Abbey of the Arts

Transformative Living through Contemplative & Expressive Arts

  • Welcome
    • Prayer Cycle
      • Introduction to the Earth Monastery Prayer Cycle
      • Day 1 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Cathedral
      • Day 2 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Scriptures
      • Day 3 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Saints
      • Day 4 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Spiritual Directors
      • Day 5 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Icon
      • Day 6 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Sacrament
      • Day 7 Morning & Evening Prayer:
        Earth as the Original Liturgy
      • Prayer Cycle Leader Resources
    • About the Abbey
    • About Christine Valters Paintner
    • About John Valters Paintner
    • About the Wisdom Council
    • Monk Manifesto
    • Join the Holy Disorder of Dancing Monks
    • Subscribe to Our Love Notes
    • Website privacy notice
  • Books
    • Sacred Time:
      Embracing an Intentional Way of Life
    • The Wisdom of Wild Grace: Poems
    • Earth, Our Original Monastery:
      Cultivating Wonder and Gratitude through Intimacy with Nature
    • Dreaming of Stones: Poems
    • The Soul's Slow Ripening:
      12 Celtic Practices for Seeking the Sacred
    • The Wisdom of the Body:
      A Contemplative Journey to Wholeness for Women
    • Illuminating the Way:
      Embracing the Wisdom of Monks and Mystics
    • The Soul of a Pilgrim:
      Eight Practices for the Journey Within
    • Eyes of the Heart:
      Photography as a Christian Contemplative Practice
    • The Artist's Rule: Nurturing Your Creative Soul with Monastic Wisdom
    • Desert Mothers and Fathers: Early Christian Wisdom Sayings Annotated & Explained
    • Lectio Divina–The Sacred Art: Transforming Words and Images into Heart-Centered Prayer
    • Water, Wind, Earth & Fire: The Christian Practice of Praying with the Elements
    • Awakening the Creative Spirit:
      Bringing the Arts to Spiritual Direction
    • Lectio Divina: Contemplative Awakening & Awareness
  • Poetry | Art | Music
    • Music + DVD
    • Poetry by Christine Valters Paintner
    • Poetry Videos
    • Dancing Monk Icons
    • Other Art Collaborations
      • Monk in the World art series by Kristin Noelle
      • Saints & Animals art series by David Hollington
      • Sacred Time art series by Alexi Francis
      • Mary block print art series by Kreg Yingst
  • Programs
    • Walk the Ancient Paths: Pilgrimage
      • Monk in the World (Ireland)
      • Writing on the Wild Edges (Ireland)
      • Poetry and the Sacred Garden of the World (Ireland)
      • Vienna Monk in the World (Austria)
      • Hildegard of Bingen (Germany)
    • Live Programs and Spiritual Retreats
      • Awakening the Creative Spirit: Experiential Education for Spiritual Directors in the Expressive Arts (Northwest)
    • Community Online Retreats
      • Lift Every Voice: Contemplative Writers of Color
      • The Way of the Hermit:
        A Spiritual Survival Guide for Dark Times
        with Kayleen Asbo, PhD
      • The Spiral Way:
        Celtic Spirituality and the Creative Imagination
      • Journey with the Desert Mothers and Fathers (Lent 2021)
      • Sacred Time: Embracing an Intentional Way of Life (Spring 2021)
    • Self-Study Online Spiritual Retreats
      • Creative Flourishing in the Heart of the Desert:
        An Online Retreat with St. Hildegard of Bingen
      • Dreaming of the Sea:
        A women’s discernment journey through the story of the Selkie
      • Earth, Our Original Monastery
        A Companion Retreat to the Book (SELF-STUDY)
      • Exile and Coming Home:
        An Archetypal Journey through the Scriptures
      • Eyes of the Heart:
        Photography as Contemplative Practice
        (Companion retreat to the book)
      • Honoring Saints and Ancestors:
        Online Retreat for the Season of Remembrance
      • Lectio Divina:
        The Sacred Art of Reading the World
      • A Midwinter God:
        Making a Conscious Underworld Journey
      • Sacred Rhythms of Sky, Sun, Sea & Stone:
        A Creative Retreat with the Elements (SELF-STUDY)
      • Sacred Seasons:
        A Yearlong Journey through the Celtic Wheel of the Year
      • The Soul of a Pilgrim:
        Eight Practices for the Journey Within
        (a companion retreat to the book)
      • The Soul's Slow Ripening: 12 Celtic Practices for Seekers of the Sacred (a companion retreat to the book)
      • Water, Wind, Earth & Fire
      • Watershed Moments
        in the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures
      • Way of the Monk, Path of the Artist:
        A 12-Week Companion Retreat to The Artist's Rule
      • The Wisdom of the Body:
        A 10-Week Online Companion Retreat to the Book
      • The Wisdom of Mary and the Sacred Feminine
  • Calendar
  • Reflections
  • Contact

Pilgrimage Participant Poems

Sacred Rhythms of Sky, Sun, Sea and Stone: Participant Poems ~ Kathy Marsh

In April, 18 creative souls gathered with us for our retreat on Inismor – Sacred Rhythms of Sky, Sun, Sea and Stone. We had a wonderful group with participants from all over the U.S., Canada, U.K., and Australia. I am delighted to share some of their poems. Pour a cup of tea, imagine yourself on a windswept limestone island in the Atlantic, and savor for a while.

