Poems and Reflections By Our Members
Sr. Bette Edl
POETRY FROM A HERMIT
The sign on the used car lot read:
EVERYONE IS APPROVED
What a relief
What comfort
As I realized that
Inspite of my deep
Disapproval of myself
My life, my day,
I am approved.
All the fellow travelers
Visitors for the week end
Workers climbing poles
Roadside vendors,
All are approved.
The gorgeous radiant trees
Leaves burning with light
Politicians' loud signs
Real blue water,
Everyone is approved.
Yes, I got it.
EVERYONE IS APPROVED.”
SURVIVAL?
WILL I SURVIVE?
HOW WILL I SURVIVE?
MY FEAR,
MY DILEMMA
SINCE CHILDHOOD
INTO ADULTHOOD
AFTER LOSS AFTER LOSS
FOLLOWED BY
SURVIVAL
SLOWLY ENTERING
OLD AGE,
WEAKENING AND WEARING OUT
FEARING DEATH
STILL ASKING
WILL I SURVIVE?
HOW WILL IT BE?
WHEN WILL IT BE?
LUMINOSITY
WHAT MUST I LEAVE BEHIND?
EVERYTHING
TO BE FREE AS GOD IS FREE.
NOW IS THE TIME OF THE YEAR
WHEN THE WORLD APPEARS LUMINOUS.
THE LEAVES, THE FERNS, THE GRASSES
ARE RADIATING LIGHT EVEN AS
THE CLOUDS HIDE THE SUN.
AMAZING LIGHT ARISING FROM INSIDE
CALLING OUT OPENNESS.
ALL IS TRANSLUCENT, FRESHLY BORN.
“I AM” SAYS GOD. I REALLY AM
VINE, SEED, HIDDEN TREASURE,
SILENT PRESENCE, LIGHT OF THE WORLD.
LEAVE BEHIND ALL NOTIONS, JUDGEMENTS,
FEARS AND DOUBTS.
BE LUMINOUS.
SHINE!
Barbara Cooper, OP
God's way seems so simple. We're not told to say specific prayers, although we are given illustrations of people praying with integrity, or not. It's OK if we want to fast, but it doesn't seem required for salvation. We're not required to perform magnificent actions, altho our lives might turn out that way.
Jesus simply says: "If you love me, you will keep my commandments" and "Whoever has my commandments and observes them is the one who loves me."
Jesus' commandments are summed up in this one: "A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
But Jesus doesn't leave things there. This is entwined with what follows: "... I will ask the Father and he will give you another Advocate to be with you always" "...you will know him, because he remains with you, and will be in you." “I am in the Father, and you are in me, and I in you"
It feels like a great whirlpool of energy, circulating, uniting you, me, Jesus, God and all of creation. I find it difficult to find words to describe what this is to me. Maybe the author of John's Gospel had trouble too. Does even the word "communion" adequately express this mystery?
One of the ways we know we are living in God and God in us, is by the way we act. It's something of a "chicken and egg" question. Does God live in us because we are loving, or are we loving because God lives in us? Perhaps it is a circle, one we enter where ever we are.
This circle also expands. At one time I thought life was all about loving God. Then I found that being caught in God's love impelled me to love other people. Then I came to understand that God's love extends beyond people and embraces all of creation - even the universe. I wonder what could be next!
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin wrote that "Love alone is capable of uniting living beings in such a way as to complete and fulfill them, for it alone takes them and joins them by what is deepest in themselves."
What is "deepest in ourselves" is that Divine Mystery that lives within us. We don't have to go searching for it "out there" somewhere, or struggle to obtain it. We do need to remove the barriers that keep us from living fully.
One of my favorite poets, Hafiz, writes:
No one can keep us from carrying God
Wherever we go.
No one can rob His Name
From our heart as we try to relinquish our fears
And at last stand -- Victorious.
We do not have to leave him in the mosque
Or church alone at night;
We do not have to be jealous of tales of saints
Or glorious masts, those intoxicated souls
Who can make outrageous love with the Friend.
We do not have to be envious of our spirits' ability
Which can sometimes touch God in a dream.
Our yearning eyes, our warm-needing bodies,
Can all be drenched in contentment
And Light.
No one anywhere can keep us
From carrying the Beloved wherever we go.
No one can rob His precious Name
From the rhythm of my heart --
Steps and breath.
Barbara Cooper, OP
Vancouver Island, BC Canada
Taken from Preachers’ Exchange at preacherexchange.com
Lisa McCann
Wing Chair
This tall, narrow wing chair
pale upholstery soiled where my father
read the stock market reports again
and again and with newsprint
and body oil touched the
round terminus of the arms with his fingers
over the years
then my brother, book-absorbed
with the selfsame brushing
smoothing movement
burnished the cloth so that
the darkening stains glow
afternoons
softly as the pearly
August light in that corner room –
this chair, narrow
upright as a cradle board
like me
shelters.
I’ve come for shelter
in the crevice between dark and dawn
to sit and hear morning birds
to walk slowly
diagonally
between the door and the chair
where its back corners
windows south and west
past dim mirror and family photos
knowing my walking
knowing my sitting
now a plaid throw rolled behind behind my back
a blue one on my knees
the chair wings cupping my mind
holding it steady.
The birds I hold nameless
voices that penetrate dark’s last exhalations –
selahbetween night’s psalms
and morning’s –
raised in sequence
or barely overlapping
in antiphons.
I can’t tell you just how they sound
only that they do –
raucous chattering or
here tentative, or burbling, tinny
– sudden basso thrumming
a bullfrog in the old pool –
marking moment, moment, moment
all there is
Sr. Bette Edl
STARTING OVER
Every day a new beginning
Every day starting over
Every day rising and falling
Some days I cannot get started
Some days I do not get started
Some days I won't get started
Those worst days are my best days.
Inflation begets deflation
ego comes to rest in
pure, raw, empty heart
always starting over