life: acoustic & amplified
poetry, quotes & thoughts about life
Archive for the category “dark”
ready?
When will he come
and how will he come
and will there be warnings
and will there be thunders
and rumbling of armies
coming before him
and banners and trumpets
When will he come
and how will he come
and will we be ready
Madeleine L’engle
O Come, Beloved,
in this night of our travail
in which we cannot see;
breathe with us, in us,
and be the saving arm around us.
O Life-making Word,
speak your light in our heartbreaking darkness,
and call this world into being anew.
O Borning God,
in the well of this deep night
wrap all our expectations in your mystery,
shroud in darkness all our knowing
of how you are among us,
bundle tightly our wisdom
in your smallest box,
and come to us otherwise.
O Intimate Dawning,
bear us through the night
and birth us into a new day,
changed,
infant,
breathing.
_________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net
fearless
To go into the darkness with a light
is to know the light.
To know the dark, go dark.
Go without light and find that the dark too, blooms and sings
and is traveled by dark feet and dark wings.
– Wendell Berry
Black. out. black.
Black. on. black.
Dark. on dark. on dark.
I was simply looking for home.
Not knowing the current alley would lead
to where the sidewalk ended
I stepped off the edge
out of the world of light
waking into morning night
a banished sun
no stars
or moon
or streetlights
or fireflies
or lighters
in pitch darkness
I lay, unable to move,
senses adjusting
to what is my new reality
hearing the life
that lives here
wondering if I’ll make friends
while I’m here
learning this new space.
ACL 9/12/13
Sent from my iPhone
Never be afraid of the breaking things — because if you let it come, it will come that even the breaking things will break — and then you will finally break free. – Ann Voskamp
You’ll notice it on the way out the nursing home door, how that something that’s been broken in you — is starting to break. Let it come.
– Ann Voskamp
the only way to get through the dark
is to…
put one foot in front of the other,
just keep walking,
inching,
ahead.
sit down and rest when you need to,
just sit there,
head down
on a squishy pillow.
cry when you need to,
as hard,
as loud,
as long as you need.
let it spill,
soak the covers,
(blow nose as needed).
allow it to be dark,
even as you wait for morning.
don’t fight the dark,
just let it be what it is
let go,
float on the river of grace,
trust
and hope.
look to God,
and God alone.
while you are there,
in the darkest dark,
learn to die,
surrender to the cross,
know this death
is the door to freedom.
ACL 8/14/13
enter the ocean to find the road
Those who will not slip beneath
the still surface on the well of grief,
turning down through it’s black water
to the place we cannot breathe,
will never know the source from which we drink,
the secret water, cold and clear,
nor find in the darkness glimmering,
the small round coins,
thrown by those who wished for something else.
The Well of Grief
David Whyte
I grieve
a simple bottle of shells,
it has held me for years.
it has held years for me.
In this large, stormy cloud is also hidden:
the apple tree,
coffee on the deck,
Aunt Margie,
the saxophone,
guitars I bought –
not for me –
the songs I couldn’t sing for you,
the losses I couldn’t prepare for,
the love I couldn’t earn,
the lessons I have learned,
more than a few, broken pieces
of my soul
mending as the salt falls,
making room for something new,
more must be felt,
but I know,
as spring comes to April,
sun breaks through and finds room
to grow some new flowers
in my heart
ACL 4/5/13
Green things change,
become the color of surprise,
the color of gratitude,
the color of morning.
Bees still buzz quietly
but it is the color of letting go.
The color of something inside you.
An eye opens, and closes.
A reckoning, even as leaves fall:
not subtracting, but adding up.
Seed pods lift their empty hands
and blacken, become still.
Trees tunnel down into themselves.
Garden plants become song.
They are not dying, not giving up.
They are getting ready for something new.
________________________
Weather Report
A day also otherwise,
as even mourning bears joy,
and the beginning of autumn here
signals in the Southern Hemisphere,
where also our beloved live,
Spring’s splendid revival.
______________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net
beyond the fear
“I was afraid but
that is the beauty of past
tense. It’s over now.”
– Amanda Helm
amandaspoetry.tumblr.com/
The simplest things in life
Are the most extraordinary
Let them reveal themselves.
– Paulo Coelho
There is magic in every little thing.
Your very breath is magic.
You, showing up on this tiny planet,
at this very time in history,
purest magic.
The way the sun glints off your hair,
magic-magic.
The way the trees recognize you,
all magically-like.
The way a child can turn their head
and plunge you into instant grief,
the deepest-darkest magic.
It’s all about perspective.
Einstein reminds us,
We have a choice in how we live.
One of two ways –
As if nothing
OR
As if everything
Is miraculous!
I’m so glad,
so extremely blessed by,
that moment I chose to see the enchanted pathway.
It’s always a fine day here.
No matter the circumstance I find myself in,
Magic abounds.
And somewhere,
along this bewitching, musical, star strewn, pathway,
I forgot to be afraid anymore.
ACL 11/22/13
Light of Dawn, awaken me,
that I may always be mindful of You.
Warmth of the sun, fill me,
that I may radiate the love of Christ.
Breeze of wisdom, give me breath,
that all I say may be true and loving.
Embracing earth, receive me,
that I may always forgive.
Songs of birds, delight me,
that I may sing joy, sing joy.
Falling rain and growing grass remind me
that I live and die into You.
Flesh of my body, rejoice,
for I am Your vessel, I am alive,
I am here.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net
walking free!
You’ve been wronged:
hurt perhaps, betrayed, accused,
robbed of something, someone.
The wound still bleeds,
smoke still rises in twin columns.
You can pretend,
and your ruse will imprison you.
You can rage,
and your rage will enslave you.
You can believe your deserving,
and your shame will bury you.
Or you can walk to the sea,
the sea at the end of the world,
the dark, chaotic waters of Creation,
the Red Sea bounding your Egypt,
the ocean of forgiveness.
A bitter Pharaoh will follow you,
but don’t turn back.
You will walk into the pain, up to your ankles,
the grief, up to your waist,
the powerlessness, up to your chest
before the waters part
and you walk free.
__________________
Steve Garnaas-Holmes
Unfolding Light
http://www.unfoldinglight.net/
Romans 15:13
Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Spirit.
miles to go
We are always on a journey from darkness into light. At first, we are children of the darkness. Your body and your face were formed first in the kind darkness of your mother’s womb. Your birth was a first journey from darkness into light. All your life, your mind lives within the darkness of your body. Every thought that you have is a flint moment, a spark of light from your inner darkness. The miracle of thought is its presence in the night side of your soul; the brilliance of thought is born in darkness. Each day is a journey. We come out of the night into the day. All creativity awakens at this primal threshold where light and darkness test each other. You only discover balance in your life when you learn to trust the flow of this ancient rhythm.
– John O’Donohue
life: acoustic & amplified 