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Each Advent and Lent, Kathy sends a poem a day. Poems are selected from a range of poets over centuries. Readers are invited to spend a few moments in peace, taking in the mystery, nature, beauty, wisdom, love, and liveliness. For 16 years, the Poetry / Prayer list has been a treasured gift of these sacred seasons. To join the list, complete the form below. 

It’s Up to Us

 

It’s up to us

To re-enchant this planet earth

 

We are the elves and giants

We are the shining ones

Daughters of the Moon and

Sons of the Sun

 

We are the shapeshifters

We are the mysterious light

Shrouded in mists at

The dawn of our time

And it’s up to us to re-enchant

This living planet Earth

 

Up to us to midwife

At our own rebirth

Up to us to send our dead along their

Ancient pathways to the future

Up to us to re-enchant this

Living planet Earth

 

It’s up to us to break the spell

that steals the colors

from the world

and leaves it lifeless

 

It was our spell

We can break it

 

It’s up to us to break the spell

that steals the music from

the Wind and Rain

 

It is our spell

We can break it

 

We will dance the magic dance

and our bodies will remember

We will sing the magic songs

and together we’ll remember

How to live together

How to love each other

How to ride the eagle

How to call the deer

Home.

 

~Will Ashe Bacon

 

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Let Streams of Living Justice Flow

Let streams of living justice flow down upon the earth;
give freedom’s light to captives, let all the poor have worth.
The hungry’s hands are pleading, the workers claim their rights,
the mourners long for laughter, the blinded seek for sight.
Make liberty a beacon, strike down the iron power;
abolish ancient vengeance: proclaim your people’s hour.

For healing of the nations, for peace that will not end,
for love that makes us lovers, God grant us grace to mend.
Weave our varied gifts together; knit our lives as they are spun;
on your loom of time enroll us till our thread of life is run.
O great weaver of our fabric, bind church and world in one;
dye our texture with your radiance, light our colors with your sun.

Your city’s built to music; we are the stones you seek;
your harmony is language; we are the words you speak.
Our faith we find in service, our hope in others’ dreams,
our love in hand of neighbor; our homeland brightly gleams.
Inscribe our hearts with justice; your way—the path untried;
your truth—the heart of stranger; your life—the Crucified.
 

~Words: William Whitla (b. 1934)
~Music: Thaxted (Gustav Holst, 1874-1934)

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Today

I
Do not
Want to step so quickly
Over a beautiful line on God's palm
As I move through the earth's
Marketplace
Today.

 

I do not want to touch any object in this world
Without my eyes testifying to the truth
That everything is
My Beloved.

 

Something has happened
To my understanding of existence
That now makes my heart always full of wonder
And kindness.

 

I do not
Want to step so quickly
Over this sacred place on God's body
That is right beneath your
Own foot

 

As I 
Dance with
Precious life
Today.

 

~ Hafiz, trans. by Daniel Ladinsky, from The Gift