Welcome to Poetry Party #76!
I select an image (*photo above by PhotoJoy Photography) and 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 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).
We began this month with a Community Lectio Divina practice with wisdom from the prophet Joel and followed up with our Photo Party on the same theme. (You are most welcome to still participate). We continue this theme in our Poetry Party this month.
The text with which we are praying this month is read every year on Ash Wednesday. “Return to me with your whole heart” are a powerful words to begin the sacred season of Lent. What if we were to imagine Lent as less about sacrifice, and more about making the great return to God. The photo above, shared by fellow monk in the world Joylynn Graham at this month’s Photo Party, shimmers with the sacredness of our great and final return to God. Holding this reality in our awareness can offer us the impetus to turn back to the Source in our lives moment by moment. The ancient monks knew that the awareness of our death, smudged on our foreheads at Ash Wednesday, has the effect of deepening our appreciation for life.
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 1300 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
Return to me with your whole heart …
The Lord said:
…Yes, I’m sending you out. It’s time you earn your keep. It’s time to experience humanity so you can freely choose to love Me.
I responded:
…But it’s cold here. I’m screaming for you as I’m being pushed out of this womb.
Years later I said:
…Earthly time has passed since I’ve been with you Lord. I can’t see Your face. I
can’t hear Your voice. There’s only this din of words swirling around me. Only
other humans telling me what to do; what to think; what side of the line to be on;
who is right; who is worthy; survival of the fittest; if you help others you won’t have
enough for yourself. They’re so strong, Lord! It’s so much easier to think like them.
This mob mentality makes me feel accepted as part of the group. Yet ..somehow I
know surely there’s more to life than this.
…Wait! I hear something! It’s like a drumbeat in the middle of my chest, blocking
out all the noise, the voices. Somehow it makes me calm and at peace. It warms
me and makes me feel loved – makes me want to love others. Being still I can
just make out the words: “Return to me with your whole heart.” It’s You, isn’t it
Lord. I see both sides now. I’m ready to choose. I choose You. With my whole
whole heart, I return to You Lord.
This is so honest, and I resonate with it very much!
The Land Beyond the Dawn
Arise
take my hand and
fly with me
to the land beyond the dawn
Tangerine sky glows on
our spirit bodies
as we soar
into lavender cloud drifts
into the translucent blue
into this resurrection land
this land of luminous love
Our spirit eyes fill with
sparkling joy tears,
our spirit hearts ache
with pure delight
as we flow through
the gates of gold
into the land where
the incandescent faces
of our many loves glow
as we rush into
their embraces in
The Land Beyond the Dawn
The opening line is such a wide open invitation. I love “The Land Beyond the Dawn” which causes me to pause and imagine so much. Thank you for the gift of your words.
The Light
is blinding
but maybe that’s
the point.
The Light
beckons me
‘Return to God
come home
come whole.’
Each day
I return
step by small step
and maybe that’s
the point.
Amen
God says.
Amen
I say.
‘So be it Lord
I come.’
“The Light is blinding, but maybe that’s the point”….
WOW. Powerful. Chills!
I’ve never written a poem before.
RETURN TO ME WITH YOUR HEART WHOLE
I came to be with fire and passion
To bravely live these precious lessons
You walk with me, but as thy child
I must learn to speak……
What use of painful discovery
If treasures are not revealed
Return to me with your heart whole
And I will give you peace.
…and it is lovely!
Thank you Carolyn, your message means a lot:-)
CROW SWISH CAW SILENCE
One moment
Every dawn
comes a resurrection
where tombstones fade into fragile ghosts
where trees reach into feathery dreams
and only the heaven of sun-struck sky
is real.
Lovely. I kept looking at that star-pointed sun reaching from the horizon. Your poem paints the picture! Thanks for sharing.
Going Home.
These headstones,
like doors transparent
atop empty graves
so ghostly if you are afraid.
At my mother’s burial
autumn leaves so joyful
carefree
frolicked and tumbled
around her grave.
Why could I not cry
while everybody sobbed.
This is so wrong, no tears.
But so right the rock, faith
a knowing solid in my heart
held me while I held
my little sister.
Leaves fall happily
to the ground.
Everything will return
I imagined her green eyes
twinkling in God’s radiant light.
Very important poem … “faith a knowing solid in my heart” I like the strength of that line very much! Blessings.
Thank you, Joy. You live up to your lovely name, giving joy to a poet of wayward lines today.
Return to Me with Your Whole Heart
My son moves across country in a week
First time to leave home for a distant dream
Friends excited at this new season
It feels like sadness, a death to me
He belongs to God
I made that promise before his birth
I release my only son to You
As you will hold him in Your tender care
The sun sets in his home here
Burying the past
To rise again in shining glory
As endings lead to beginnings
Beautiful heartfelt poem during a tender time. Be proud of your ability to let him fly! Blessings.
To ash and stone we will return
to ash and stone
In darkened ashes, memories,
of flesh and bone
of sea and seed and wing and salt and root and home
To flesh and bone we will return
to flesh and bone
Lovely and the tempo when read aloud is like heartbeat. Awesome!
Oh, thank you! I didn’t think about that but you’re right! :)
“return to me with your whole heart”
open ~ open ~ rest
listening to heart whispers
space for being now
with gratitude ~
Love the simplicity of this haiku as I look to simplify in the resting spaces.