I am delighted to share another beautiful submission to the Monk in the World guest post series from the community. Read on for Mary Francis Drake’s poetry on “beauty, grit, and grace.”
I call my poetry ‘soul snapshots’ as they reflect a contemplation and insight of a particular moment in time. These everyday moments open to the inner gaze to reveal the sacred gifts that surround and imbue the stuff of life. I have chosen two poems from my collection called, ‘beauty, grit and grace’ (2016, Lulu Publishing).
Toast & Tea
Simple morning pleasures
Steaming cup warms hands and heart
Lashings of butter on crispy bread
Tart marmalade or sweet jam
As you please, as pleases you
Then comes the sitting, sipping, staring
At nothing and everything
Ancient practice in modern chair
Sipping and staring straight through
Rain splattered window, gray sky
I am restored to myself in this moment
Of intimacy and simplicity
Hello old friend, my soul, my self
No agenda, clock, calendar
Simple being delighting
The world can wait while I resuscitate
Weightless
Floating on the water with my boy
Easy companion now grown into man
Who knows what soothes and occupies him
I watch, I paddle, I lay back in the summer sun
Weightless as the I dissolves into the all
Fair canoe, in time past birch bark
Crafted to bring this and that to here and there
Bur more a partner to a life lived close to land and lake
And here am I reunited to she who fished and farmed
To she who bore and bathed the babe at her breast
Nourishing and nurturing him into manhood, kind and strong
Creatures of the earth and sky are we as well
Weightless in time and water as hours and lives pass
Content to just be for a while, together in simple pleasures
Ghostly milfoil swaying in support, waterfowl honking their applause
Mary Francis Drake is a poet, author, minister, counselor, mother and psychology faculty. Her ministry in the contemplative, mystical Christian tradition has provided the experiences and the heart of living as a monk in the world. Her writings and psychospiritual counseling offerings can be found at madevi.org.
