WONDER
Filed opened, 4/16/94
Poetry Index
A...
A DREAM AMONGST DREAMS
AFTER THE THIRD FLOWER'S GIVEN
ANOTHER DAY
A POET MUST FIGHT TO TRUST HIS MEANING
A PRAYER FOR OUR ART
AFTER A SHEKINAH IN CHURCH
AT THE LIP OF A NEW VENTURE - A FRESH
TRANSFORMATION
AWE
AND COMPASSION
C...
CARRIED BY THE WIND AND MOON AWAY
COMBINING THE TWO ELEMENTS OF DREAMS
F...
FELLOWSHIP IN SPIRIT AND TRUTH
FRAGMENT
FROM A LETTER TO BRIAN
G...
GOD'S OWN DANCE SHALL SAVE THE WORLD
I...
INITIATION - EASTER AFTERMATH - 1994
L...
LIMITS AND NO
LIMITS
M...
MORE REFLECTIONS FROM THE EYES OF THE HEART
N...
NEW CREATION
O...
ONE CHILD STANDING AT THE TURNING OF THE AGES
ON THE HOLY FOOL
ON THE MAJOR DISCIPLINES OF ART
R...
REAL WHOLENESS
REDEEMING A PICTURE OF BEAUTY
REGATHERING
REPOSE
T...
THE DEEP MOVES SLOWLY...
THERE IS
THREE BRAIDED CHORDS
THREE METAPHORS OF WHAT WE ARE
TO THE PURE, ALL IS PURE
TWO
SPECIES
W...
WE LIVE WITHIN TWO WORLDS
WHEN THE LORD ASCENDED ON HIGH
WITHIN GOD'S OWN SWEET PASSION'S YEARNING
WORDS THAT CAME IN A DREAM
Last poem: AFTER THE THIRD FLOWER'S GIVEN
A PRAYER FOR OUR ART
Let our art, in the gracious goodness
of our Lord and in the expansive wonders
of His domain,
attain to such clarity and color,
such simple luminosity,
such rich texture of soul,
such groundedness in the earth,
(let the trees and the rocks sing),
such flight of spirit in the heavens,
(fluid with wind and wings),
such holy powers of expression,
that it pierces every human heart with light!
Let our art, in the
gracious goodness
of our Lord and in the expansive wonders
of His domain,
attain to such a love of all Creation
for the great Maker's sake,
that there be no end to its
creative diversities
in a constant renewal of inspired illuminations.
THREE BRAIDED CHORDS
Meister Eckhart, through night and day,
leads the mind to its fuller way;
old man Heschel, seizing plunder,
unveils the treasure chest of wonder;
and Francis, merciful and free,
reveals a singing poverty!
Each saint bears a gift to give
which in its force is purgative,
enhancing each a vital part
of the green and growing heart.
AFTER A SHEKINAH IN CHURCH
As
the people pour the power
of the Spirit out
in praise and love,
a sweetness fills the air
as a soft, white cloud appears
just
beyond the range of sight.
The whole room is alive with God!
*
How then shall it be
when all people
let God's fluid love
pour through them
into every canyon, upon every hill
and over the wild seas
of Earth?
AWE AND COMPASSION
(Two
covenants)
1.
First, a common bush at Horeb burned
and a voice spoke, "Do not come near!
Remove the sandals from your feet
for the place you are standing
is Holy ground."
Then, the next time around,
an entire mountain burned.
And the voice came with trumpets
which were so loud that a whole nation trembled
and stood afar off.
Moses alone was called up into the smoke and fire.
2.
First, the Son of God
burned with purity, his fierce dignity
clothed in the rough spun clothes
of the poor. Light shone!
And He said, "Come unto me
all
you who are heavy laden..."
And every place they stood with Him
was Holy ground.
Then, many people burned
and their voices were like trumpets
sounding in many tongues
which grew so loud the whole world was called near.
And all the people went up into clouds
one by one.
WHEN THE LORD
ASCENDED ON HIGH
When the Lord ascended on high Creation bowed down
and adored. Who could resist the sight of the
Lord's splendor shining in the face of the risen
Christ?
Pan and all his host worshiped. The fairy's
danced in rings of delight. Gnomes rattled their
bones in slow gnome dances beneath the earth. Tree
Sprites drew up watery joy from the deep and spewed
it into the shimmering sky. Plant angels, rock
angels, sea angels, sky angels praised with fervent
delight, for they believed that this was the
beginning of that holy dream of God the prophets
had dreamt: lions lying down with lambs, leopards
sleeping amidst the deer.
But man was not ready to understand the works of
the Most High, nor to embrace His freedom. So they
divided up powers of authority, built institutions,
invented and emphasized sacred rituals to sanctify
and solidify a priesthood's control and thereby
took terrible truth from the people.
Set free from the fear of death and enslavement to
the dark predatory powers innately woven into the
elements,
these people of the new light never
turned back in the great powers of Holy Love to
bless and loose Creation into God's freedom. But
they used their energies to invent machines and
systems and worshiped the works of their hands.
Instead of simplicity and wonder, comfort and
profit became the bywords. They plundered Creation
and turned the mysterious soul of man itself into a
commodity.
The system sucked life out of all things and filled
its greatest servants with vast powers of
corruption. But the Lord was not without his
witnesses! The Spirit of God circulated through
the shadows of the age. Candles were lit in human
hearts, small, communal bonfires sprang up in the
night.
Through pain and sorrow children of the
Spirit were born and strove to know that to fully
sing truth they must pour God's luscious light out
freely upon all living things.
Birds felt the praises of God and drew near to
sing. Weary trees adored and quivered from their
roots to the tips of their twigs with slow
ecstasies of life. The mountains skipped like rams,
the little hills like lambs, as the light of the
Kingdom grew, here a little, there a little,
growing, growing, growing on, until all the
crumbling forces of corruption
were powerless to
resist!
CARRIED BY THE WIND AND MOON AWAY
When I was but a tiny boy,
I was carried by the wind and moon away,
to where my joy they did destroy
before I had begun the play.
And so, I grew into a lad
who--carried by the wind and moon away--
remained
half mad with sorrows, sad
and shadowed by the light of day.
Then I married, and both, it seemed,
were carried by the wind and moon away
into a dark we
never dreamt
could be... and yet it sadly seemed
both light and dark all mixed with gray
--more grieved was I than I could say.
Through death I birthed a song well pleased
to be carried by the wind and moon away,
and be sung by birds in distant trees
with words which only birds can say.
*
A song is such as lives forever,
to make the little children play,
though flesh shall fail, a song fails never...
through carried by the wind and moon away.
WITHIN GOD'S OWN SWEET PASSION'S YEARNING
Within God's own sweet passion's yearning
springs forth a hot and holy burning
heat upon each hidden seed
encased within its dark of need.
And there God broods and bakes and warms,
softening seed's hard fear of harm
until they crack and open wide:
Behold, a floral flame inside!