Visit the Abbey of the Arts online retreat platform to access your programs:

Invitation to Poetry: Give Me a Word

Welcome to Poetry Party #74!

button-poetryI 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.

You might also enjoy

Winter Solstice Blessing ~ A Love from Your Online Abbess

Winter Solstice*Holy One of the turning earth,we watch the daily pilgrimage of the sunas its journey grows shorter and shorter.Bears, bats, and hedgehogs restwhile swallows and swifts have already migrated south again. Cold air, bare branches, blankets and shawls,the growing quiet calls us to our

Read More »

End of Year Giving

Your donations help us make what we do fully accessible to all who desire to be a part of this virtual monastery and gathering of kindred spirits. It is because of your generosity that we are able to offer many free resources – such as our

Read More »

Monk in the World Guest Post: Melanie-Préjean Sullivan

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Melanie-Préjean Sullivan’s reflection on her morning prayer practice. I have always been a student of spirituality. From the time I could read,

Read More »

45 Responses

  1. *restore*

    at first, i resisted you
    (and at the same time felt immensely loved)
    because you seemed all-gift
    like i didn’t have to DO anything.

    and this is true, but also
    not true
    because it is a turning,
    an asking.

    eyes to see
    ears to hear
    what the spirit is restoring
    to the self i have lost.

    but here is today’s surprise

    i thought you would be gentle to me
    kind and easy
    it sounds so pretty and lavish
    to be restored.

    but so far, this year has been
    a series of the bravest of steps
    and i am beginning
    to see…

    when powerlessness is what i have known
    when hope and strength
    are what the locusts have eaten
    to be restored looks a whole lot like last year’s

    *brave*

    “restore my voice”
    means i must speak
    “restore my tenacity”
    means when resistance ploughs through, it doesn’t win.

    “restore my true self”
    means i have to look. at. my. self.
    allow myself to be seen
    vulnerable.

    but can you imagine what this work of art
    will look like after a year of
    opening to the loving hand
    of the restorer?

    “here i am… restore me?,” i whisper into the dark.

  2. C – coming forth from the Advent journey
    O- open to the paths of this new year
    U- undeterred by mystery, questions and chaos
    R – ready and willing to embrace whatever comes
    A- asking for a heart shaped by humility and inner truth
    G – God-driven, God-loved, God- worshipping
    E- eternally grateful each and every day

    COURAGE is the word that found me, the word holding me in this icy New England winter

    HCS 1/20/14

  3. This word that chose me….

    gratitude….

    comes back with the stealth of a cat
    seeking a warm lap.

    In the middle of the mundane chores of
    a winter morning,

    gray, and dull, and cold,
    as I wipe away dirt and grime,
    this word that chose me….

    gratitude…..

    touches me on the shoulder.
    And in that moment
    I see that it is all good,

    the dirt, the grime,
    the winter morning, gray and cold,

    simply because
    in this moment

    this

    is all that matters.

  4. Reverence

    R-reflect God’s graciousness
    E-eagerly respond
    V-volunteer with a smile
    E-expand horizons
    R-react with kindness
    E-expect goodness
    N-negotiate progress
    C-contemplate peace
    E-experience hope

  5. F Free to be myself?

    R Really?

    E Even if I am not who others want me to be?

    E Even if I say what others don’t want to hear?

    D Dear God, free me from my self-imposed shackles

    O of oppression from speaking my truth, living fully, authentically.

    M Mold me into my true self, created in your image.

    NET 1/13/14

  6. Hear

    cold snap
    ice throb
    wind whistle

    silence

    crunch of tread on unbroken snow
    scrape of shovel against stone
    plop and slither of snow slipping off the branch

    silence

    slow drip from icicle
    creak and groan of breaking ice
    scurried scratch of foot and beak searching

    silence

    Pamela Olson, 1/12/2014

  7. word: butterfly golden light, golden drum

    B- eautiful Light beckons
    U- shering in 2014’s dance
    T- hankfulness, wonder & mystery
    T- oughtful pondering of 50 years
    E- xplorations into realms of inner space
    R- ituals of monastic living
    F- ollowing the Risen One
    L- ove unfathomable swirls and twirls
    Y- ears of adventurous learning
    G- lory’s peek-a-boo glimpses
    O- pening windows of ethereal beauty
    L- ayers of omniscience
    D- rawing heart and mind
    E- cstatic notes of the golden song
    N- aming seasons of Rose & Lotus Bliss
    L- aughing Buddha and Sunbeam Dance
    I- gniting flames of conflagration
    G-od/Goddess whirlwind frenzy
    T- hat leads into a new age
    G- olden drum beats throughout the cosmos
    O- you who have ears – hear
    L- earn the language of Stillness
    D- ance at the Stillpoint of the turning world
    E- xtend your arms to the heavens
    N- uminous waves of golden Light beat
    D- rumming Love’s timeless glory
    R- thymns resounding
    U- tter sublime phoenix ash golden lit
    M-erging in the Great Beyond of Awakened twin’s swan song

  8. This is rhyme-y, which I don’t usually care for, but that’s how it came out. Took the suggestion of an acrostic, my phrase is “springs forth.”

    Simply, slowly quietly
    Pure, clean and fresh
    Rising to the surface
    I find His peaceful rest.
    Never-ending fountain
    Growing stronger with each day
    Springing forth His promise
    For a future long delayed
    Oh see the new thing
    Respond with joy and celebration
    Time in its fullness
    Harbinger of restoration

  9. Finish
    what you start
    where you are
    with the past

    Finish
    self-pity
    regret
    holding grudges

    Finish
    clearing clutter
    tedious tasks
    mending brokenness

    See
    the new thing?
    the possibilities?
    the joy?

    Happy new year!