Welcome to Poetry Party #74!
I suggest a theme/title and invite you to respond with your own poem. Scroll down and add it in the comments section below or join our Holy Disorder of Dancing Monks Facebook group and post there.
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!
We began this month with a Community Lectio Divina practice on the ancient desert practice of asking for a word, and followed up with our Photo Party on the theme of “Give Me a Word” inspired by our invitation to let a word for 2014 choose you (here – you can still share it, although prize winners have been announced). We continue this theme in our Poetry Party this month.
Write a poem inspired by your word, something you could use as a prayer or blessing throughout the year, or just a simple reminder of how your word is inviting you to be in the year to come. In our free 12-day mini-retreat one of the suggestions was to write an acrostic poem from your word, where you write your word vertically on the page and each letter becomes the first letter for that particular line of the poem. See what form your poem wants to take!
You can post your poem either in the comment section below*or you can join our Holy Disorder of Dancing Monks Facebook group (with more than 1000 members!) and post there.
*Note: If this is your first time posting, or includes a link, your comment will need to be moderated before it appears. This is to prevent spam and should be approved within 24 hours.
45 Responses
Commections
Of
Mindfulness
Meditations
In
Touching
My universal
Environment of
New Advnetures
P-my desire is to be present in every moment
R-take away my resistance
E-I am enough with God
S-Spirit, the Holy, be with me
E-energy, give me the energy to be with another
N-now, today, let me begin
C-called, calm
E-even me, oh God, especially me.
Unmasked
It is the eyes that reveal first
when the mask has dropped.
Light purple shadows surround
the sockets and pain emanates forth
from an undefended heart.
Stark and bold
truth settles on the face
and the eyes mirror this confusion,
reflect a certain subtle horror
there for all to see.
In the library, my old safe stomping ground,
a neighbor suddenly appears.
She greets with me a Christmas hug of rescue.
No words pass which indicate
she may have noticed,
but the fierceness in her hug
confirms my every suspicion.
And I am left knowing now
there is one who saw and understood
what haunts me
as unmasked
my eyes revealed for me
what I was unable or unwilling
to put in words.
And there is no going back from here.
Unmasked is how I will live,
hoping that an undefended heart
is moist enough for new love to grow
so soon my eyes might shine
a sheer and certain brilliance
filled with the courage
of a life lived
unmasked.
© Beth Fritsch 2014
Word is Journey
Dear Christine
If one wanted a word for Ireland, it would be ‘Hospitality’ or maybe “Generosity’ – ancient spiritual concepts.
I love to make beautiful things to give to people, as a thank you, or just as a love gift. In Ireland I found that it did not work, because if I gave to someone, in thanks for hospitality say, the recipient would go an buy me a gift. It was frustrating, but beautiful too. They have so much love to give, that you, our loving Abbess, are already Irish in spirit.
Love Judy <3
An Invitation From the Guest (to EMBRACE)
Enter
My heart
By letting me enter yours
Remember how much I delight in you
And want you to delight in me
Come and taste
Embrace
Lovely Barbara. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you!
Give yourself the tender mercy and caring you give to others.
Love yourself without conditions or doubts.
Own your awesome power as a Beauty- and Grace-full woman.
Watch your Light Glow and Glow more brightly and See that you are already
Glowing Now!
Love the gentle and beautiful picture and also the word and the thoughts. I am GLOWing after reading and seeing. Lovely and needed words and images for a caregiver. Thank you.
Dear Kay, thank you for your very kind words of appreciation! I feel happy to read your sweet glowing reflection. :) This was our holiday table centerpiece. I thought it was a beautiful mandala of the Sacrament of the Ordinary, one of my mottos. The cheese plate was hand painted in Italy and I found it at a thrift store. The vase a gift from a relative, the beautiful roses I cut from a larger bouquet from my husband. Even the votive candle holders and tablecloth were from the thrift store! . We have had these beloved things for a long time, and I often reorganize things making new designs. I am so happy this also brought you joy & a sense of love and beauty, as it does me! It was created with and from much love. thank you.
Poem for My Word for 2014 – Hear
Hear, while waiting for a better word,
None other came to me.
When I asked advice, give me a word,
“Something big like ‘compassion’
Or something smaller like ‘daffodil’?”
Hear, when people speak,
Don’t interrupt with your own
Ideas, feelings, opinions,
They may not be as important
As what others need to convey.
Hear, when the stillness falls,
And it seems that the world is cold,
Like snow, or rain, or sleet.
There may be something hiding
Under appearances.
Hear, which is really such a small word,
Unimportant, even vague.
For what do I hear,
For whom do I hear,
For Whom do I hear?
Hear, which is so simple,
Yet so hard.
In a world that merely listens,
In its vast rush to go somewhere,
Anywhere else, but
Here.
12/30/13 (I thought that as an acrostic was just a suggestion, because this just popped out, without even much thought.)
Practicing opening myself
Up to the
Resources and revelations that
Surround me in this magnificent
Universe.
I, myself, can be both pursuer and
Treasured one.
Stay with
Till morning breaks
After the night
Yesterday is gone
Wait for the Lord
In joy and peace
Till morning breaks
Here and now.