Reading poetry is one of the ways some of us nourish our faith, a way we set or reset our inner compass
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In this monthly column, I will briefly introduce and share two or three poems. This column builds on the five-part National Poetry month series in April. In the wrap up to that series, I suggested using an approach similar to
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They have closed the schools for three weeks.
The children who are resilient go to their houses
(if they have them) to annoy their parents (if
they have them) because no one has explained that
it is okay for the world to change, that does not
mean it’s ending. We realize that that is
The poem was written for the group of women who have accompanied one another on our journeys ever since our time as high school classmates at Emma Willard School in the 1960s. We remained in daily - often hourly- communication throughout the impeachment process. Our outrage and grief was always
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Cupping lips with mitted hands to summon us
inside, she offers fresh-baked bread wafting over our clamor,
some of us debating decades-old wounds such as who broke the china Mom left behind, priceless, irreplaceable, some of our hands guiltily empty because we forgot
promised sides. And there, new neighbors won’t stop laughing
from
Well It is barbaric. A hum drowning out the chattering lakeshore. Unwanted penetration and a mechanized din. A tower shining like a false moon through the trees we planted. God, whose Son was stripped and savaged, Feels the lash in a piney corner of nowhere. Clean Surely God cannot be
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This is a poem which imagines the author in multiple past and present lives, particularly as a dachshund in the royal court of Fernando and Isabella. The poem explores the nature of prayer against the backdrop of human atrocity.
Before the first daisy petal of light
And before the rooster’s belated announcement
It was very disheartening for me to learn that so-called Christians keep and even carry guns in the USA. In reading about people taking guns to shop in stores, to work, school, and church, one has to wonder why? Fear is a very powerful force but something more insidious has
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From its creation in 1968, The United Methodist Church has struggled to hold traditional interpretations of biblical sexuality with a theology of an inclusive and grace-filled God. In the Book of Discipline, the guiding organizational document for the UMC, we state that sexuality is “God’s good gift to all persons” and
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Dedicated to the Memory of the Pittsburgh 11. I am a Jew. I know some want to take my life For being a Jew. I learned about Anne Frank When I was just five years old. I’ve imagined living in the concentration camps. I’ve imagined dying in the gas chambers.
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A Nigerian Presbyterian Reflects on the Global Slave Trade [ezcol_1half]What madness Extreme inhumanity Not accidental Not mere mistake Planned and executed In utter wickedness. Humans turned into goods Packed in tins Stored in darkness Without sunshine Without rain Utter insensitivity. Sorting of sorts The weak and the strong To utilities
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The following poem was written by Caryl Westerberg as she prepared for the Mosaic of Peace Conference of the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program during which more than 100 Presbyterians traveled to Israel/Palestine to listen people – Jewish, Christian, and Muslim; Israeli and Palestinian – involved in the work of peace and
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