Poem Archives — Some poems, mostly from others, a few of mine, that opened my heart.
· 10 November 2006 | 113 words
Decide to be happy Render others happy Proclaim your joy Love passionately your miraculous life Do not listen to promises Do not wait for a better world Be grateful for every moment of life Switch on and keep on the...
· 7 November 2006 | 115 words
This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they are a...
· 30 October 2006 | 54 words
Don't look at your form, however ugly or beautiful. Look at love and at the aim of your quest... O you whose lips are parched, keep looking for water. Those parched lips are proof...
· 11 October 2006 | 28 words
For Mercy has a human heart, Pity a human face, And Love, the human form divine, And Peace, the human dress. -- William Blake, from "The Divine Image"...
· 25 September 2006 | 167 words
For some people the day comes when they have to declare the great Yes or the great No. It's clear at once who has the Yes ready within him; and saying it, he goes from honor to honor, strong...
· 22 September 2006 | 76 words
The world's a rollercoaster And I am not strapped in Maybe I should hold with care But my hands are busy in the air -- Incubus, "Wish You Were Here" Suffering comes from holding on, not letting go of...
· 28 August 2006 | 46 words
As flowing water falls to seek the lowest point, it gives all its energy away until none remains, and then returns to its source to fall again. What does the water gain from this falling? What...
· 11 July 2006 | 137 words
Love bade me welcome; yet my soul drew back, Guilty of dust and sin. But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack From my first entrance in, Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning, If I lack'd any thing....
· 23 June 2006 | 78 words
Sorrow prepares you for joy. It violently sweeps everything out of your house, so that new joy can find space to enter. It shakes the yellow leaves from the bough of your heart, so that fresh, green leaves...
· 19 June 2006 | 233 words
It helps, now and then, to step back and take the long view. The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that...
· 15 June 2006 | 19 words
Been inspired to write my first haiku. Plump little blue bird On branch, sitting, listening Amazed at it all...
· 11 June 2006 | 76 words
An insight into the Trinity? In the early morning hour, just before dawn, lover and beloved wake and take a drink of water. She asks, "Do you love me or yourself more? Really, tell the absolute truth." He...
· 9 June 2006 | 403 words
To see a World in a Grain of Sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And Eternity in an hour. -- William Blake, from "Auguries of Innocence" To see a...
· 3 June 2006 | 218 words
In that first hardly noticed moment in which you wake, coming back to this life from the other, more secret, movable and frighteningly honest world where everything began, there is a small opening into the new day which closes the...
· 7 May 2006 | 227 words
I wrote this poem in less than an hour. If you know me, this is very unusuall, especially with anything poetic. This poem was inspired by and originally posted with Susan's poem. It sums up a small portion of my...
· 1 May 2006 | 246 words
The Father knocks at my door, seeking a home for his son: Rent is cheap, I say. I don't want to rent. I want to buy, says God. I'm not sure I want to sell, but you might come...
· 21 April 2006 | 63 words
all i have is this moment here now in this place that is my heart will i unwrap today? this gift inside my heart? tomorrow--darkness yesterday--darkness HERE NOW LIGHT who will tend this blossom? who will till the soil? the...
· 6 April 2006 | 138 words
O GOD, I love Thee for Thyself, And not that I may Heaven gain, Nor because those who love Thee not, Must suffer Hell's eternal pain. Thou O my Jesus! Thou didst me Upon the Cross embrace; For me didst...
· 31 March 2006 | 199 words
For three gray days, this dead black bird laid next to the curb where I parked my car. I sat there after I turned off the engine each morning and stared at it for a long moment and wondered...
· 11 March 2006 | 87 words
Love brings peace. Peace brings patience, dispels fear, lifts up hope, deepens faith, extends trust, creates a space for forgiveness and acceptance; thus energizing love to flow to others. -- Mark Woodward
· 23 January 2006 | 338 words
In the quiet spaces of my mind a thought lies still, but ready to spring. It begs me to open the door so it can walk about. The poets speak in obscure terms pointing madly at the unsayable. The sages...
