PPP – Peace Poetry Postcard Month

February 5, 2019 by leximagines

Postcardosostcardd

February is one of my favorite months.

Valentines Day. Imbolc. And the World Peace Poets who usher in their Peace Poetry Postcard Month.

We sign up to receive 28 names and addresses of other poets from across the world who will write one poem a day in February on a postcard and pop it into the mail to a different poet each day. And, of course, the theme of peace flies through the universe courtesy of the mail systems. Ahhhhhhh, a beautiful way to spread peace and art and magical words and intentional creativity.

I am late in posting. It is already Day 6. Today I shall catch up. Then post one a day from here on out. I promise.

02.01.19
Being
I
Become
Bring forth
Be at cause
Realign my extent
Turn around

Revolutionary Evolutionary Being

My gambol in

Peace

02.02.19
Convolvulus

/kənˈvɒlvjuːləs/
genus Convolvulaceae

Bind weeds to strangle

Morning Glories, family, too
Bright eyes in morning sun
Blue as Mar Pacifico
“the peaceful sea”

Two sides of family

Revolutionary combatant
Evolutionary halcyon
Beings conceived in parallel

02.03.19
Good Ancestor

I reach back to you,
Good Ancestor,
embrace your peace,
your walk with me.

I reach ahead to you,
Good Ancestor,
divine your peace,
your walk with me.

I walk my day,
an open vessel
to shine out your peace,
Good Ancestor To Be.

02.04.19
Milky Way
It all came back to
why she dyed her hair.

She wasn’t at peace with
who she was.

The Milky Way
gently nudged her
home.

02.05.19
genius loci

The spirit of place that is.

Architects, the good ones,
the ones who know
beings
and nature
and things created
must reside in peace,
and weave the genius loci
into its right
and honorable space.

(Dedicated to Daniel Libeskind, architect of the Denver Art Museum, after hearing his interview on Colorado CPR)

02.06.19
Roofers
In February’s stolid chill
roofers crack open early morning peace.

Rhythmic nails shutter out
weather’s purpose.

June’s hail storm
Re-collected.

Peace Poetry Postcard Month

February 1, 2017 by leximagines

February ushers in longer days. Where I live Imbolc kisses us with the faintest promise of spring and new life. There is still ice and snow and cold. But there is also hope.

And, most important of all, February gives us Peace Poetry Postcard Month sponsored by a delightful group of poets in the Pacific Northwest who call themselves World Peace Poets. My dear friend, C.J. Prince, also lends her hand to this project. We write a poem each day, put it on a postcard, and send it away!

I teach first grade and my time is so very limited. That is exactly why this is a good project for me. This time of the school year is long, the students are wanting spring even more than I do, and the world needs us.

And so I begin….

Day One – Peace Poetry Postcard Month

First Planting

First we have to plant the seeds.
Creation begins where no one sees.
Deep within darkness where no one sees,
there creation begins.
But we must plant the seeds.

How can we trust that flowers
will bloom or trees push to sky
or grass wave in wind?
How will we know that peace will be,
only because we planted the seeds.

I have news for you

January 28, 2015 by leximagines

I have news for you

A keen wind yaws branches,
a reel stepped under icy breath
Buds burgeon on slender fingers
in ready for spring’s nativity

The red-berried tree almost empty
of its frosted wintered feast
glistens in sun’s morning glow

We are of deep winter here
our snows still come fierce and heavy
our earth solid with glacial glaze
our spring tarries elsewhere
while patience makes merry
with wintertide’s feile

This is my news

Author’s Note:

I am preparing to celebrate the feast of St. Brigid and Imbolc. It is a journey into spring, although our spring here in Colorado will be some time in arriving.

To celebrate, I am participating in 30 Days of Brigid, a luscious on-line retreat offered by Joanna Powell Colbert. Take a look. It would be wonderful to have you walk with me this month.

Today, Joanna welcomed us to try our hand at describing our sacred space through the form of a 9th century Irish poem. Some sources say it was found scribbled on a monk’s manuscript.

“I have news for you:
The stag bells, winter snows, summer has gone
Wind high and cold, the sun low, short its course
The sea running high.
Deep red the bracken; its shape is lost;
The wild goose has raised its accustomed cry,
cold has seized the birds’ wings;
season of ice.

This is my news.”

— 9th Century Irish Poem

Blessings to you this day of wind and cold and ever-hopeful spring.

Brigid of Kildare

February 7, 2014 by leximagines

In the eye of fire your swirl of spirit burns,
heats my soul, blazes with love. I step to the

Brigid’s Fire by Joanna Powell Colbert

threshold, move out of my own way to watch
geese soar into the early eve’s welkin purpled

in cold that is not yet spring ready. In your
fire-flamed breath I watch my rise, a waltz in

sky’s opening. You called a whispered welcome,
a generous invitation. I step aside, my fear

grounded. I answer, bare feet push
against earth’s grip to join in your dance.

.
.
.
.

Author’s note:

I had the pleasure of meeting a saint, a goddess, unknown to me only a few weeks ago. Fr. Scott Jenkins asked me to do the homily for our monthly Celtic mass as St. Brigid of Kildare. The mass would take place on February 1, Brigid’s feast day and Imbolc.

It was a whirlwind three weeks. Research, writing a script, addition of a baptism at the mass (oh, so appropriate!), making a costume, rehearsing, and regular life chores of a first grade teacher, wife, and caregiver.

It was well worth it.

The homily was a transforming experience for me. My church, A Church of the Holy Family, is a place of loving and wonderful people who accept all. We are part of the Ecumenical Catholic Communion (ECC). I am only a member for slightly over a year, but have been embraced and my gift of writing and acting has been encouraged and honored. I cannot have found a more welcoming home.

Also, I found Brigid, a saint and goddess I will treasure. I was lucky to have gone on a private silent retreat during this time at the Sacred Heart Jesuit Retreat House allowing me time to explore Brigid and Celtic spirituality in some depth. I find that Brigid is leading me in a discernment process right now. I wake to her blessings each day.

And I not only discovered Brigid, but was also connected to an artist through a dear friend, C.J. Prince, a writer who lives in Bellingham, Washington. The artist, Joanna Powell Colbert, was creating this new portrait of Brigid at the same time I was creating the homily. A print of Ms. Powell Colbert’s Brigid’s Fire now resides on my mediation altar. Please visit her site to see Brigid’s Fire, other beautiful work, and a blessing for Imbolc, the beginning of spring.