counterfeit can only exist
when there is real gold—
is it the same with god?
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged god, gold, poem, poetry, real, spirituality on June 9, 2018| 2 Comments »
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged invitation, poem, poetry, spirituality on December 9, 2014| 1 Comment »
two haikulings inspired by Rumi’s Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi
over the edge
making the last step
with no feet
(Divan xxxv)
*
that departure drum–
how easily I slip its beat
into my dream
(Divan xxxvi)
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged conundrum, poem, poetry, spirituality on December 7, 2014| 1 Comment »
haikulings inspired by Rumi’s Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi
spring after spring
though the Sun beckons Aloft—
ostrich imitations
(Divan xxix)
*
oh foolish fish
lounging in the desert
signing your name Sphinx
(Divan xxix)
*
low angled light—
an invitation to join
other dust and dance
(Divan xxix)
*
this old lap
heaped with titles, trophies, hope—
can’t stand, much less bow
(Divan xxix)
*
these wings—
they sure work when I take off
the dress hemmed with lead
(Divan xxix)
*
head in a sack—
hard to believe the body
is already holy
(Divan xxix)
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged poem, poetry, Rumi, spirituality on November 30, 2014| 1 Comment »
too much furniture
in here for dancing said God
handing me the match
*
my shine could get more
bang for the buck said the sun if
you’d act more moon-ish
*
a ship you have made
of my soul with you the mast,
the current, the sail
(from Rumi’s Divan-e Shams-e Tabrizi, XVIII)
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged love, poem, poetry, Rumi, spirituality on November 16, 2014| 1 Comment »
robbing ninety banks
I’d still come up short to buy
this pearl love gives me
(Divan, x)
*
on this ladder each
rung its own destination—
it’s time, love, to climb
(Divan, xii)
*
rather to wear
this scratchy wool slip of love
than all the silks of pride
(Divan, xiii)
*
is that True Love
you’re sipping? quick, bartender,
make mine a triple
(Divan, xiii)
*
I put all I love
in a canoe, love sank it—
now everything is possible
(Divan, xiii)
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged love, poem, poetry, spirituality on November 5, 2014| 1 Comment »
First I prayed to be
like an empty glass
so that you might find me
and fill me.
Filled, I prayed
that I might
be emptied
so that you might
fill me again.
Emptied, I prayed
to stop praying—prayer
had become just
one more name
for wanting the world
to be other than it is.
One day it shattered,
this idea that you could
ever be contained,
that you were not already
the emptiness, the fullness,
the container itself.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged meditation, poem, poetry, searching, spirituality on December 28, 2013| 1 Comment »
I ask for a map
god gives me a
mirror, a window
*
old glass jar
of plastic buttons
finding real pearls
*
walking and walking
and walking and walking to
get to sit still
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged god, humility, mystery, paradox, poem, poetry, spirituality on November 10, 2013| 1 Comment »
Power to the paradox.
–Jack Mueller
Today you are the cut on the finger
and you also the knife.
You the bandage that wraps the wound.
You the Advil, the ice.
You the sun, and the burn that comes.
You the aloe salve.
You the moon and the absence of moon.
You the children’s laugh.
And you the scent of old dead leaves,
and you the stubborn green.
You the red wine and the empty cup.
The song, the one who sings.
And you the silence between the notes.
You the coat and the chill.
You the uncomfortable anger, the blame,
you the one who sees through.
And you the lines I will never write.
And you the eraser, the lead.
You the peace and you the unrest
the beginning without end.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged Catherine Ghosh, Cathy Casper, poem, poetry blog, spirituality, womenr on October 18, 2012| 5 Comments »
Through a beautiful spiraling of circumstances, I was led to Catherine Ghosh’s blog, Journey of the Heart, which celebrates what a poem can do–how it can bring us together and lead us toward the divine.
Thank you to my friend Cathy Casper and her brother and his friends who helped introduce me to this site …
One of my poems from a few weeks ago is featured there, today, with beautiful artwork and an introduction … thank Catherine, for your lovely work, for the ways you’re stirring the human heart!
http://womenspiritualpoetry.blogspot.com/2012/10/oh-world-i-love-you-by-rosemerry.html
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged meditation, paradox, poem, poetry, silence, spirituality, stillness on October 17, 2012| 3 Comments »
Stillness, I say I want you.
Pond with no wrinkle. Hanging
leaf with no breeze. Mind with
no wheel of thought.
I say please teach me and then
rail against you. Squirm and reach
and whirl. In the quiet field,
I make of myself a wind.
In the silent blue room, I sing.
I climb the balcony with a tambourine
instead of sitting in the garden below.
Stillness, how I rub against you.
The heat builds the longer I sit.
I am sand paper against you. I am
bell. I am red. I am mint. Stillness,
the teachers say you are here
beneath the veils of do and must.
I listen and think I know what they mean.
I turn you into a thought. Stillness,
you leak through this carrying on.
Stillness, I wrestle myself till I sweat.
I shout your name, Stillness, as if
you were deaf. Stillness,
where are you? And where are you not?
The dawn and the night move with you.
I keep bumping against, what?
Oh Stillness, I’m laughing. There you
were in the question, but I went on
with my wondering, my want.