Posts Tagged With: hearts

Palm Branches

Here is a reflection poem on Palm Sunday.

Photo by Tatiana Syrikova on Pexels.com

Palm Branches

They thought they knew

How it would all play out

When Messiah came.

When He did come

He did not do what

He was supposed to do.

They did not have room

In their hearts,

Hardened by certainty.

No room for adjusting

And aligning

Their thoughts

Their actions

To God’s.

What about me?

Do I have room?

Or am I so certain

I know the way –

That I miss it?

Mary had a choice.

She heard the invitation

And sat at his feet,

Became a disciple,

Learned 

She had room

In her heart.

Her acceptance

Of the words and teaching

Upturned the Patriarchy,

And helped her brothers

To have room as well.

But the palm waving

Crowds shouting

Hosanna, quickly turned

To Crucify him

When he did not do

What they thought 

He was supposed to do.

Categories: Faith, God, growth, Lent, Poetry | Tags: , , , , , , | 4 Comments

What ifs

What if we can’t go to church

To understand what the church really is?

What if the virus is showing us

The viruses in our hearts?

What if the worship of mammon*

Was just too much for the earth to bear?

What if our independence

Drives us to community?

What if all the grief and loss

Teaches us to love again?

*Matthew 6:24

© 2020 Julie Clark

Categories: Faith, grief and death, Hope, Lent, Poetry | Tags: , , , , | Leave a comment

A Blessing for those Waiting for Justice and Deliverance

A Blessing for those Waiting for Justice and Deliverance

(for those imprisoned in NW China)

In this waiting

Which feels so long, too long

When despair nags at our heels

Bless us with hope, 

Bless us with prayers to pray

With names of precious people we know

And do not know

Names and faces of captives and prisoners

We can hold before you

And honor them and honor you, their creator

Bless the space, the time

Between now and their deliverance

May they know your presence,

Your love, your goodness

May they know you hear

The cry of the afflicted

Even if the cry comes 

Silently from their hearts

Bless them with 

Lifting the heavy burden

With healing their 

Broken bodies

Their broken hearts

Lift their heads

Lift their hearts

To hope, to wait, to know

You are coming

and have not

forgotten them

Categories: borderlands, Faith, God, Hope, lament, pain, Peace and Reconciliation, Poetry, Prayer | Tags: , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

True Self Knows

abstract art awareness branches

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

 

Categories: Faith, growth, Life, Love, pain, Poetry | Tags: , , , | 2 Comments

Wedding Poetry Reading

 

These are the four poems I read at Nathan and Sarah’s wedding this last Saturday in Dubach, Louisiana. The first I wrote for Michael and Analia’s wedding in Tarija, Bolivia in 2009. The second I wrote for Suzie and Lich’s wedding on Whidbey Island in Washington State in 2010. The third I wrote when Nathan and Sarah were about to graduate from Tien Shan International School in Kazakhstan in 2009. The final poem was written in 2014 especially for Nathan and Sarah’s wedding.

 

Love is a choice I make today

Oh joyous day finally arrived

Long waited for dreams come true

Songs filling the air and our hearts

We choose love today.

 

The dance begun with timid steps

Continues on ever stronger

Each step uniting us closer together

Oneness and unity belong to us

We choose love today.

 

Each new day will come

Some with joy, some with pain

Love is patient

Love is kind

Remember the ancient words

They are life

Strong medicine when the heart feels sick

Love is a choice we make each day.

© 2009 Julie Clark

 

The story began

Long before you opened your eyes or breathed your first breath

 

Love has always been

In the Ancient Circle of Three

 

As the nature of love is to grow and be given away

It will never diminish, but multiply from generation to generation

 

As each new set of lovers take their place in the dance,

Unique in wonder and glory,

They replay the original heartbeat of the universe in their steps

 

It’s true

Our wildest and best dreams

Love is at the center

Not perfected in us yet

We see only dimly through a glass

But each choice to love brings closer the time

When love will rule the day

And there will be no more darkness

No more night

 

So take your place young lovers

Follow the wind of the Spirit

Who will lead you on

Choose love each and every day

For one another and for all those who enter your circle

As surely as the sun rises each day

The world will be brighter and lighter

Because you two have joined the dance

 

© 2010 Julie Clark

 

 

Love Has Time (Fridge Poetry)

Love has time

For summer music

Playing magically

Like moonlight

Bouncing upon the night

 

Love has time

To wait

For blossoms in their buds

To spread forth into the light

And say “I am here in all my glory”.

© 2009 Julie Clark

 

Who knew?

That waiting would take this long?

That your lives would weave together again

 

Who knew?

That your hopes and dreams had to die and be buried?

That a surprise resurrection was coming?

 

Who knew?

That there were tender eyes watching?

That there were strong hands guiding and weaving?

 

Who knew?

That you would be invited to join together in the great dance of love?

That you would hear the invitation and say yes?

 

Who knew? God knew and now we all know!

Let the source of all Love teach you now how to love one another.

 

© 2014 Julie Clark

 

 

 

 

Wedding Poetry Reading

 

Categories: beauty, Faith, God, Hope, Life, Love, Marriage and Family, Prayer | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Where?

Where are the ones?

Who will lean their heads

Upon the breast of Jesus,

Listening carefully

To His heartbeat of love?

Instead many

Called by His Name

Are listening to other voices

Bent on destruction.

Instructing us to judge

Instead of pray

Condemn

Instead of lend a hand.

Don’t you feel your pulse race

As you move from fear to hate?

How many times did He tell us to love?

Love God

Love yourself

Love each other

Love your neighbor

And yes, love your enemy!

It’s time to take a deep breath.

Turn away from the voices

Stealing our peace and our souls.

It’s time to

Lean our heads, our eyes, our ears

And our hearts

Upon the breast of Jesus.

He might just tell us again

To love someone.

© 2012 Julie Clark

Categories: Faith, God, Life, Love, Paths, Peace and Reconciliation, Poetry | Tags: , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

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