Wild Words: Ferociously Nourishing Poetry

How the Light Comes

6/25/2023

I cannot tell you
how the light comes.

What I know
is that it is more ancient
than imagining.
That it travels
across an astounding expanse
to reach us.
That it loves
searching out
what is hidden,
what is lost,
what is forgotten
or in peril
or in pain.

That it has a fondness
for the body,
for finding its way
toward flesh,
for tracing the edges
of form,
for shining forth
through the eye,
the hand,
the heart.

I cannot tell you
how the light comes,
but that it does.
That it will.
That it works its way
into the deepest dark
that enfolds you,
though it may seem
long ages in coming
or arrive in a shape
you did not foresee.

And so
may we this day
turn ourselves toward it.
May we lift our faces
to let it find us.
May we bend our bodies
to follow the arc it makes.
May we open
and open more
and open still

to the blessed light
that comes.

- Jan Richardson

Blessing at the Burning Bush, for Solstice

6/18/2023

You will have to decide
if you want this--
want the blessing
that comes to you
on an ordinary day
when you are minding
your own path,
bent on the task before you
that you have done
a hundred times,
a thousand.

You will have to choose
for yourself
whether you will attend
to the signs,
whether you will open your eyes
to the searing light, the heat,
whether you will open
your ears, your heart
to the voice
that knows your name,
that tells you this place
where you stand--
this ground so familiar
and therefore unregarded--
is, in fact,
holy.

You will have to discern
whether you have
defenses enough
to rebuff the call,
excuses sufficient
to withstand the pull
of what blazes before you;
whether you will
hide your face,
will turn away
back toward--
what, exactly?

No path from here
could ever be
ordinary again,
could ever become
unstrange to you
whose seeing
has been scorched
beyond all salving.

You will know your path
not by how it shines
before you
but by how it burns
within you,
leaving you whole
as you go from here
blazing with
your inarticulate,
your inescapable
yes.

- Jan Richardson

These Mornings

6/11/2023

Photo by Pine Watt

All these mornings
are one morning;
over and over I am
greeted by the new day--
who greets me but
this Self that is your Self?
Beauty flows fresh,
mist and light glowing
in the valleys, brilliance
of gold breaking through
the leaves and branches
of the trees. All around
me the treasures of
the soul have gathered
as beings, as the created
newness of the World.
If I could ask for
any gift to be given
to us all,
over and over
it would simply be
This!
This!
This!

- Richard Wehrman

Praises of this Place

6/4/2023

Aurora Light During the Night
Photo by Mike Lewinski

If not now
when? Who will sing
the praises of this place
if not you?
Can you make love
with limp excuses?
Just one word
in your own voice
would cock the heads of robins,
but today they listen only to worms.
Every morning
a thousand birds
give the world a chorus of themselves
without hesitation or regret.
All through the day
the trees and sky
speak in the hushed voices of lovers,
and in the night
the grasses sigh in the warm hands
of the evening breeze
while fireflies flash their honest love
to the distant stars passing overhead.
When you are ready,
join the conversation--
It still needs the strong and delicate
sound of your voice.

- Thomas Griffin

How the Light Comes

Blessing at the Burning Bush, for Solstice

These Mornings

Praises of this Place

Archives

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How the Light Comes

Blessing at the Burning Bush, for Solstice

These Mornings

Praises of this Place

Archives

Categories

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