· 9 January 2006 | 172 words
Writing about empty mind is not easy. When I have got it, there are no words. When the words come, it goes away. Sitting in anger and fear, Mind is full of the past and future. Images of catastrophes big...
· 15 November 2005 | 114 words
Why no! I never thought other than that God is that great absence in our lives, the empty silence within, the place where we go seeking, not in hope to arrive or...
· 5 November 2005 | 72 words
Will you sometime who have sought So long and seek still In the slowly darkening hunting ground Catch sight of some ordinary month or week Of that strange quarry You scarcely thought you sought, Yourself? The gatherer gathered, The finder...
· 22 September 2005 | 48 words
Inside an open rose a tree frog no bigger than my thumbnail. I try to imagine rest like that, tucked in such a bed of petals. I try to imagine prayer like that, listening so intently in the early...
· 21 September 2005 | 137 words
Last night as I was sleeping, I dreamt--marvelous error!-- that a spring was breaking out in my heart. I said: Along which secret aqueduct, Oh water, are you coming to me, water of a new life that I have never...
· 18 September 2005 | 160 words
Lord let me find back the lost treasure of time: Time for gentle listening to a friend, for sharing the play of a child, For consoling a suffering fellow man, For thinking without strain, ...
· 13 June 2005 | 111 words
Nothing is ever really lost, or can be lost, No birth, identity, form--no object of the world. Nor life, nor force, nor any visible thing; Appearance must not foil, nor shifted sphere confuse thy brain. Ample are time and space--ample...
· 5 May 2005 | 392 words
When I rise full of LOVE for life and laughter and the me that I am LOVE will meet me... When I rise above my...
· 3 May 2005 | 247 words
They tell how it was, and how time came along, and how it happened again and again. They tell the slant life takes when it turns and slashes your face as a friend. Any wound is real. In church...
· 3 February 2005 | 456 words
I am lost in a fog of nothingness. I cannot seem to see or recognize or understand much of anything. I see faint lights scattered about me. Some are brighter than others, some less. One or three of them give...
· 19 January 2005 | 93 words
When Love speaks to you, believe in him, though his voice may shatter your dreams, as the north wind lays waste the garden. For even as love crowns you, so shall he crucify you. Even as...
· 17 January 2005 | 182 words
What is hope? To want? To desire? To expect that what's envisioned may indeed happen? YES to all of the above. Is hope that gut feeling that it's worth holding out and hanging on...
· 1 January 2005 | 77 words
I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year, "Give me a light that I might go safely out into the darkness." And he replied, "Go out into the darkness and put your hand into...
· 22 December 2004 | 225 words
There once was a shining Christmas tree Standing out where all could see. Its brilliance captured every eye And seemed to cheer each passer by. "The lights are so bright," they would say And hesitate to walk away. The tree...
· 18 December 2004 | 144 words
You cannot teach faith; you have to radiate faith. You cannot tell others to hope; you have to radiate hope. You cannot describe love; you have to radiate love. You cannot give what you...
· 4 December 2004 | 51 words
Love is the willingness to give up a part of yourself you think you know, to discover a part of yourself you never knew existed. -- John Squadra Makes you wonder...
· 7 November 2004 | 151 words
To laugh is to risk appearing the fool. To weep is to risk appearing sentimental. To reach out for another is to risk involvement. To expose your feeling is to risk exposing your true self. To place your ideas, your...
· 26 October 2004 | 171 words
A poem from one of my students... Serenity is what I crave most. Yet, the highway is littered with rejection, close-mindedness, and powerlessness. I surrender myself to my higher power. The adversities that plagued me once before ...
· 16 September 2004 | 84 words
I have been thinking of the difference between water and the waves on it. Rising, water's still water, falling back; it is water. Will you give me a hint how to tell them apart? Because someone has made up...
