Poetry

Welcome Spring

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Welcome Spring

Once again renew our hearts

With hope we cannot otherwise find

Unless you bloom with blossoms pink

And bulbs push up the soggy earth

Unless you conquer winter’s frost

With wind’s strong blasts

And skies that rend the heavy clouds

 

Welcome Spring

Renew our hearts with joy

To sing the ancient songs that well within

When sights of life and beauty overcome

Calling forth our voices

Our steps will lighten into the dance

Joining all creation as life renews itself again

This time each year

 

© 2016 Julie Clark

Categories: beauty, Hope, Life, Poetry, Seasons, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Undone

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Undone

I fall into your arms

No life in me to give to you

But like the babe in mother’s arms

I take from you all that I crave

Only to find that what I’ve craved

Is what you all along have saved

To give to me

Love so deep it has no end

 

In your eyes I see

The hope and strength of eons gone

And paths laid straight for weary souls

Whose company

I am one

I can walk this path with you

I can stand among the stars named and numbered

I can rest upon the waters

Thrown and tossed and calmed by you

I will trust and I will see

The living lights of eternity

 

© 2000 Julie Clark

Categories: beauty, Faith, God, Hope, Lent, Life, Love, Paths, Poetry, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

At Deer Harbor

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Harbor grey

as the sky

Fog wisping off

the far islands

Evergreens

holding their color

Apple trees

across the road

ahead of the rest

with their joie de vivre

In full bloom

reminding us

this is the way to live

giving it all, everyday

not worrying about

tomorrow

provision of fruit

on it’s way

On the ferry

a bald eagle

showed us how to fish

from the shore

Made it look easy

with those wings

those eyes

Grateful to live near enough

to these island jewels

Summer time

they are full of

roaming tourists

from afar and

Orcas cruise the channels

Off season

has it own secrets

Quiet strength

building up

preparing for the

Glorious spring show.

© 2016 Julie Clark

Categories: beauty, Birds, Faith, Hope, Photography, Poetry, Seasons, Trees | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

How Good To Center Down! by Howard Thurman

Passing on a beautiful poem/meditation I read this morning from Howard Thurman’s Meditations of the Heart.  In our over full, over stimulated stressed lives, this is a good reminder. Perhaps a good way to start the Lenten season. 

 

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How Good To Center Down!

 

How good it is to center down!

To sit quietly and see one’s self pass by!

The streets of our minds seethe with endless traffic;

Our spirits resound with clashings, with noisy silences,

While something deep within hungers and thirsts for the still moment

    and the resting lull.

With full intensity we seek, ere the quiet passes, a fresh sense

    of order in our living;

A direction, a strong sure purpose that will structure our confusion

    and bring meaning in our chaos.

We look at ourselves in this waiting moment –

    the kinds of people we are.

The questions persist:  what are we doing with our lives? –

    what are the motives that order our days?

What is the end of our doings?

Where are we trying to go?

Where do we put the emphasis and where are our values focused?

For what end do we make sacrifices?

Where is my treasure and what do I love most in life?

What do I hate most in life and to what am I true?

Over and over the questions beat in upon the waiting moment.

As we listen, floating up through all the jangling echoes of our turbulence,

   there is a sound of another kind –

A deeper note which only the stillness of the heart makes clear.

It moves directly to the core of our being.  

Our questions are answered,

Our spirits refreshed, and we move back into the traffic of our daily round

With the peace of the Eternal in our step.

How good it is to center down!

 

Howard Thurman

Categories: Faith, God, Hope, Lent, Life, Paths, Poetry, Prayer, Seasons | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Learning to Listening

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How well am I listening to the voice of my Shepherd?

Have I been searching his Word for his words to me?

Have I been watching his every move to move with him when he moves?

Am I slowing down when he does,

to stop and play with a child or

listen to another who needs my ears and comfort?

Have I stretched out my hand in healing as he does?

Am I studying his ways to match my ways with his?

Forgiving as he forgave me?

Forsaking condemnation and judgement,

while learning the art of love and compassion?

How well do I know his voice?

Enough that I do not follow the thousand voices

leading me down other paths far away from his?

How well am I listening to the voice of my Beloved?

