poems

Of fruit and tree

vabutsy poems, prayers

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. There is no law against such things.” Galatians 5:22-23

The fruit of an apple tree is an apple; as the fruit, so the tree.

So then:
God is loving and joyful
God is peaceful and patient
God is kind and generous
God is faithful and gentle
God is in control

With God:
I can be loving and joyful
I can be peaceful and patient
I can be kind and generous
I can be faithful and gentle
I can let God be in control

Let this be my law
Let this be my life
Amen

Sunlight & Shadows

vabutsy poems, ponderings

In the back seat
Not much of a view
Beyond the two I love
Poking each other playfully
Father and daughter in an old rhythm
Andi drives
I imagine earlier years
Woody would have driven
And playfully poked his young daughter

(I remember my now 40-something son when he was about 3 and angry with me saying,”When I’m big and you are my little girl, I’m going to be mean to you.” I laughed then…)

On the narrow road
Over the mountain
We drive curves
In and out of sunlight
Through tree shade
Poking and sitting
Then and now
Dark and light

(I remember Julian of Norwich and John the Evangelist and Gerard Manley Hopkins and Kathleen Norris and I feel blessed by the simple and the complex, by having loved and loving and being loved.)

Meanderings

vabutsy poems

(At Andi Cumbo-Floyd’s Writers’ Retreat last weekend at God’s Whisper Farm, Kelly Hausknecht Chripczuk led us in several meditation times. For the first one, we gathered in a circle in the barn and were joined by Meander, one of Andi and Philip’s hound dogs.)

We sit in careful silence
He lies in easy silence
We consciously seek silence
He luxuriously lives it
We, in our noisy brightness,
Need to seek silence
He, in his restful brown-ness,
Seeks only us
And sunshine when it’s cold
Cool shade when it’s hot
And the occasional cucumber

We gather, facing each other,
To sit just inside the open barn door
Grateful to be here together
Stretching out –
Purposefully, effortfully –
Out to ourselves, the poem, the quiet
The possibility of stillness beyond words

He comes, uninvited but not unwelcome,
To lie just inside the open barn door
Grateful to be near us
Stretching out –
Easily, lazily –
Out to the grass, the tree, the sky
The possibility of cucumber in the garden

God, Drip Lines and Feeder Roots

vabutsy poems, ponderings

Something that Woody taught me a few days ago has stuck with me and finally came to life in something of a prayer/poem.

“A tree’s feeder roots extend beyond its drip line.”

Sometimes I stand
Grateful and aware
Within God’s drip line

Sometimes I crouch
Exposed and afraid
Outside God’s drip line

Sometimes I sit
Peaceful and secure
Over God’s deep feeder roots

Sometimes I lie
Exhausted and dull
Beyond God’s feeder roots

Always I move
In and out
“There and back again”
Through God’s drip lines
Over God’s feeder roots
Scarcely aware
Always nourished