From Kathy Marsh

Morning Blessing

Lilting through the air,
The full-hearted song of bird
Weaves into the air,
Braiding into a joy
That touches the landscape and
Tapestries into
The crevassed walls;
The muted, mingled shades of earth;
The bright, unexpected blue, of flower.
The Spirit dances through the long grass,
Pausing to breathe into the stillness,
Then wooshes up in praiseful delight
Which sculptures the clouds
Where the birds weave, before
They alight to sing their paean of praise.

 

Do you like the smell of garlic?

The path winds into the sacred grove
Of dappled light, where sunlit shadows play.
The sun warmed air caresses and coaxes the
White starred accolytes
To release their scent in benediction,
Perfuming the air
Where bees lazily drone
And flies swarm the air.
Fallen tree sculptured by tactile moss,
And succoured life gently creeps
Into a lush carpet of shaded green,
Where the wild garlic bloom
Their star brightness across a green sky
Of verdant bloom.

 

Introspection

Like mirrored glass
The sheen of unruffled water lies,
Deep.
What stirrings of life
With their stories untold,
Deep
Beneath the pure glisten
Of reflective beauty
Lie?
What secrets and shapes
Coalescing into form?
Imagine,
The reflective surface
Turned to mirror down
Deep.
What glimpsed stirrings
Will I see?

 

Freefall

Eyes focused, instinct honed,
The raptor dives,
Arrow-piercing through the air
As it screams the wind down.
Talons locked on prized prey,
Then heaved away.

What if? …. …..

Talons unlock,
Prey unprized, falls away,
Weighting through the air.
The raptor now airborne ,
Wings lightened, flies free.

 

Reflections on Inismor

The journey unravels,
Revealing mystery of landscape,
Where feet have trod, have trod,
Traversing the flint-stone pathways,
Past the crevassed walls
That stone by stone were toiled,
And heaved from the bare-boned earth.
Now lichened and mossed.
Man’s imprint but a passing shadow
That fades into the flint-faced soil.
The walls of houses
Blank-eyed. The
Glint and spark of life, melded into
The dancing drifts of wind and air.
Hermit cells and altars
Lying open, in homage
To the immensity of sky,
Where the clouds gather
And the salt breezes blow.

And yet, and yet,
As I sit on the alcove seat
Of ruined church,
Hearing bird chatter interweaving
With gull’s strident call;
Sea’s distant murmuring
And churn of wave on rock.
I feel the pulse of life
As the storied lives
Of monk and hermit
Babble in my mind.
The stones beneath my feet,
Once moved by the tread of those,
Who trod, who trod.

My journey spools into a gathering yarn;
An ancient weaved pattern told by
Work-hardened hands,
That weave still the island’s stories;
Lived into shape and fireside gathered.
I hear now the island’s voice,
Which lives and dances into song.


For Kathy Marsh involvement in family and community life are important.   Kathy runs a local contemplative  group and  is also a Spiritual Director.   She has written a booklet, Writing Prayer Poetry: How to Deepen Your Prayer Life (published by Grove Books Ltd), as an encouragement to others who would like to creatively journey into prayer, and has just started co-running workshops based on 'Writing into Prayer'.

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Leave a Comment June 3, 2019

Upcoming Programs

The Way of the Hermit:
A Spiritual Survival Guide for Dark Times

January 22-24, 2021
with Kayleen Asbo, PhD

The Spiral Way:
Celtic Spirituality and the Creative Imagination

Hosted by the Rowe Center
February 1-21, 2021
with Christine Valters Paintner, PhD

Recent Reflections

  • Hildy Tales 3: Ní heolas go haontíos ~ by John Valters Paintner
  • Humility + Join us today for live prayer! ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
  • Hildy Tales 2: Tús maith leath na hoibre – by John Valters Paintner
  • New Book Club for 2021: Lift Every Voice ~ A Love Note from Your Online Abbess
  • Hildy Tales One: Dia dhuit, is mise Hildy! by John Valters Paintner, Your Online Prior

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