The Evangelical Universalist Forum

Hey everyone, guess I'll get this started. :)

Studies Poetry
#1

Well, I guess I’ll get this new Poetry section started with one of my poems. :slight_smile: This is one I wrote recently after watching a feature length film for the story of The Velveteen Rabbit. I’ve called it Love Makes Us Real.
Let me know what you think. :slight_smile:

At the window, I wait
for you, I touch the glass -
the rains fall,
do you stand at all
here
in the waters
with me?
I look up,
the clouds veil
the moon,
the stars,
the heart wanders,
wonders,
can one so far
be at once so near
to me?
In the dark times,
there is a war inside,
and I seek your light,
but am blind for the tears,
the questions in my mind…
but there are other nights,
when the skies are clear,
when the stars
shine like promises,
promises you’ve made,
stirring to longing,
moving to weep…
wander here,
wonder there,
your music pulls at my heart
as I wrestle in the deep…
for this child,
love is a question
only death can answer,
only time will tell,
where new life
springs glory,
pure as snow
in times of winter…
but I wait now,
stepping to
another drum,
in the mud
I look for the right path,
the one to trust,
your hand to hold,
your feet to follow,
the window
through which I climb
into your answer,
your heart,
and you:
the refuge for the child,
and home for all.

Matt Wiley

Well, I’ve got a lot more that I’ve written, and I’ll try to start posting them here on a regular basis. :slight_smile:
Anyone else out there got any poems to share? :slight_smile:

Maybe we could also post some of our favorite poems by other writers as well. That would be cool. :slight_smile:

Thanks Sonia and Alex for getting this started. :slight_smile:

Blessings :slight_smile:

Matt

#2

Beautiful, Matt!

I especially like the picture of the clear sky (don’t we all!) A clear night sky full of stars always lifts my spirits, too. Thanks for sharing this. :slight_smile:

Cindy

#3

That was really beautiful, Matt. I was really moved by your throwback to Abraham – Genesis 22:17. I’ve never really pondered that in the context of UR before. Thanks!

When I was in Jordan I spent a few nights in a nature reserve, sleeping under a limitless, unpolluted canopy of stars (one that stretched out from almost every horizon), listening to unadulterated silence (interrupted by the occasional bat) and awakening with the sun. I think it’s not till you camp out like that (just as Abraham would’ve) that one can really appreciate the sheer scale of the universe and the amount of its stars within it. I wasn’t at all considering UR and the Abrahamic covenant at the time, but I really wish I had. I certainly don’t bathe in nature enough, but whenever I do, it’s as a near mystical experience as I’ve ever had. Thanks for sharing Matt.

#4

I like the natural imagery–night, moon stars, skies, water–and the wondering amid the wandering, as well as the nearness of the window which leads to something greater.

Thanks for sharing. Writing is medicinal for the soul. Keep writing.

David

#5

Cindy: Thank you, sister. :slight_smile: Just last night I was out with my dog in the winter cold and the sky was clear. It’s the time of year when the Big Dipper and Orion are in the sky at the same time where I’m at. A combination of that and some lovely music from my mp3 (from the film Crash), was really stirring to the soul. :slight_smile:

WAAB: Thanks bro :slight_smile: To be honest, I don’t think I was thinking of Abraham at the time I was writing it (though I was thinking of UR), but it certainly does fit, and who knows, maybe the Spirit had that in mind when He was inspiring me to write it. :slight_smile: And that sounds beautiful, man. Sounds like an amazing place. :slight_smile: And you’re welcome :slight_smile:

Psalmist: Thanks, bro :slight_smile: It is indeed medicine for the soul. Through poetry I can sometimes find words for things to capture thoughts and feelings that would otherwise take me pages and pages to describe. :stuck_out_tongue:

Blessings to all of you, and I’ll try to share some more soon. Maybe today if I can find a good one. :slight_smile:

Anyone else got any poems to share? :slight_smile:

#6

Yet “Home!” they cry, take me home
to that far shore I never saw when I left
when my foot stepped from the foreshore to the ferry
the land I trod as a child so surely mine
now not.
Not so.
Not home.

We chill, here, in the new land, we slowly grow more still.
And all because our home outcast us, cast us
out onto the sea, onto the shore.
Like so much seaweed. Wet on rock we’re stuck here.
I could walk around this knot of rocks
but find another bay is rimmed with more
and I have to stay, on the rim of sand and sea and shore
because here the sky talks at night
of stars and far far kingdoms lost
and palaces in dreams
where people dance and dance
and spinners spin and spin
and music plays all down the scales of notes to fill the chords of time.
– heavenly sounds of ice and bells of piano
harp and birdsong.
Hoopoe. Wren. Dove.
Bird. Generic flight. Wings. Freedom.
Sky. Dawn. Light.
Art. Seven colors woven into sun.
Movement: slow.
And still the dance goes on.

All things aspire to the condition of music.
A million scattered violin notes compressed in heated sand,
the components of glass lie ready to be made fire.

Anne Kellas

#7

Upon the dawn, ten Legions rise
(Vast, their wings!) into the sky’s
Clear air. Terrible is the wind
Of their beating.

They circle now. They hover low.
The silence deep, for each one knows
Each thought. Long they gaze upon
Long labors.

The endless water, shimmer bright.
The silver-blues. The morning light.
The falling of the waves on sand
Surrendered.

The mist (white gold) on forest green,
The dew on stem and trunk and beam.
The beading, bending leaves so deeply
Bowing.

One thousand men and women sleep
Beneath the Sacred Water’s keep.
Bright spirits, called for Earth and Sky’s
Awakening.

The Dragons bathe in morning light
So still. They move in silent flight.
The sun, half-round upon the sky’s edge,
Trembling.

The risen Sun! A mystic light.
The Dragons arch their necks in might.
Ten legion ancient Dragons call
Beyond the Sky, upon the All.
Heart and throat. White Fire! Birth!
New life is kindled in the Earth.

The world awakes. The Dragons fly.
She cries her longing to the Sky.
But swiftly now, on wings of light,
The Dragons rise to hidden height,
And soaring, sweeping, swirling there,
They move beyond the Earth and Air.
Beyond the Sky.

From Quid and Harmony

#8

Good stuff, Allan :slight_smile:

#9

Hello Matt,

I like your poem and others that followed. I am one of so many I suppose who like writing what we can but have never thought of sharing them. So thanks for the initiative and encouragement. back home I will sort out one or two and send over the weekend!

God bless

Michael in Barcelona

#10

Hello Matt,

I joined the forum summer last year and love the brotherly/sisterly way of discussion back and forth however differing or critical the knowledge and views that are expressed. I am no scholar or theologian and only started reading the Bible regularly at the age of 75 though a year earlier I had discovered after reading Derek Flood that my belief had always been along Universalist lines. And then I was introduced to the Forum and last week your invitation to share peoms!

So having enjoyed yours and others, here I go with a short one:

Beneath the stars

My eyes upon a darkened hill,
The planets stop, the stars are still.
I kneel to pray and pause to stare
And close my mind that I may hear.

As soon my thoughts begin to seal,
So soft the voice, I barely feel
Nor sense your special presence near
While there you stand to share my prayer.

(wrtten feb 1991 from notes some time in 1990)
Look forward to sharing more.
Michael in Barcelona