Category Archives: beauty

When the Roses Speak, I Pay Attention by Mary Oliver

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Ely Cathedral Rose image copyright Rebekah Choat

Ely Cathedral Rose
image copyright Rebekah Choat

 

“As long as we are able to
be extravagant we will be
hugely and damply
extravagant. Then we will drop
foil by foil to the ground. This
is our unalterable task, and we do it
joyfully.”

And they went on. “Listen,
the heart-shackles are not, as you think,
death, illness, pain,
unrequited hope, not loneliness, but

lassitude, rue, vainglory, fear, anxiety,
selfishness.”

Their fragrance all the while rising
from their blind bodies, making me
spin with joy.

 

Between the Trees

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image by Rebekah Choat

image by Rebekah Choat

Genesis 2: 8-9:  The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden,
and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground
the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and
good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Revelation 22: 1-2:  And he showed me a pure river of water of life,
clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb.
In the middle of its street and on either side of the river was the tree
of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month.
And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

 

Trees, at the beginning of life as we know it, and at what we call the end of life as we know it – or, we could say, the beginning of life as we shall know it even as we are known. Between them, this long stretch of time, some of which is now ours – the days of living between the trees.

 

Out of the Sea

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Small as a world, this smooth round stone
you gave to me, and large as alone,
and grey as the sea it rolled in from,
hurled on the shore to be brought home.

Within its sphere are foam and sky
and bite of salt and seagull’s cry
and height of wave and stretch of sand,
and here I hold it in my hand.

It sings a song of tideswept stars
and deeps where untold wonders are.
It keeps the memory of the wind
and brings me whispers of a friend.

I can’t be lost — it anchors me,
this smooth round stone out of the sea.

~ Rebekah Choat

 

Garden Charm

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image by Rebekah Choat

image by Rebekah Choat

Lavender, rosemary, marjoram, mint,
Sweetest of herbs in my garden close,
Gracing the morning with their mingled scent,
Lavender, rosemary,marjoram, mint.

Lavender, rosemary, marjoram, mint,
Holiness, purity, safety and peace,
Comfort, remembrance, healing, content,
Lavender, rosemary, marjoram, mint.

Lavender, rosemary, marjoram, mint,
Happiness, respite from sorrow, heart’s ease,
Brightness and deep breath and friendly intent,
Lavender, rosemary, marjoram, mint.

Lavender, rosemary, marjoram, mint,
Sweetest of herbs in my garden close,
Gracing the morning with their mingled scent,
Lavender, rosemary, marjoram, mint.

~ Rebekah Choat

Good Night Moon

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image by Rebekah Choat

image by Rebekah Choat

The shy moon
slips through the clouds to
whisper good night.

~ Rebekah Choat

 

I’m participating in National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo). Today is the first day I’ve really followed the prompt provided – to write a lune, a sort of simplified haiku counting words 3/5/3 instead of syllables 5/7/5.

Those who give their thought

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image copyright Rebekah Choat

image copyright Rebekah Choat

Those who give their thought
to seed, to love and the bringing to birth,
must know the sightless underside
of earth, and perhaps more than once,
for no one goes at no cost
to that place where what is dark,
more still than the hands
of the dead, remembers the light
again, and starts to move.

It is spring, and the little trees
that sprouted in the abandoned field
two years and more ago, striving
to grow, half-smothered under
the shadows of the tall weeds,
now rise above them
and spread their newleafed branches,
nothing between them and the light
sky, nothing at all.

~ Wendell Berry

What are heavy?

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image copyright Rebekah Choat 2013

image copyright Rebekah Choat

What are heavy?  sea-sand and sorrow
What are brief?  today and tomorrow
What are frail?  spring blossoms and youth
What are deep?  the ocean and truth

~ Christina Rossetti

We Stand to Prayer

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image by Rebekah Choat

image by Rebekah Choat

The splendour of Nirvana is not ours,
We have no middle eye, no mystic wings,
And our brief visions take us unawares.
We stand to prayer as rows of earthen jars
Whose dark mouths open onto hidden things:
A secret kingdom where the poor are kings.

Here is an image of that inner place,
The quiet mountain country of the soul
With silver pools where lions drink their fill
And the pale unicorns lie down in peace.
Here is an emblem of the hidden grace
Beneath the flux and turmoil of what happens,
A quiet kingdom where the silence deepens,
Whose heart is hallowed by the Prince of Peace.

~ Malcolm Guite

God speaks to each of us

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image by Rebekah Choat

image by Rebekah Choat

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.

Flare up like flame
and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you:  beauty and terror.
Just keep going.  No feeling is final.
Don’t let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke