Friday, November 18, 2011

The Bruises She Endured

The Bruises She Endured


After Mary showed me
the bruises she endured
when she thought God had left her
all alone, without a son,
when she thought her world had fallen
into chaos and insanity,
and all things would forever remain
separate and unloved,
after Job showed me the places in his heart
that had resisted the trials God had set before him,
after Rumi showed me the buckets
filled with water shed when Shams
was killed by students in his tribe,
this was when I knew bruises, tears and trials
are all holy.

Mary held her bruises like a mother holds a newborn babe
and listened to the Light
tell her she was nothing more than moon
depending on the sun,
nothing more than emptiness waiting for the holy spirit's love;
Mary stood with Job and Rumi
and could no longer hold to the strings
she had been taking with her all her life.
All things belong to Light and only Light
could determine what was good, complete and holy.
Like the apple on the tree
allowing God to say now you are ripe and you may fall,
Mary learned at last to let
her love for God include the sadness, the despair,
her broken heart and helplessness;
she placed her life upon God's altar
and opened up her heart to receive the Love of Light
with the fullness of surrender of the falling apple
or the moon, with the passion of an unbound kite
giving itself to the wind.


This poem will be included in Elliott Robertson's forthcoming book, Darkness and Light.

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

A Crumpled Robe

The life I haven't lived yet
sits like a crumpled robe upon a shelf.
It is waiting to be draped over my shoulders.
But that would mean discarding
every crutch I grasp--fears, judgments,
my clouded vision unable to behold.
My shallow breath would be replaced
with an expansive wind.
The local self pinned down by time
would collapse, fall crumpled to the floor,
and joyful sparks would burn my heart
to sacred transformed ash.
It would be the falling of the heart into the One,
the kiss from God accepted, the rest note heard
by the deepest ear, the ray of sunlight
saying, "Yes, I will be sent to earth just as I am."


"The Crumpled Robe" was originally published in Elliott Robertson's book Chaos and Surrender. Chaos and Surrender is available on Lulu.com at a discount and on Amazon.com.