A collection to collect or re-collect my forgotten thoughts

LET ME RISE
~ by Wendell Berry

When I rise up
let me rise up joyful
like a bird

When I fall
let me fall without regret
like a leaf.

(from Prayers and Sayings of the Mad Farmer, Collected Poems


THE FIST
~ by Mary Oliver

There are days
when the sun goes down
like a fist,
though of course

if you see anything
in the heavens
in this way
you had better get

your eyes checked
or, better still,
your diminished spirit.
The heavens

have no fist,
or wouldn’t they have been
shaking it
for a thousand years now,

and even
longer than that,
at the dull, brutish
ways of mankind—

heaven’s own
creation?
Instead: such patience!
Such willingness

to let us continue!
To hear,
little by little,
the voices—

only, so far, in
pockets of the world—
suggesting
the possibilities

of peace?
Keep looking.
Behold, how the fist opens
with invitation.

(from Thirst, Beacon Press, 2006




Blessings
Blessed are those who are emptied of all that doesn’t matter, those for whom the riches of this world just aren’t that important.
The reign of heaven is theirs.

Blessed are those who wear compassion like a garment.
For they too shall receive comfort.

Blessed are the creators of peace, those who build roads that unite rather than walls that divide, those who bless the world with the healing power of their presence.
For they shall be called the children of God.

Blessed are those whose love has been tried, like gold,
In the furnace and found to be precious, genuine, and lasting, those who have lived their belief out loud, no matter what the cost or pain.

–Macrina Wiederkehr



“If heaven is on earth, it’s hardly contradictory to love sunshine chevroned with tree shadows in the woods, plus the low-slung moss, a tiger-colored butterfly, the Tiffany glitter of a spider’s web after a gust of rain, and the yellow-spotted salamander emerging from under the nearest log—yet feel content to die.”
–from Curtain Calls: The fever called “living” is conquered at last by Edward Hoagland



ONCE A PERSON KNOWS
~ by Baal Shem Tov

It is therefore written: "Hide, I will hide my face."
That is, God will be hidden
so that they do not even know God is there.
But once a person knows God is hidden,
God is not really hidden.

(from The Path of Blessing, by Rabbi Marcia Prager, Jewish Lights, 2003




FEAR NOT THE STRANGENESS
~ by Rainer Maria Rilke

You must give birth to your images.
They are the future to be born.
Fear not the strangeness you feel.
The future must enter you
long before it happens.
Just wait for the birth,
for the hour of new clarity.

(Letters to a Young Poet, Transl. Stephen Mitchell,
New York: Vintage Books, 1986)

WORLDS ARE FORMING
~ by Meister Eckhart

All beings
are words of God,
His music, His
art.

Sacred books we are, for the infinite camps
in our
souls.

Every act reveals God and expands His being.
I know that may be hard
to comprehend.

All creatures are doing their best
to help God in His birth
of Himself.

Enough talk for the night.
He is laboring in me;

I need to be silent
for a while,

worlds are forming
in my heart.



IF YOU LOVE
~ by St. John of the Cross (1542-1591)

You might quiet the whole world for a second
if you pray.

And if you love, if you
really love,
our guns will
wilt.


(from the Love Poems from God: Twelve Sacred Voices
from the East and West, translation Daniel Ladinsky
- Penguin Compass, 2002)


PRAYER IS AN EGG
~ by Jalaludin Rumi (1207-1273)

Don't do daily prayers like a bird
pecking, moving its head
up and down. Prayer is an egg.

Hatch out the total helplessness inside.


(translated by Coleman Barks)

these and others can be found at http://www.faithhousemanhattan.org/faith_house