Showing posts with label poetry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label poetry. Show all posts

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Perfect Day

Crystal splendor fills the room

Vivid colors alive with reflected light

Sight and sound at one 

and all is melded together  

A day filled with joy and awe

floats through time; kairos time


A memory and yet a vision

A moment forever hanging whole-unto itself

May I drink it in and have my fill of the joy that fills this moment


At one with the universe and whole and wholly Thine

Seamless creation; filled with grace

Abounding in love

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Child of My Labor

This is a poem that I wrote several years ago when my daughter was very little. I've posted this before, but wanted to share again because she will turn 21 this week.



Child of My Labor

You are not the child of my flesh
But you are the daughter of my labor.

The pains have come from
Contractions of my heart
Squeezed by your tiny hands

The pain of your loss
Cannot be understood
No mother’s milk for you
To soothe, to settle
To still your stomach and soul.

No sweet mother’s voice
To hush and lullaby your fears

But now, you are born to me
On the wings of angels
And our labor begins

And I shall nurse you
With my mother’s heart
I shall soothe, settle, and still your soul
With my lullaby

Hushaby Baby, you are the child of my labor.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

On our Anniversary


Back to back in bed

heat radiates.

No flesh touches,

but the warmth of your being

invades my body.

The solid rock

at my back

is not cold

but filled with the warmth of your spirit.


I move closer to feel

the comfort you give

even while you sleep.
Today is twenty years that we have been married. For more of my reflections on our marriage (from 2 years ago), see this post http://goniagleanings.blogspot.com/2007/06/18-years-of-wedded-bliss.html

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Grace for the day

Grace for this day I ask
in the midst of the chaos of life.
Infuse me with your
Holy Spirit
that my life might be
a reflection of your grace.

Forgive what is past
Release me from
the feelings of guilt and shame

May I think before acting--
Please stay all unworthy impulses
that I may live
with a consciousness
of your Presence
in each grace-filled moment.

Friday, May 15, 2009

And now for something completely different....

Over the years, I have found an outlet in writing very bad poetry. In my teen years, it was all about the current boyfriend, but I have tried to widen the scope of my writing since then. If you browse my blog, you'll find a few that I wrote after my Emmaus weekend a couple of years ago. I do enjoy it and sometimes others have liked it. Anyway, here are a few ancient poems... written longer ago than I care to remember....



Gentle little flower that
pokes your head
from underneath the soil
searching for the sun beyond
what mst have seemed a grave,
How I long to place you
back within the ground
which only yesterday was frozen.

You've risen too early.


Yea, it is warm and sunny,
but nature has played
a dirty trick--
This is not the season
for you to come forth.
Too soon have you tried
to escape the tomb in which
you've lain so long.

If only you had waited
but a little longer.
If only I could teach you
what I've learned of life.

Although today the sun does shine
and warm the ground,
tonight the wind will blow.
Tomorrow, I shall find you--
a sign of life
that rushed forth
before its time.



Shadows of Life

The shadow comes and goes.
one minute in stark relief
the brightness causing new darkness.
A moment later
a dreary shade covers all.

The shadow advances and
then recedes
fading in and out
of sight
as if a mirage
on which the eyes
cannot lay hold.

They try to grasp
and keep within
their clutch
the vision
quickly melting
While the sun retreats
from the clouded view
of human eyes.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

For my mother

Thinking of my mother this week because of Mother's day, I came across these words I wrote soon after her passing from this life to the next many years ago now.....

Watching her leave so slowly--
what left last
was her smile and her laughter
These persist in my memory
as her "trademarks"
Those things which forever will be
her legacy to me.

here is a link to an earlier poem I posted about my mother http://www.goniagleanings.blogspot.com/2006/05/thoughts-of-my-mother-on-mothers-day.html



Sunday, May 10, 2009

Clothe Me in Righteousness

Clothed in righteousness
I desire to be
O God, set me free
from all that holds me
apart from you.

Clothed in righteousness
let me be
O God, make me free
to be all that You
have called me to be.

Clothed in righteousness
not because of what
I have done, but only
through the grace
that you offer.

Set me free
Make me one with You.

Prayer for a Loving Nature

Make me to be love
and to offer love
as I have been loved.

Show me, O Lord, how
to love all of creation
more deeply and more fully
but more important, O God,
show me how to love
more particularly
those who are
in my path this day.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

prodigal

I come to myself

as one who is prodigal
who has wondered away
to follow my own pursuits

and here in the pig trough
filled with domestic stress
and work woes

I come to myself

Arise and seek
my Father's house

Welcome me home

Welcome me back to myself

Candlelight

Serpentine light moves
across the room
a haze descends
as praises are raised

faces resplendent
glowing with love

praises lifted
voices raised

serpentine the light moves
through the room
while glowing faces
welcome pilgrims
two by two

no words exchanged
except in song
yet love expressed
in deed and truth

voices raised
praised lifted
love expressed

Monday, February 25, 2008

Images of Emmaus

Women wind their way
around the crowded room
Arms in motion--
moving up and down
as if in flight--
Spirits made light
by grace abounding
Spirits set free
from convention
freed from domestic concerns
freed from work stress
freed from the judging eyes of men

Men who would have wives, mothers, and daughters
who are modest and discreet
Nurses and teachers--
acceptable to society.

Women wind around the room
filled with the Spirit
set free to live
lives empowered
lives redeemed from the ordinary
Set free to live
as Daughters of Grace.