Categories: Faith, God, Lent, Life, Love, Paths, Poetry | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Last Night in Boston

Fresh snow fell through the night

Washing the world again

covering all the barren trees

with a fresh cold compress

Given as a gift

to slow

to heal

to strengthen what remains

until spring thaw

when sap begins

to flow

and new life appears

in bud and blossom

Hope arises in our hearts

as it always does each spring

reminding us not all is lost

life will be renewed

again

 

© 2016 Julie Clark

Categories: Boston, Hope, Poetry, Seasons, Trees | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A Little Child Will Lead You

This poem is dedicated to a little girl, (8 years old) my friends’ daughter, who befriended another little girl, a Muslim child in her class and invited her over to play and have dinner.  Another morning her parents found her boiling an egg to take to school. Her friend was embarrassed about her lunch being so different from everyone else’s lunch. My friends’ little girl noticed she had a boiled egg in her lunch. She decided to boil herself an egg, so her friend would not be embarrassed.  She brings me great encouragement. Peacemakers are being raised up quietly right in our midst. She gets my first chocolate bar.

https://backfromtheborderlands.wordpress.com/2015/12/08/lets-trump-evil-with-good-and-win-a-big-chocolate-bar/

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When darkness gathers as winter settles in

with black clouds surrounding

what little light we have left

Hold tight to the hope in your heart

It is buried deep within

 

Faith, Hope and Love

will not be extinguished

…and the greatest of these is love

It is love which is the greatest

and most powerful of all

not fear, nor revenge, anger or hate

 

Let love ruminate and perfect

through the night, through adverse circumstances

because joy will come in the morning

and when it seems utterly impossible

…let a little child lead you.

 

Categories: beauty, Faith, God, Hope, Hospitality, Life, Love, Peace and Reconciliation, Poetry, Seasons, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Musings of a Mother

 

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Musings of a Mother (Revised for Advent 2015)

 

He’s a puzzle, a mystery, a riddle

This person I know so well yet not at all

I only see a part not the whole

I can’t get inside his head or his heart

I don’t know why he does this or that

Says it that way instead of this way

He could avoid a lot of conflict

if he said things a little differently

or not at all

 

I admit I am perplexed and mystified

I even wonder at times if his mind is overloaded

Some what imbalanced

He always has so many people

clamoring about him

he doesn’t take care of himself

What’s a mother to do?

 

Yet, he is the one the angel

called me to bear

The one we have been waiting for

I know

I said yes, and I did what I was asked

I was not ashamed

I knew where he came from

 

But what kind of deliverer will he be?

How is he going to save us from our enemies?

He says we should love them!

He is so gentle and kind

This babe I once wrapped in rags

Where were the angels when I wreathed in pain

like every other woman?

I heard later they were off singing to some shepherds

sending them to us

They worshipped him and

mentioned peace on earth

I wish I could have heard the angels sing

 

The angels did come again

Just in time to warn us to get out of Bethlehem

before Harod’s treachery

A terrorist slaughter of babes

Then we were refugees in Egypt

until the angels came again to send us back to Israel

 

Those were somewhat ordinary times

under the heel of Rome in Nazareth

We lost our precious Joseph in those years

broke our hearts

We made it somehow

until the day cousin John by the river

pointed to the Lamb of God

 

I will continue my daily watch

Pack up and move with him

as any mother would

He is so weary and spent

He may need me again

Before this day is through

 

 

Categories: Advent, Faith, God, Hope, Love, Poetry, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , | 2 Comments

In This World…

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I came across this fitting poem by Wendell Berry in “Farming, A Hand Book”. It reminds me that this generation is not the only one that has seen the world on fire.  I read it to our guests at our Thanksgiving table.  We had a beautiful, but small representation of our world with Central Asians, Libyans and Americans, Muslims and Christians breaking bread together and giving thanks. The phrase “In this World” comes from the New Testament.  Jesus to his disciples:  “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

 

Here is the poem.

 

The hill pasture, an open place among the trees,

tilts into the valley. The clovers and tall grasses

are in bloom. Along the foot of the hill

dark floodwater moves down the river.

The sun sets. Ahead of the nightfall the birds sing.

I have climbed up to water the horses

and now sit and rest, high on the hillside,

letting the day gather and pass. Below me

cattle graze out across the wide fields of the bottomlands,

slow and preoccupied as stars. In this world

men are making plans, wearing themselves out,

spending their lives, in order to kill each other.

 

Wendell Berry

 

Categories: beauty, Faith, God, Hope, Hospitality, Life, Love, Peace and Reconciliation, Poetry, Seasons, Uncategorized | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Remember Me (Communion Song)

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This is my body – broken for you

I gave it freely – for you

Remember Me

This my blood – poured out for you

I gave it freely – for you

Remember Me

As the Father sent me – so send I you

As I laid down my life – lay yours down too

Remember Me

Freely you have received – freely give

I am Emanuel – always with you

On your journey towards Home

Remember Me

In your struggle to make sense – In your struggle to make peace

Remember the poor, the sick, the imprisoned

In all that you do – in the work I have given you

Remember Me

Categories: Faith, God, Hope, Love, Paths, Peace and Reconciliation, Poetry | Tags: , , , , , | 2 Comments

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