Category Archives: Poems

To my Youngest Son on His 4th Birthday

My dear boy,

You are a gift, a compact, sturdy,
unbridled, whirlwind of loving kindness.
I love when I am caught up in your world
and your awareness, your forgiving and your forgetting.
You are big, and your name is heavy, borne by kings and lifted by saints,
lived by farmers and loved by friends, you are beloved,
you are a grand vision unfolding in the fields of our love,
ripening in the heat of God’s plans, resting in the roots of earth’s love,
a gift to me and to the world.
May you be always at rest on the wings of Christ’s love,
nuzzled beneath God’s grace and covered by Our Lady’s mantle.
May you be blessed, forever and ever and always.

A Wishing Prayer

Even if I never write again
past this moment
it is at God’s pleasure
that I wish to serve.

I read that Mother Theresa
thought of herself as a little pencil
that God moved as he liked.
I can offer my own little will
to God’s and he can move
my pencil as he likes.
I will not worry
about what comes out
and God can reveal himself
in whatever way pleases him.

Even if no one ever sees it
or ever reads it
I will write.
And even if my writing
never changes anyone
it will always change me.

 

A Sacramental

It is Advent
and I am cleaning out the desk.
I find expired coupons,
obsolete proofs of purchase,
useless how-to manuals.

Beneath unopened instructional cd’s
and old, unframed photos
a gem is gleaming and I open it:

“May Christ and all the angels linger long
in September’s slanting light;
gathering around your nebulous charity
that once again said ‘yes’
to becoming
the vessel for life
and loving those who become; 

May the days that seem impossible
be few and fleeting.
May the forgiving be creative!
The Beauty Immense.”

These verses fall
out of the cardstock
and into my lap,
a precious gift,
a visible sign of invisible grace
carrying me through
another birth,
another recovery,
another disorienting,
treacherous leap into
motherhood,
God getting to me
through the careful crafting of words
and friendship,
his presence made manifest in love
shared and received
like the sacramentals of daily living,
the bread and wine, the coffee and cake, the letters and poems,
the words that feed and give, restore and reawaken.

I find jealousy, greed, and vanity,
envy, pride, and selfishness
stacked and piled high on this old soul.
It is Advent
and I am uncovering a gleaming gem.

 

About the Poem:

The letter in this poem is five years old.  It inspires me each time I uncover it.  My dear friend, Cynthia, sent it to me after the birth of my third child.  If you’ve never received a letter like this, write one, and send it out into the world.  If you’ve ever received a letter like this, write and send at least ten of them!

Cynthia blogs at The Mad-Eyed Monk.  Visit and be inspired!