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
I feel your heartfelt longing to embrace the present. This poem speaks deeply to me, too, Lexanne. Thank you.
Present.
Dear Loving One, I pray to keep
Precisely in the moment, the here, the now
Reaping Your gifts, the first breath of the morning song bird, the ice crystals
covering my windshield, the ache in my knees
Each a perfect gift of Your love, Your heartbeat within mine, Your face in the
mirror
Seeing with Your eyes You in her eyes, hearing Your voice in his, touching
their hands and feeling Your warmth
Even when there is no light, when the cold runs through me, when my heart
hardens in the icy wind of hatred
Now, it is now, not yesterday or
Tomorrow, but now I will recognize you, in this moment, the here, the now
LIVE is my word of the year.
Poem:
Lifting soul to Father’s Son,
Inner strength has now begun with
Vision Holy Spirit brings:
Every action heartbeat sings.
This poem is a lovely melody. :)
Loosening
Let open, ordinary slow, every nothing into needful glimmering–
Open out, searching easing, nearly inchoate next great leaning.
Ordinary strange emergent need: internal natal gates lifted off,
Slow embers nurtured, inmost gaze lightening, offering one
Every next illuminated now—golden, livening, obliging origination!
Nothing is named, gleaned, lashed, ordered onward, still enters
Into night’s gone light: old, obedient, sorrowful, endlessly new.
Needful. Gathers lost obsidian occurences, sets each necessary image
Glimmering; let open, ordinary slow, every nothing into needful.
I love how the poem comes full circle
TRANSITION
Through the anticipated changes
ringing my life and beginning to whisper,
a steady, throbbing knowledge of pain to come
needles my heart.
Stay! Stop! Not so fast!
I know
that transition
is the most difficult time in birthing.
Oh, but the joy of breaking through to the
New Thing!
Beautiful. Thank you – I love the concept of transition, of birthing. Beautiful.
I can feel the throbbing begin to dance with joy
HUNGER
is my prayer
Hope that the gnawing feeling within me finds release,
Understanding that moves me to feel the wonder deeply,
Nourishment that finds its meaning in doing justice,
Gratitude for all what life brings me – the desert and the oasis,
Energy that comes from spiritual fullness,
Release to a freedom that enables others to discover and know their own.
HUNGER
is my prayer
May your hunger be filled again and again and again
Wisdom
Often I hold knowledge
Listen with my heart
Ponder questions
Share answers
Respond thoughtfully
Dialogue, not debate
Question: What is wisdom?
Not accumulated wise statements
Not always knowing
Wisdom: much more than wise.
Now I add my acrostic poem–Wisdom
Wisdom the goal
Inwardly calm
Solitude and silence
Diminished distractions
Obey God’s call
Make a diferance
Ahhh, yes, much more that wise. :)
Incandescent
some mourn
the deterioration of the brain
where has it gone
those names those memories
frozen in calcium deposits
dead neurons
some say
others see the natural pruning
of fall
leaves and memories
drift away
the full integrity of the tree remains
our magnificent brain machine
slows down
those names and memories
await us
incandescent
in heavenly hands
await our spirits’
returning embrace
incandescent
“incandescent in heavenly hands” ~ these words sing for me today
my word is “pause”
Paz fills my heart
As my breathing
reUnites with Nature’s rythmn
Sitting…senses still and serene
Embracing the paz of Mother Nature
Thank you for the pause of your poem
My word is Enclosure
Enchanted in my enclosure
Nature has its way with me.
Close by, always, the keys letting in and out.
Daily noticing when I have let my guard down,
So frightening then, underneath all that waits I fear.
Then Remember:
Enchantment has entered my enclosure.
Enchantment entering your enclosure. Sounds magical and wonder-ful