rapids

the inner currents churn and drive me along the stream of thought and emotion

in a whirling eddy, i pounce and paddle and whip through chasing the daylight

waves of distraction crash all around, but toss and turn cannot distract from ambition

a crushing sound, the falls…mist gathers and my direction is overtaken by current

at the precipice of no return, slight hesitation…yet instinct urges: take the plunge

lightning crawls up my spine, a dangerous current of its own: risk/consequence collide

a sudden hush in freefall…eyes wide with escalating significance…fear and hope embrace

butterfly passing

butterfly passing

frail wings ride the breezy gusts

scent of freedom found

trendy spirituality

i'm guest blogging today at the not-the-religious-type blog with dave schmelzer (dave is also lead pastor of the greater boston vineyard)


...my post today explores a recent article i read about Trendy Spirituality: Spiritual-But-Not-Religious

peace

first strawberry of summer

o luscious perfection

the first strawberry of summer

a texture that strokes

my tongue

enticing me deeply

tartness demanding my attention

abiding ever so closely

with a sweetness that

sends my whole being afloat

as if lingering in

a pleasant dream

the bear-cub

i fear the bear-cub

not the bear-cub itself

who flops about, here and there

exploring the ways of

they who dwell in the rotted log

uninhibited in learning

acquiring through experience

the taste of the wild

no, it is the she-bear i fear

whose massive strength

and sharp teeth

thunder at any threat

to her precious, frolicking

inquisitive cub

i don’t quite understand God

but God is a she-bear

thus i fear people

not for people themselves

but whose image they bear

across the sky of my life

a friend once

enquired of me – why

do you pray?

i sighed

it’s the sunflower

in me

attending to the radiance

of God’s Presence

across the sky of my life

it’s the bumble bee

in me

seeking beauty

while fostering life

in the wake

of impossibility

it’s the eagle

in me

soaring on the wind

sent as an ambassador

from the place

where heaven meets earth

it’s the child

in me

wondering at love

and wanting to touch

or just be close to

Love Itself

whale watching, bar harbor

is your life
that different
from what i witness
when you ever-so-briefly
pierce the veil
between worlds
leaping with such glorious joy
only to crash back into
your blue-hued dominion
majestic humpback
wayfarer of the deep
you provoke my depths
a passing
experience in prayer
a partaking of the divine
is it with deep groans
that you traverse the sea
sharing your experience
of another realm
a sojourn
like my own
groaning
with the aftertaste
of joy

exquisite erosion

in the exquisite erosion
of my own painted desert
the tattered edges fray
leaving me to wholly face
the grit that has decorated my own remnant
with grains carried along by an abiding wind
given to such coarse chastisement
that extravagantly veils the sacred
just below this surface

depths seldom envisioned
nor cresting zenith imagined
in the devotion of convoluted conduct
the acuity of which strikes suddenly
within the wandering hush of wilderness awe
so as to breed multi-hued insight
threaded into the tapestry of a life
that cloaks the appearance of such luminosity
shimmering underneath

Holy Spirit - everywhere you want to be

...the Holy Spirit has been on my mind a lot lately.

there is a re-newed hunger in me, and thus far it has emerged in my contemplation, research, thinking and writing and seeking to embrace more and more the Holy Spirit.

O how I wish I could have attended the "Holy Spirit in the World Today" conference in the UK with Archishop Rowan Williams, Jurgen Moltmann, Miroslav Volf and others.

I highly recommend the conference sessions for download and listening, Jason Gronocy's blog post has the links for the sessions outlined below:

• Homily – Rowan Williams
• Whispers of God at Work, in Cyberspace, in the Media and among the Young – Ken Costa
  Interview with Professor Jürgen Moltmann
• The Church in the Power of the Spirit – Jürgen Moltmann
• Q&A with Professor Jürgen Moltmann and Archbishop Rowan Williams
• Key Issues in Pneumatology – David Ford
• One Spirit, Many Tongues: Globalization, Faith Traditions, and Human Flourishing – Miroslav Volf
• Filled with the Spirit – Sandy Millar
• Bible Reading – Jane Williams
• In the Spirit: Learning Wisdom, Giving Signs – David Ford
• Q&A with Miroslav Volf and David Ford – COMING SOON!
• Life in the Spirit: Identity, Vocation and the Cross – Graham Tomlin

...as for my own contemplations and writing, besides my paper for the Society of Vineyard Scholars on Wisdom and the Reign of God (in which I dig into a 'Wisdom Pneumatology'), here are some links to my recent writing on the Holy Spirit from previous conversations at the Deep Church:

• Come Holy Spirit - Engaging a fuller missiological Pneumatology
• What is Past is Prologue
• Butterfly Effects...and all that jazz (a Vineyard retrospective)
• The Emergence of a positive deviance
• Lingua Franca
• Quo vadis?
  

wilderness wanderings

for anyone who has followed my erstwhile efforts at blogging the past few years, you might have picked up the pattern that i usually post a wordcraft series throughout the summer.

this summer the series will be tagged: wilderness wanderings

these poetic pieces will mostly be a reflection of my experience with nature or thoughts and provocations from creation that has indeed provoked me so…

thus for the rest of june and throughout july and august – on tuesdays and thursdays – i will be posting the wordcraft series wilderness wanderings...

enjoy!

daughters of new jerusalem

Happy Birthday Chaundra!

fierce as the lioness
gentle as the doe

the daughters of New Jerusalem
sing forth their haunting woe

once heard in jubilant song
and graceful swaying dance

now crushed by those grasping
to dwindling dominance

without the daughters of new Jerusalem…
who are the sons of Zion?

yet where have their voices gone…
lost in the roar of lions?

brood of Anna sing forth
your precious utterance

over the Messiah once more
prophetic breviloquence

who is this coming up
from the wilderness with her Lover?

tis a flowering blossom in bloom
dancing to discover

her voice clear as water
radiant in colors imbue

sing forth anointed daughter
as we are joined anew

echo of our life

wordcraft of Chaundra:


the echo of our life lived as one
is heard across the mountains of joy
and resounds in the valley of the shadow of lamentation

pretense has been undressed in our very presence
eyes that have witnessed our best and our worst
yet in loyalty and laughter we are tangled – naked but unashamed

who knows the lives that have listened to this echo
wisdom gleaned from wisdom given and lived
in a life bound from a beginning in simple flirtation

O, one day, in wrinkled eyes will we see
each other in a new light to appreciate
but for now - as closer to beginning than end – we revel in the journey of our redemption