Monk in the World Pilgrimage – Participant Poem
(Jo-Ellen Darling)

Last year Jo-Ellen Darling participated in our Monk in the World pilgrimage and shares this beautiful poem inspired by the magical island of Inismor off the coast of Galway.

The Ride to Inismore
by Jo-Ellen Darling

A shaft of light
spills over water
and shimmers –
then another –
holy places,
reminders of Eternal One
welcome me to Inismore.

Soon the rhythm of waves
lulls me in arms warm and wide.
What great or small miracle
will I meet today?

Seabirds join alongside us,
excitedly they flap and glide,
keeping up with us,
chuckling to themselves.

Then something half out of water
catches my eye –
and then again!
Dolphin squirms upward
can’t quite jump –
until she makes a perfect arch
rising toward the upper world –
not unlike my own inner journey,
which deepens through thin spaces
and thresholds of time and place.

Dolphin and I are free now, together
soaring into a new day
as wild edges emerge
before our eyes.

Jo-Ellen Darling is an avid journaler and creative nonfiction writer. She’s a graduate of the Kairos: School of Spiritual Formation in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and recently published several pieces in the Kairos School’s book of meditations and reflections titled “On The Journey.” She lives with her husband Mike Jendzeizyk in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.