Poems read at Unity on Sundays

September 27, 2009

Blessing

Hafiz

We are all great rivers flowing to their end.
Swirling inside us is the silt of ages and creatures and lands
and rain that has fallen for millions of years.
All this makes us cloudy with mud,
unable to see God.
As we struggle for clarity and the open sky,
the Lord keeps saying the same thing:
Come to me now and be blessed,
Come.

August 30, 2009

A Plague

Meister Eckhart

What a cruel act to be untruthful.
Earthquakes happen in the heart
that hears sounds
that are amiss.
Havoc is created in the mind
that can no longer trust someone
once loved, and schisms devour alliances
that help support
Our life.
Words can enrich and be as wonderful spices mixed into the days
we imbibe with all our senses.
There are fields in the soul--
lush organic meadows,
though sounds and words that fall there
can be, at times, a
poison.
A plague is spread by one
who cannot tell
the truth.

August 16, 2009

An Image That Makes Them Sad

Meister Eckhart

How long will grown men and women in this world
keep drawing in their coloring books
an image of God that
makes them
Sad?

August 9, 2009

Paying Bills

Gunilla Norris

Here are the bills again.
I always dread them a little.
They are familiar presences:
first in the mail box, then in the bill drawer,
now on the desk. Services Rendered.
My life is dependent on services rendered.

Somehow I am glad to pay Richard
for the plowing, Chic for the plumbing,
Walter for fixing the roof. I know them.
They make my life possible.
It its harder to pay the faceless ones
--the ones behind these white envelopes.
Here are the lives behind the heat,
the light, the telephone
--behind the counters and computers.
I want to learn to feel a friendliness toward them.
I want to acknowledge them.

When I write my checks I want to feel
that I am returning energy in the form of money
for energy given in the form of service.
It is all Your energy. We are only each other's way
to share in that great service which is Your life
poured out continually for us all without exception.

Guard me against the arrogance of privilege,
against the indulgence of feeling
that I don't have enough, and the poverty of spirit
that refuses to acknowledge what is
daily given to me. Keep me truthful in knowing
where I spend, where my values actually are.

Let me not skip this monthly knowing.
Instruct me in judicious spending
and in gratitude with no holds barred.
I want always to give thanks and acknowledgment
to the ones I know who help my life
and to the faceless ones whom I will never know.

July 26, 2009

The Answer

Lowell Fillmore

When for a purpose
I had prayed and prayed and prayed
Until my words seemed worn and bare
With arduous use,
And I had knocked and asked and knocked
And asked again,
And all my fervor and persistence brought no hope,
I paused to give my weary brain a rest
And ceased my anxious human cry.
In that still moment,
After self had tried and failed,
There came a glorious vision of God's power,
And, lo, my prayer was answered in that hour.

July 19, 2009

I Would Be Glad

Kabir

You are sitting in a wagon being
Drawn by a horse whose
Reins you hold.
There of two inside of you
Who can steer.
Though most never hand the reins to Me
So they go from place to place the
Best they can, though rarely happy.
And rarely does their whole body laugh
Feeling God's poke
In the ribs.
If you feel tired, dear,
My shoulder is soft,
I'd be glad to
Steer a while.

(1440-1518)
Zen-Bruiser
Synthesized Hindu, Muslim, and Christian

May 17, 2009

Powerful Beyond Measure

Marianne Williamson

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you.

We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

This inspiring quote by Marianne Williamson is from her book, A Return To Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles, Harper Collins, 1992. From Chapter 7, Section 3 (Pg. 190-191)

April 5, 2009

A Hundred Objects Close By

Mirabai

I know a cure for sadness:
let your hands touch something that
makes your eyes smile.
I bet there are a hundred objects close by
that can do that.
Look at beauty's gift to us--
her power is so great she enlivens
the earth, the sky, our
soul.

March 8, 2009

The Prayer of St. Francis

St. Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.

March 1, 2009

This One Is Mine

Hafiz

Someone put
you on a slave block
and the unreal bought
you.
Now I keep coming to your owner
saying,
"This one is mine."
You often overhear us talking
and this can make your heart leap
with excitement.
Don't worry,
I will not let sadness
possess you.
I will gladly borrow all the gold
I need
to get you
back.

