When you need a new rhythm
Old one not working
Wearing you out
Step off, step out and away
Find a quiet place
A lonely place
To think
To listen
Make the changes
To save yourself
© 2020 Julie Clark
Life
Watching and Waiting
Sorrow follows close
To shroud me
When my gaze
On love wavers
The impossibilities
Of hope
Too much to hold onto
At times
When justice and peace
Slip away
In a mudslide
What I cannot see
Calls me
To look closer
Do you see the courageous ones
who faced
Down their fear
The generous ones who share
What once they hoarded
Do you see
The peacemakers plowing fields
with what once
were weapons
The trusting ones letting go
Of all they thought
They needed to control
Change is happening
In incremental steps
Think of what happens
With seeds
Or yeast
Explosion of life
About to happen
All around us
Keep doing good
And growing
Into the person
You are and truly want to be
© Julie Clark 2019
Questions I Have
What is this division you bring?
What about peace on earth, goodwill towards all?
Is it about our choice?
To love and serve
Or horde and kill?
Do you come to us at our borders in T-shirts and flip flops
Or camped out in our city parks?
One more opportunity to choose
As you ask, “Who will you serve?
Me or mammon?”
Ok, I choose you.
Now I have enemies.
What did you say about enemies?
I have to love them too?
Now that is hard to do.
Oh, you did that.
I see. Is that how this works?
Love changes everything.
Love is the force that brings peace
Far and near and finally
Everywhere.
How long?
“Until all is changed and all submit
To love
Singing praises!”
Your ways are better
Your ways are higher
Than ours.
What is impossible for humans
Is possible for you.
Now we must
Get up on the highway
Of your ways
Watch and see
What you can do with love-
The strongest force there is
Moving mountains and
Raising valleys.
May we make the choice
To love
Rather than continue
This madness.
© 2019 Julie Clark
True Self Knows
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
We all suffer
When one suffers
Like ripples on the water
Tracing it back
To the original stone
Shattering the calm
It all makes sense
Our connections
All fractured
All hearts broken
Let us go easy
Be gentle
Let the drops bead up
With Holy Oil
And roll
Rather then
Added to the burden
Of offences
We all carry
True self takes no prisoners
And knows
We will be welcomed home
With love
© 2019 Julie Clark
Grief Haiku (for Marianne)
(Marianne helping me with a knotty problem)
She has gone away
Released her breath and spirit
We have grief and tears
Lonely is this life
Soul trapped in body shell
Freed for true union
She carried many
Can too much love break your heart
Apparently so
© 2018 Julie Clark
Categories: Autumn Poems, grief and death, Life, Love, Poetry
Tags: breath, grief, heart, love, spirit
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Take Care of the Earth
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com
Let’s take care of the earth
All people
Everywhere
It is our only home.
The stars and the planets
Are too far away.
They were not given to us
To inhabit with these bodies,
but to guide and inspire.
We can be
The gentle
The meek,
The careful
Who inherit the earth.
We can think of our children
And their children
And their children’s children.
We can share her resources
We do not need to hoard them
She has enough for us all.
Enjoy her beauty
She feeds your souls
Be inspired to create
More beauty
More abundance
We can do this together.
© 2018 Julie Clark
Encircled
Encircled with Lavender and Rosemary
On this warm day
Breathing in pure fragrant air
Releasing anxiety and pressure
Pressure to be
Something I am not
Receiving peace
Healing and rest
May my fragrance be
Life giving and refreshing
To the ones
Encircled by my love today
2018 Julie Clark
Ancient Words, Ancient Prayer
“May your unfailing love be with us, Lord, even as we put our hope in you.” Psalm 33:22
Ancient words, comforting words
Still bringing life
Over the long passages of time
Joining in the cry of the faithful
Or the desperate
Or both
Please be mindful of me
On this treacherous pilgrimage
On planet earth
My mind
Incapable of knowing
All the sinkholes
And swirling vortexes
Threatening to take me
Down and away
I will leave those to you
And keep my eyes focussed
On this path
One step at a time
You are my good shepherd
After all
© 2018 Julie Clark
Waiting for Easter
I am posting this poem again from a few years ago. A reminder that no matter how dark it is or how much faith I have or don’t have, light will break through and love will win.
All we have are words
And the grief that overwhelms us
Hope is gone
We saw with our own eyes
Our grief tells us
He is dead
Yet
We have words
We will wait
With our grief by the tomb
© Julie Clark
Categories: Faith, God, grief and death, Holy Saturday, Hope, Lent, Life, Love, pain, Poetry, Uncategorized
Tags: Easter, grief, wait, words
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The Journey
The Journey
Is longer than I thought
It would be
(I was only 17
when I became aware
of it
And the glorious end
Was coming soon
or so we thought)
Harder and darker
Than advertised
(I read the manual later
And saw the red fine print
Of suffering)
After several years
I used up everything
Forgetting to stop
And refill at times
Truly if you had not
Again and again
Lifted me up from the mud
Onto the wings of the
Waiting eagle
I would still be there
You are faithful
And your love
Is the constant
of my life
Though I cannot
Always see or
Feel it
Trust is my part
Faith, hope, and love
Not abstract nouns
To feel or believe
But actions
I need to continue
To practice
© 2018 Julie Clark
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