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

Poetry and the Sacred Garden of the World Participant Poems: Carol Everson

Last spring a sweet gathering of creative souls joined with us for our retreat Poetry and the Sacred Garden of the World in Chartres, France. We had a wonderful group of participants and I am delighted to share some of their poems. Pour a cup of tea and savor for a while.

From Carol Everson

Ode to Nurses’ Aides

Here’s to the handler of bedpans
and colostomy bags
whose fingernails grow
fertilized by feces.

To the bather and dresser
and undresser and put-to-bedder
who wishes sweet dreams
to the departing.

To the listener to stories
told a thousand times,
who knows what really matters
are memories of past joys.

To the humble servant
whose minimum wage
supports, or almost supports,
a family of five.

Blessings on thee, humble servant.
May you receive as much as you give,
and come to know God’s glory
in the everyday tasks of taking care.

The Zoo

When she was very small
we took her to the zoo.
In her stroller we pointed
her towards zebras and elephants,
wanting to amuse her with
the rare, the exotic.

But she was uninterested.
She wanted to see,
and to touch,
the pigeons that gathered round her stroller,
hoping for the crumbs
that always followed in her wake.

They were common pigeons,
but still exotic to her in her holy innocence.
Lord, give me the innocence to see
your nearby, everyday people,
as more interesting, more exotic,
than zebras or elephants.


Carol Everson is a retired City of Seattle employee. She worked mainly in the Finance area, consistent with her training as an economist.  When she turned 50, she decided that she didn’t have to be “good” at something to enjoy doing it.  It was then that she began to explore her creative side through writing poetry and painting in watercolor. She loves the serendipity of both and enjoys the fun of discovery of what is being created!  

Both of the poems here began as exercises in the June poetry writing workshop with Christine in Chartres, France.

 

You might also enjoy

Give Me a Word 2025

In ancient times, wise men and women fled out into the desert to find a place where they could be fully present to the divine and to their own inner struggles at work within them. The desert became a place to enter into the refiner’s

Read More »

Monk in the World Guest Post: Sharon Dawn Johnson

I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Sharon Dawn Johnson’s reflection Body and Beading As Sacred Texts. Reading and Listening “You need to create your own recipe.” The orthopaedic

Read More »