Welcome to Poetry Party #85!
I select an image 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 and link back to this post inviting others to join us).
We began this month with a Community Lectio Divina practice with our reflection on the theme of Community (one of the principles of the Monk Manifesto) and belonging based on a quote by Thomas Merton and followed up with our Photo Party. (You are most welcome to still participate). We continue this theme in our Poetry Party this month.
The photo above was received at Dysert O’Dea, a monastic ruin in Co Clare, Ireland. It is the doorway over the main church with both human and animal faces carved. How might you express the tribe which supports you in a poem?
You can post your poem either in the comment section below*or you can join our Holy Disorder of Dancing Monks Facebook group (with almost 3000 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.
19 Responses
My Tribe
motley crew of
crazy risk takers
marathoners, mountain climbers, travelers
kid lovers, teachers, storytellers
we pray and protest
gather to feast
in our second hand jeans
break the sound barrier
with our laughter
no prim lipped puritans in this blingless bunch
multiple degrees float around
the trunks of our second hand cars
in our blood runs the icy waters of
northern seas
our toes dig securely in the gray sand
from which we were launched
Pass through that low arch
beneath all these faces you bear
enter the featureless
space beyond structure.
This order you erect – repetitive symmetry, illusion of strength,
(and yet, these layers have held
back the weight of that wall,
have they not?)
artifice begs you to risk
passage to what lay beyond.
Opening exists
it merely appears to be small
from where you stand holding back.
Move closer
spaciousness awaits.
well, I popped over here from the facebook page, and I was drawn right into the image. however, i totally missed that this was a themed invitation. didn’t notice the ‘who is your tribe’ until the poem was out with its invitation to me.
Beautiful, Vicki! That is quite the story of how it came about…that’s God!
Dance of life…well said, JoAnn!
each one self being
living true open heart soul
this is our love song
Abiding
Tenderly
Reverent
Interdependent
Beings
Extravagantly
Operating
Faithfully
Mindfully
Yielding
Offering
Wisdom
Naturally
Wonderful, Carolyn!
I am not just
ME
I must live as though I
KNOW
I am also
WE
Wise words, thank you.
So simple, but SO hard. Thank you, Rebecca!
A rainbow of masks
or is it rays of sunlight
beings of light
all are my tribe
shining and shimmering
in each moment of time
in each atom of splendor
on a day of ash
we remember all are
in the Cosmic One
Beautiful, Rosemarie. So good to be reminded of this, especially now.
We Are All Connected: Reflections of Serving on a Jury
Your actions of the past
Have brought us to this time and place
Our lives have intersected
And now I carry your deeds, your family, your friends
In my being here and now.
On this journey we are taking together
I am being touched by strangers along the way
And I in turn am touching others
Who will in some way join us on this path.
God be with us all.
Your title made me smile, but by the end, I was wondering why more juror’s are not like you. I was a paralegal before the stroke, and I would have been honored to serve with you, Marguerite!
My Family, My Tribe
This picture made me smile.
I took a similar photo whist visiting Dysert O’Dea,
Honeymooning with my bride last May.
Visiting thin places,
Always seems to bring me home.
I feel a kinship with saints of old;
Fellow travelers on life’s road.
So much of the world today,
Is caught up in separatism.
Each group clamoring for attention.
We are unique, we are special,
We are better, we are more important
Is that what it means to be,
A part of a tribe or a family?
The picture above reveals a clue.
All faces unique, yet together as one.
Lord may this Lenten season be
A journey towards wholeness.
May it be a journey towards healing.
May we see each other as one family.
Wonderful, Michael. “May we see each other as one family,” indeed!