I can’t remember where this form came from. I may have made it up, too. I’ve only written this one, and on one hand it feels strange and experimental, and on the other hand, I really like it. I don’t have a name for it.
Take any two-syllable word. That’s your title. Write five lines of poetry. The first sound in each line is the sound of the first syllable of your word, and the last sound in each line is the second syllable. Don’t try to keep the spelling the same, just the sound. My poem has lines of 10-12 syllables long.
Science
Silent as a mouse creeping along a fence,
Simple the patterns, but intricate the sense,
Since what’s in the center is often intense,
Sift carefully through all the evidence,
Silt washes away, leaving behind reverence.
Yesterday’s sermon has really caught me, particularly the moment when Saul is watching the coats for the men who stone Stephen, because they know Saul is responsible and trustworthy. Later, after his conversion, Paul mentions it again, that he watched the coats while the others killed the man. Mindy asked whether we, too, hold the coats. Am I considered to be someone who is trustworthy to hold the coats of people who harm others in the name of established religion? I want none of that. If you feel you must uphold religious ideology that harms others in the drive for some misbegotten sense of church purity, you can count me out. I will not hold your coats.
Gratitude List:
1. Children making chalk art on the parking lot during parking lot church
2. Mending, making whole, making do
3. Yesterday’s sermon–grateful for new metaphor and language to describe the work of justice
4. Plans and projects for summer
5. Snowfall of tree blossoms everywhere
May we walk in Beauty!
“It is possible to become discouraged about the injustice we see everywhere. But God did not promise us that the world would be humane and just. He gives us the gift of life and allows us to choose the way we will use our limited time on earth. It is an awesome opportunity.” —Cesar Chavez
“Here is the world. Beautiful and terrible things will happen. Don’t be afraid.” ―Frederick Buechner
“The words you speak become the house you live in.” ―Hafiz (translated by Ladinsky)
“Humans are the most intellectually advanced animal on the planet and yet, we are destroying our only home. The window of time is very small, but I refuse to believe that we cannot solve this problem.” ―Dr. Jane Goodall
“Memory makes the now fully inhabitable.” ―David Whyte
“Things which have once been in contact with each other continue to act on each other at a distance even after the physical contact has been severed.” ―James Frazer
“Which world are we trying to sustain: a resource to fulfill our desires of material prosperity, or an Earth of wonder, beauty, and sacred meaning?” — Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee
“And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.” —John Steinbeck
“Crystals are living beings at the beginning of creation. All things have a frequency and a vibration.” —Nikola Tesla
Mockingbird Chronicles 