· 9 September 2004 | 69 words
One ship drives east and another drives west With the selfsame winds that blow. 'Tis the set of the sails And not the gales Which tells us the way to go. Like the winds of the sea are the ways...
· 7 September 2004 | 211 words
God forgave you long ago. You need to learn to forgive yourself. God does not hold you back. You hold yourself back. When are you going to let go? If you have repented, if you have turned back toward God,...
· 6 September 2004 | 33 words
To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all men, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect. -- Author unknown...
· 5 September 2004 | 268 words
Of Courtesy, it is much less Than Courage of Heart or Holiness, Yet in my walks it seems to me That the Grace of God is in Courtesy -- Hilaire Belloc John Saward, in his article, "The Grace of God...
· 14 August 2004 | 36 words
on this deep sea of sadness / faith's fishing boat / trawls the solemn depths / and in my nets joy collects / like slow fish / fat from feeding / in the deep darkness -- H.J. Hughes
· 2 August 2004 | 95 words
Baby feet love to play. They are fresh and smooth and soft and plump. They are not yet worn flat by the weight and toil of living life, and cramped by constricting shoes. They are sensitive and responsive, with a fetal-like curl to the slightest touch. Their toes wiggle with a joy for life, stretching to reach their full spread, to their full potential. They are happy with anticipation, of skipping and hopping up the path, back to home in heaven.
· 30 July 2004 | 59 words
Isn't it strange that princes and kings, and clowns that caper in sawdust rings, and common folks like you and me are builders of eternity? ...
· 2 July 2004 | 86 words
My life is but a weaving Between my Lord and me, I cannot choose the colors He worketh steadily. Oftimes he weaveth sorrow, And I in foolish pride Forget He sees the upper And I, the underside. Not till the...
· 31 May 2004 | 340 words
The Good ShepherdCatacombs of Rome, 284 AD The Savior, thus the good pastor, which means the good shepherd, Carries this sheep on piggyback, the sheep that was lost, that was going to get lost...
· 29 April 2004 | 54 words
God, whose love and joy are present everywhere, can't come to visit you unless you aren't there. -- Angelus Silesius
· 20 April 2004 | 53 words
Every opening flower proclaims the glory of god. Every grain of wheat illustrates for us God's providence. Every drop of rain proclaims God's concern for the welfare of all people everywhere. Every rainbow symbolizes the promise of a better tomorrow. -- Leroy Koopman
· 15 April 2004 | 70 words
The Spring blew trumpets of color; Her Green sang in my brain -- I heard a blind man groping "Tap-tap" with his cane; I pitied him in his blindness; But can I boast, "I see"? Perhaps there walks a spirit...
· 4 April 2004 | 99 words
I saw the Conquerors riding by With cruel lip and face wan: Musing on kingdoms sacked and burned There rode the Mongol Genghis Khan; And Alexander, like a God, Who sought to weld the world in one: And Caesar with...
· 25 February 2004 | 418 words
I am their father, says God. Our Father who art in heaven. My Son told them often enough that I was their father. I am their judge. But I am especially their father. He who is a father...
· 15 February 2004 | 747 words
A journal entry of mine about depression inspired Mea at ignispati to write about hope. Yesterday, I stumbled upon this poem about hope from an old French poet while looking for something else. How apropos... I AM, God says, Master...
· 1 December 2003 | 214 words
To you, O Lord, I lift my soul. Your ways, O Lord, make known to me; teach me your paths, Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my savior, and for you I wait all the day. Good and upright is the Lord; thus he shows sinners the way. He guides the humble to justice, and teaches the humble his way. All the paths of the Lord are kindness and constancy toward those who keep his covenant and his decrees. The friendship of the Lord is with those who fear him, and his covenant, for their instruction.
May God’s love,
peace, and energy
touch you in faith.
![[Jerusalem Cross with Heart]](http://cowpi.com/journal/grafiks/jerusalem-cross-heart.gif "Jerusalem Cross with Heart")