Category Archives: Poetry

living words from brokenness

music moving through, stillness, a radiant intensity

feeling and seeing and knowing, words failing for their feeble smallness, words longing for living wholeness, for beginning again at the very beginning, before the ancient, fractured brokenness

feeling and seeing and knowing, broken words failing, only stillness remains

feeling and seeing and knowing, light shines through the brokenness

words fail, brokenness opens, a Word shines through

a word encompasses, is mind, body, and soul, integrates the universe

quietness overflows

brokenness transmuted into light

healing words, born again through brokenness, light shining through brokenness, brokenness singing radiant, living, infinite stillness into being

light shinning through brokenness, Life speaking new words released by brokenness

feeling and seeing and knowing

you become the words, singing again, whole again, speaking life again

you become that perfect language

for in our healing, He redeems the universe

Silence and Beauty

Resized_20200103_145526_737_scaled_1

Silence and Beauty – Makoto Fujimura (Jundt Museum)

Immersing myself in the light and color and feeling of Mako Fujimura’s paintings, I listened over and over to Bach’s “Erbarme dich, mein Gott”, as though somehow this experience could open my eyes to the words communicating what I was feeling and seeing.

 

immersing, drawn into deep stillness, the quietness sings.
time stops to listen, to know color and feeling

light shines through the brokenness

 

Words feel clumsy, infinitely poor in comparison to the visual experience. But words can tell my own story of brokenness opening me to light, to color and feeling, to quietness that sings.

It becomes clear. The deep drive to express, to illuminate the experience, can only be satisfied by taking others by the hand and leading them to their own experience of listening, of seeing, of feeling. I can invite others to “come and see”, to know why their brokenness is the beginning and not the end.

For there was One broken for them and that One is ready to shine His light through their brokenness, to pour Himself into their darkness and trauma, to heal them with his Quietness and Beauty.

 

come and see 
   the quietness and beauty

in brokenness

 

 

 

 

Other Planets 

when
you set
my 
heart 
free

---

free from this 
and 
anti-this

escaping 
binary
compressions
and
bondage 
to narrow orbits

choosing 
the third
way 
that opens 
infinity

the living 
path
inviting 
me to flights
without limit

---

life

rich
illuminated
overflowing
unbounded

bright with 
the light
of 
countless
suns

constrained
by love
yet
unlimited

infinite
freedom
yet
running
in 
the
paths
of
Your
command

---

other planets
on which 
we 
were 
meant 
to live
to create
to unfold

no longer
traded
for a few shekels
for mere crusts of bread

for enough
is a feast
that 
opens infinity

in the light 
of other 
suns

on other planets 
without
number

 

Obi

Dogs are simple angels, disguised by their dogness, but ministering spirits all the same.

Filled with unconditional love and devotion, they are also sprinkled with flaws so as not to give away the fact they are working, under-cover, single-mindedly, to save as many humans as they can.

Their living fills us with joy, if we will but open to their joy. Their dying gives us such intense grief, it saves us from arrogance, if we permit ourselves to feel honestly their passing. And their simple, complete devotion and love while they are living disarms us so reliably, that we almost always permit ourselves to feel honestly, their passing.

Remembering them, we finally understand their mission in our lives.

We understand that love and humility are the channels through which all life and healing flow. We know that these simple, faithful friends never wavered, never faltered. We see the power of a pure heart.

Dogs are simple angels, disguised by their dogness, but ministering spirits all the same.

 

 

Connection 

Loneliness, 
moving through me,
flies away, having drawn me to a deeper stillness. 

A vision, 
flowing like music  
compels me to continue on. 

Expression, 
fresh in its originality, 
luminous and living in action and influence, 
brings release.

Seeking 
connection, 
    I find God. 

The pain 
of 
loneliness 
is transmuted 
into the awe of companionship 
with Him in whom I live and move and have my being.

Rage 

   I rage with a lonely rage

   against isolation, blindness and a smiling callousness,
   against the denial of our nakedness, our need

   against the illusion of goodness

--

sing to me connection, sing to me life, flowing,
quietly moving me to vision

sing to me a fountain of companionship

--

   what will these gods do for you? 

   ... these gods of all false comfort, 
   taking credit for gifts not of their making, 
   these gods who rob us, yet remain barren ...

   ... what will they do for you?

   I rage with a white hot rage

--

Sing to me songs of comfort
songs from silence
silence ... singing

--

   I rage

   against cleverness,
   cleverness masquerading as depth,
   against sophistication, imprisoning the wounded soul

   against a proud intellect, withering the spirit

--

sing to me

Scream 

fear is a scream, 
frozen into a prison.

--

light roars, silence 
slays fear

deeper, plunging
downward into silence and light

--

the deep, encompassing 
me in boundlessness

an infinite music fills
the void 

--

silence, failing
to contain the light, sings to me

intensity invades me with stillness,
setting me free

--

light sings to me