February 22, 2009

The Sky Gave Me Its Heart

Rabia

The sky gave me its heart
because it knew mine was not large enough to care
for the earth the way it did.
Why is it we think of God so much?
Why is there so much talk
about love?
When an animal is wounded
no one has to tell it, "You need to heal"; so naturally it will nurse itself the best it can.
My eye kept telling me, "something is missing from
all I see." So it went in search of the cure.
The cure for me was His beauty; the remedy--
for me was to love.

Rabia (717-801), most popular and influential of female Islamic saints and a central figue in the Sufi tradition. Was a great influence on Rumi. Was freed from slavery at age 50. When someone once left her a bag of gold at her doorstep, she said: "Dear, if you leave that, flies will gather as if a horse just relieved himself, and I might slip in it while dancing."

December 7, 2008

What Jesus Runs From

Rumi

The son of Mary, Jesus, hurries up a slope
as though a wild animal were chasing him. Someone following him asks. Where are you going? No one is after you. Are you the one who says words over a dead person, so that he wakes up?
I am.
Who then could possibly cause you to run like this?
Jesus explains.
I say the Great Name over the deaf and the blind, they are healed. Over a stony mountainside and it tears its mantle down to the navel. But when I speak lovingly for hours with those who take human warmth and mock it, when I say the Name to them, nothing happens. They remain rock, or turn to sand. Other diseases are ways for mercy to enter, but this nonresponding breeds violence and coldness toward God. I am fleeing from that. As little by little air steals water, so praise dries up and evaporates with foolish people who refuse to change. Like cold stone you sit on, a cynic steals body heat. He does not feel the sun.
Jesus was not running from anything.
He was teaching in a new way.

November 30, 2008

My Lucky Rock

Tukaram

I said to a squirrel, "What is that you are carrying?"
and he said,
"It is my lucky rock; isn't it pretty?"
I held it and said, "Indeed."
I said to God,
"What is this earth?"
And He said, "It is my lucky rock;
isn't it wondrous?"
Yes, indeed.

Tukaram (1608--1649) was a prolific Indian poet, often compared to St. Francis, since birds and animals loved him.

One day, Tukaram playfully said to his close ones, "God is becoming jealous of the earth's love for me and He wonders if I would mind retiring from being so cute." Tukaram then informed his wife that God would be sending a taxi for him tomorrow and did she want to come. She declined, saying, "Who would take care of our beautiful cows the way I do?"

The next day Tukaram invited some close ones to walk partway with him toward Bhandara. About halfway there he stopped, held their hands, and looking deep into their eyes with remarkable love, tenderly kissed each person, then walked off alone and was never seen again.

November 23, 2008

So Many Gifts

Hafiz

There are so many gifts
Still unopened from your birthday,
There are so many hand-crafted presents
That have been sent to you by God.
The Beloved does not mind repeating,
"Everything I have is also yours."
Please forgive Hafiz and the Friend
If we break into a sweet laughter
When your heart complains of being thirsty
When ages ago
Every cell in your soul
Capsized forever into this infinite golden sea.
. . .
There are so many gifts, my dear,
Still unopened from your birthday.
O, there are so many hand-crafted presents
That have been sent to your life
From God.

November 16, 2008

They Have Different Needs

St. John of the Cross

Some seeds beneath the earth are dormant.
They fell the last time the cool air turned the leaves gold.
Those seeds have different needs than we do;
Let them go about their life completely unharmed by your views.
We have cracked open, we sensed even beneath the earth -- the holy was near,
And are reaching up to know and claim light as our self.

November 9, 2008

Flowing on the River of Life

Rev. Lori Fleming

Row, Row, Row your boat, we captain our own ship,
We can choose wherever we sail, or stay moored to our slip.

Row, Row, Row your boat, when the waves crash down,
We will wait in a safe, calm port, so that we don't drown.

Row, Row, Row your boat, storms will always blow,
Sometimes when the boat breaks down, we have to call for a tow.

Row, Row, Row your boat, when the water is still,
We will float through life unharmed, living in God's will.

Row, Row, Row your boat, going with the flow.
Moving gracefully through our lives, going where we need to go.

Row, Row, Row your boat, we go wherever we desire,
Experiencing God's good along the way, grace is calling us higher.

Row, Row, Row your boat, God is our compass true,
We sail on the flowing river of life, living our life renewed.

