Wholeness

WHOLENESS

There is a space in God.

The Unknown and Unknowable leaves room

for my communion with Him. 

There is a space in God:

I am permitted to come in.

I nestle in the space,

And feel the enclosing warmth of mother love. 

I fill, and I am filled.

In the womb of God, I am secure:

I grow, I develop, I expand.

 There is an ever-open space in God.

I may crawl in, and curl up, shelter there.

Bathed in the water of life,

I feel the soaking up of brokenness and sin,

The absorbing of the wounding pain.

The open space enlarges as I stretch,

And gives me space to stretch some more.

I sense the touch of Love.

Love's fingers gently stroke my mind.

 I could lose myself in the many-folded depths of this space,

And stay submerged,

Self-indulgently sinking deeper into ecstasy.

I could contemplate,

And drift,

And rest here - no demands, no battles to be won. 

I dream, and fold my hands into a prayer.

But the cold light of the Daystar calls me into being.

First dawn of icy chill, and shrinking flesh

Wake and thrust me out,

And lead me to the way I am to walk. 

 

I find the space in God is freedom to become,

And to accept the one I am.

 

B. I. Hartless.

Written after reading Grace Jantzen's book Julian of Norwich

The rose

THE ROSE

Rose after rain Beren Hartless 2007

 Deep the rose, so hidden now,

In fleshy leaves of anxious pale.

Glowing, growing, throbbing long

With all the crimson force of pain.

A stabbing thorn of fear or hate

Reveals the bud-like bloom below,

And sorely straining for release

The secret beauty's blossom bursts

Into the open, stormy air.

 

The vulnerable, downy, soft

Young petals shiver delicately,

As drenching rain and gusting gales

Provoke the earthbound plants to move.

So, strengthened by adversity,

The rose, in all her glory, flowers.

 

B.I.Hartless

Musical prayer

THE SONG 2

 

She waited on the brink of silence,

Real, eternal,

Never knowing love could be

So all-engrossing.

Somewhere, deep inside

The silence sang.

God sang,

And in the silence,

Music rose and fell,

A counterpoint to rhythms of wind and falling rain

And beating heart.

All the waiting, wanting love

Wrapped in silence,

Wove a harmony

In and through the melody and grace notes:

Lilting, spirit-lifting,

With the lightest touch,

One single note

Resonant in unison

With love.

B.I.Hartless.