water into wine
In perfect timing and harmony
Taking our dreams and hopes
Up to the altar of
Divine possibility
Endless blessings emerge
As we give thanks
Right here, right now
And always.
Mmmm. Here, now, always. I love the imagery in your poem. “Always turning water into wine” captures my heart tonight.
RELEASE:
Relish in life given while courageously
Embracing fear of failure to thrive,
Letting arms open wide to let go and
Experience the gifts awaiting me.
Arrive each day to what awaits.
Share a cup of tea and breathe.
Enjoy this ride.
I can feel my body wanting to release into the moment in response to this poem.
Homecoming
Healing awaits…
Options abound…
Mother Nature instructs…
Expectations vanish…
Comfort encircles…
Oneness descends…
Mystery unfolds…
Inwardness calls….
Gifts emerge.
There’s no place like home. :)
fifty
fifty revolutions, resolutions, reasons
ideas, charged like stallions rushing the gate
find the hole in the fence, slide through
trust
you are wild, you are free
I can just imagine these wild, free stallions leading the way
Integrity
I listen for my word
Nothing comes forth
Then I hear Spirit whisper
Easing into solace in community
Greeting the silence
Reading, praying, walking, singing
Inspired I listen with the ear of my heart
The word emerges … Integrity
Yes!
Oh, the blessed whisper of the Spirit…
I didn’t write an acrostic. I put together my word for the year, release, with a spiritual teacher, Mary Oliver (day 11 of online retreat) and wrote this poem imagining myself in first grade with Mary Oliver.
First Grade Friends
We shared a classroom
with rows alphabetized
by first name. She was
right there behind me —
Martha, Mary, and then
was it Maurice?
We treasured time to
whisper undetected,
released into daydreams
of ancient tasting concord
grapes in autumn, of
sliding glee across a
frozen schoolyard, of
thick smells from marble
season mud, of intricate
worlds in plain sight
hugging every blade of grass.
Oh how we soared on
young spirals in our wild,
precious lives!
Martha Brunell
This is enchanting, Martha, and so full of life and adventure.
My word for 2013 is Effloresce. This is the acrostic that I wrote the day my word ‘found’ me:
Effloresce
Evelyn,
Far away, deep in the
Flower DNA, I
Lie waiting to
Open,
Ready to burst forth in blooming beauty.
Evelyn,
Seek me out, search if you must, but know that I will
Come to you in the least expected moments.
Even now, I am ready to surprise you with my power.
I love this! Thank you for sharing!
The element of surprise gives me goose-bumps. :)