November 2, 2008

Clarity is Freedom

St. Teresa of Avila

I had tea yesterday with a great theologian, and he asked me,
"What is your experience of God's will?"
I liked that question--for the distillation of thought, hones thought in others.
Clarity, I know, is freedom.
What is my experience of God's will?
Everyone is a traveler. Most all need lodging, food, and clothes.
I let enter my mouth what will enrich me. I wear what will make my eye content, I sleep where I will, wake with the strength to deeply love all my mind can hold.
What is God's will for wing?
Every bird know that.

October 26, 2008

Psalm 10

David

I've already run for dear life
straight to the arms of God.
So why would I run away now
when you say,
"Run to the mountains; the evil
bows are bent, the wicked arrows
aimed to shoot under cover of darkness
at every heart open to God.
The bottom's dropped out of the country;
good people don't have a chance?"
But God hasn't moved to the mountains
his old address hasn't changed.
He's in charge, as always, his eyes
taking everything in, his eyelids
unblinking, examining Adam's unruly brood
inside and out, not missing a thing.
...
God's business is putting things right;
he loves getting the lines straight,
setting us straight. Once we're standing tall,
we can look him straight in the eye.

October 19, 2008

A Basket of Fresh Bread

Rumi

...There is a basket of fresh bread on your head,
and yet you go door to door asking for crusts.
Knock on your inner door. No other.
Sloshing knee-deep in fresh river water, yet
you keep wanting a drink from other people's water bags.
Water is everywhere around you, but you see only
barriers that keep you from water.

Those of you who are scattered,
simplify your worrying lives. There is one
righteousness: Water the fruit trees,
and don't water the thorns. Be generous
to what nurtures the spirit and God's luminous
reason-light. Don't honor what causes
dysentery and knotted-up tumors.
Don't feed both sides of yourself equally.
The spirit and the body carry different loads
and require different attentions.
Too often we put saddlebags on Jesus
and let the donkey run loose in the pasture.
Don't make the body do
what the spirit does best, and don't put a big load
on the spirit that the body could carry easily.

October 12, 2008

The Fruit of God

James Dillet Freeman

I would I might become the human tree
of God and give with no thought to withhold
from life whatever gifts I have in me;
the fruit of God is better than fine gold.
I plant my thought-trees in the field of mind,
trees of imagination, trees of reason,
but would not have them bear after their kind;
I would have them bear God’s fruit in His own season.
For sometimes there appears upon the bough
A harvest no man had foreknowledge of,
A fruit no tongue has tasted until now,
the golden apples of God’s perfect love.
I would not give out what I possess
but out of God’s exuberance and excess.

October 5, 2008

He Asked For Charity

St. Francis of Assissi

God came to my house and asked for charity.
And I fell on my knees and
Cried, "Beloved,
What may I give?"

"Just love," He said.
"Just love."

September 28, 2008

If It Had Not Believed

St. Thomas Aquinas

Would any seed take root
if it had not believed His promise, when
God said, Dears, I will rain. I will
help you.
I will turn into warmth and radiance.
I will be the Mother I am
and let you draw from
My body and rise,
and rise.

September 21, 2008

Love Does That

Meister Eckhart

All day long a little burro labors, sometimes
with heavy loads on her back and sometimes just with worries
about things that bother only
burros.
And worries, as we know, can be more exhausting
than physical labor.
Once in a while a kind monk comes
to her stable and brings
a pear, but more
than that,
he looks into the burro's eyes and touches her ears
and for a few seconds the burro is free
and even seems to laugh.
Because love does that.
Love frees.

September 14, 2008

Needing a Mirror

Hafiz

Your
Eye
Is so wise

It keeps turning, turning
Needing to touch
Beauty.

It keeps turning,
Needing to find a mirror

That
Will caress you

As I.

September 7, 2008

Sacred Me

Margaret Rosche

I came close, then ran away,
shy around the sacred Me.
I did not know just who-I-am,
I feared to open up and see.

Helping others heal each day
did not touch my heart.
But when I met the God in me,
I found my missing part.

I felt and saw past worldly ways,
stepped in the flow, learned how to be.
Now I deny my loss and fear,
see only love when I claim Me.

I come up close to God and stay,
embrace the Source that sets me free.
I know just Who I (Really) Am.
I love and live sacred Me.