Posted in Main, Poetry, tagged feelings, God on July 4, 2008 | No Comments »
The Writer’s Almanac yesterday posted a poem called, The Rider. The first line reads
A boy told me
if he roller-skated fast enough
his loneliness couldn’t catch up to him.
Although it may present a nice image in a poem, the line reflects a mistake we make a lot - the mistake of thinking that if we move quickly enough [...]
Posted in Poetry, tagged Hafiz, Poetry on July 1, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I was reminded last night of an image used in a poem by Hafiz, a 14th century Persian poet. The image is in a short poem called, The Christ’s Breath. Hafiz says simply:
I am a hole in a flute
that the Christ’s breath moves through–
listen to the music.
I was taken by this poem the first time [...]
Posted in Poetry, tagged God, Hopkins, Poetry on June 16, 2008 | No Comments »
I just finished reading a novel about Hopkins’ writing of the Wreck of the Deutschland and about the events prompting his writing of it (described on the Recently Read page). Apart from my enjoyment of the book, it served as an occasion for me to reread the poem itself. It is a long poem, so [...]
Posted in Poetry, tagged God, grace, Poetry, St. Francis of Assisi on June 8, 2008 | No Comments »
After a lot of rain during this past week, yesterday was a lovely, sunny day and today promises the same. As I consider the new plants my husband put into the garden, the birds, the animals and the trees, it is no surprise that St. Francis comes to mind. One of his poems is called [...]
Posted in Poetry, tagged God, gratitude, Poetry, spirituality on May 28, 2008 | 1 Comment »
I’ve written before about cultivating an attitude of gratitude; I truly believe the world would be a different place if, instead of people carrying a sense of entitlment to all they have, we appreciate everything we have as the gift it is from our loving God.
Part of gratitude is appreciating without clinging. I saw a [...]
Posted in Poetry, tagged God, Hopkins, Jesus, Poetry on May 14, 2008 | No Comments »
I’ve share before my love of the poetry of Gerard Manley Hopkins. I discovered yesterday that a good friend of mine shares my love for Hopkins. While what drew me to Hopkins was God’s Grandeur; for my friend Joe it was As Kingfishers Catch Fire. The last part of the poem, he told me, changed [...]
Posted in Poetry on April 24, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Spring has finally arrived in Minneapolis after a very long and very cold winter. As I walk outside on these beautiful days and feel the sun on my face and see the beginning of flowers blooming, what I hear in my mind is, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God,” the first line of [...]
Posted in Poetry, tagged Aquinas, God, Poetry on April 16, 2008 | No Comments »
I love poems with simple images I can sit with. One of the poems I keep going back to is a poem written by St. Thomas Aquinas called, Whenever He Looks at You. The image for God’s delight in us is as simple as one can imagine. Here is the poem:
“God sees nothing in us [...]
Posted in Main, Poetry on April 5, 2008 | 1 Comment »
There are many ways to express what we are about in our spiritual journey. A very simple one is this: to grow in our acceptance of God’s unconditional love and to fall every day every more deeply in love with God. I keep a framed print in my study (a gift from my friends Elizabeth [...]
Posted in Poetry on March 30, 2008 | 1 Comment »
My friend Beth over on Journey posted St. Teresa’s prayer yesterday, which led me to pull out a book containing some poems of Teresa’s. Teresa of Avila has long been one of my favorite mystics and those who have not read any of her poetry are missing a lot. Here is one I’ve shared with retreatants. It [...]
