Hurricanes are ravaging the Western hemisphere of our world. People are fleeing for safety, enduring battering winds, rain and storm surges, as well as devastating losses. Some are beginning the slow process of recovering from flooding storms already past. People are helping people – each other. …
Venus’ Wisdom
Just as the night bid farewell in the dawn,
The new sky blushed azure and she shone brightly
As if she had something so urgent to speak –
With a deep heavenly heave she leaned in…
“What if you are God’s perfection?…
Cicada Snore
It gathers beneath somewhere and drones
with throbbing vibration that seems so single
humming underneath our awareness each evening –
the faintest of sound crescendos to loud
They begin their chant and we sense it simply as
familiar back-chatter without meaning or nuance;
yet they sing in multitudinous voice and volume
as we casually sift through our meddling minds
Would that you count off your number and place;
how unknown you remain from our silly cognition –
in stillness you speak with symphonic subtleties
all those detailed levels of boring engagement
I’d like to lie on that sound as if it were my bed
wafting and rising in pretended tone-deafness…
If I’m not careful I’ll tumble headlong into dullness,
what such rest could give is benign of sense.…
RACISM’S DAUGHTER
It seems that the scripture readings for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time have clear ties to what is happening in our country and in our world today. We have mention of “foreigners” in the Prophet Isaiah’s reading (Is 56:1, 6-7), “race” in Paul’s letter to the Romans (Rom 11:13-15, 29-32), and mention of “lost sheep, dogs, and demons” in Matthew’s Gospel (Mt 15:21-28). …
Moving Silence
Sometimes the experiences of life seem to mute us – we are unable to express what it is that is arising within us. Other times we may feel that there is not enough that we can say to express all that we are feeling in response or reaction to life’s vicissitudes.