morning mists

Had I the power
to part these morning mists,
would I find You There;
just beyond, waiting with
a warm, welcoming embrace
and Home’s Sweet Kiss?

Would I finally see
Your Face, and know
the Place of my soul’s belonging?

For on this side
I often feel
I am a stranger~
ever in danger
of losing my grip
on this world;
ready always
to slip through the veil
and meet You in
that Greener Place
I have glimpsed…

Where all is held
and healed and blessed;
Where there is full and final rest
for the weary and the worn.

Had I the power
to part these morning mists,
would I find the fruit
of all You have spoken,
and the tender mending of
all that is broken in me?

Would I see the world
at once restored,
and all God’s children
in accord at last
amidst the vastness
of a Banquet spread in Glory?

Had I the power
to part these morning mists,
would I find the promised Parousia,
by Gift of Grace, is already
the world’s mist-hidden Story?

2013 oakabbey

Word Made Flesh

I am a woman
close to the earth;
well acquainted with
the messy miracle of birth~
once put off by
the seemingly dry notion
of creation as a mere spoken word.

But I have since heard
The Beloved’s Voice
and have felt
such warming
in my blood;
a rising flood of Life
evoking breath~

And in the
Deep Mystery
of Eternal Love,
this holy hearing
is enough for me
to now believe
that a Word can indeed be made Flesh.

2013 oakabbey

in this empty space

is this
a dark night of the soul
or a new morning
so bright
as to blind me
to all previously
known shapes
and forms
and images

a sunwashed dawn
so loud with birdsong
that I cannot hear
those long familiar
voices speaking

not even the one
I thought was my own

dark or light
day or night
this moment
finds me most alone

and I find comfort only
in what I have come to know
of the power of unknowing

and I trust that
in this empty space
a greater gift of grace
is growing.

2013 oakabbey

never swept

From a higher
point of view,
I see the spiraling
of my path,
and I am thankful
for this distance
the Eagle’s Eye of Wisdom
sometimes provides.

Lifted above
the gravity of my pain
into a gracious objectivity;
Here clarity and courage are gained.

Courage to let go,
courage to set free;
tossing all that troubles me
into the hot southern breeze
like so much colorless confetti~
watching as the Muse of Midsummer
gathers it into a furious funnel;
to have its terrorizing moment of power,
then dissipate into its inevitable impotence.

I have walked a similar path before,
but did not learn its lessons well enough.

Tiny, iodized saints
tucked into the crevices
of ancient stone walls,
that someone might find
at an opportune time;
the comfort and companionship
I then saw fit to leave behind.

But I have circled the path
and picked it all up again…

The Spirit of the Isle’s
Wild Western Winds
sighing heavily, hoping
I might throw caution to Her once again,
and leave behind, for good this time,
all that does not serve the Freedom of
Life and Love to Which I have been called~

That I may, once and for all,
enter the Cloister
that contains the Universe.
Where the Vow of Music
is faithfully and joyfully kept;
Where tiny daisies
grow unhindered
and the Lady’s floors
are never swept.

2013 oakabbey

fit to sing

with every step
with every prayer
You lead me

out of the heavy
fog of despair
then gently
bring me to a pause

no steps
no prayers

just kindly
stern hands
upon my shoulders

reminding me that
these burdens are not
mine to bear

that I was not
made with a frame
fit for carrying
the weight of the world

but with a voice
fit to sing praise

2013 oakabbey

Pietà and Nativity

We Are
Pietà and Nativity.

We Are
Sorrow’s Tears streaming;
caught in the corners
of a wide, ecstatic smile.

We Are
Remembrance of Unity
and Forgetting of self.

We Are
the emptying,
inviting the overflowing cup.

We Are
the Hermitage of Heart
and the Sanctuary of Soul.

We Are
the Veil of Mystery, lifted
in the Beloved’s Bridal Kiss.

We Are
unquestioning
and unconditional,
in the midst of life’s
questions and conditions.

We Are
a soulful singularity
and part of a Majestic Whole.

We Are
created,
carved out,
and completed
by Love’s Great and Mighty Hand.

2013 oakabbey

The Greater Heart Divine

“Keep your heart soft with Love…”

Though there is
so much in this world
seeking to render it hard,
and cold, and closed.

So many wounds
and worries;
such harshness
and hurries
all around…

enough to drown
out the subtle sound
of Love’s gentle beating
deep within, and lead us
into the sin of disconnection
from the precious life
we have, by Grace, been given.

If it weren’t for
the Whisper of Spirit;
the Blessed Pinprick of Light
always guiding me Home~
I could be so easily lost;
alone in despair; cut off
in self- protection.

If not for the fathomless
Well of Affection
that is the Greater Heart Divine~
Who created and contains
this small, fragile heart of mine,
and Who, in Wisdom, does remind,

“Keep your heart soft with Love…”
In this we are truly free
to receive the Promised Gift of God…

in What Is and What Shall Be.

2013 oakabbey