The Unknown Seas of a New Year

There is a wind blowing off the sea
urging clouds across thirsty mountains.
A sail has responded internally
setting course for the unknown seas of a new year.

The goaded feet of many travellers
have found the chains, broken,
the fetters smashed.

It was enough to be reminded
of waters from within the most Beautiful Man
that may be drawn to quench all thirst.

Amidst one Son, a countless variety
of pilgrims are voyaging, many sails aloft.

Inside, the breath of the Spirit sets the course
as we stand with wind in our faces
setting our sights on what fills the horizon.

The waves may veer us to the left or the right,
but we hear a voice directing
with true compass navigation.

As the elements swirl around us on this blustery fine day,
we know with a sure anchor
that when we come into harbour tonight
the driven strife will have blown away
and we will feel filled with open spaces
waiting to be travelled.

The map is in the hands of our Captain
and his weather-worn face assures us
that this harbour under the stars
is a place for now, to call home

until tomorrow we set sail again,
and we will be carried
by the four winds of the Spirit
into whatever's ahead.

All we need do is raise anchor,
and hoist the sails.

Jenneth Graser

Artist - A. D. Blake

I wish all of you a Very Blessed and Merry Christmas and Joyous New Year!  Thank you for being part of the journey at Prayers on the Wing this year.  It has been for me in many ways a poetry journal and process of some very transitional times in our lives.  I appreciate each one of you and pray every blessing over you and your families into the New Year.

~ Available from Secret Place Devotions: A Listening Reflection for New Year 2017

~ Did you know that Catching the Light is available for audiobook download? ~ Episode 1-10 and 11-20: scripture reading, gentle piano background music, a devotional reflection and poetry for contemplation: Audiobook Catching the Light Episode 11-20

I Will Find You Again

I come to you between the lines,
in the places no one else can see
where seeds lie dormant under snow
waiting through cracks in the pavement.

Here is where you are to be found -
where no one is looking,
I will find you.

When relationships lag behind
expectations that cannot be met,
when the longing for a rekindling
of connection leaves us feeling bereft -
It is here I meet you.

You make for me a home
where Advent light realigns
the needs of family and friends
both near and far -
I will see you.

When I miss the people
who are no longer a part of my life,
when the children wake up
on the excitement of long ago mornings,

and when I look forward to so much
it cannot be contained -
it is here
I will find you again.

Jenneth Graser

Gift of Wonder

In the fledgling of this day
a gift of wonder is waiting.

Where a branch meets the welcoming sky,
leaves break the brightening palette with green.

A bird not yet grown
shows newly adult feathers peeking through
the down in shimmers of emerald and red.

A curtaining of vine shadows lace the walls
and family faces look like strangers wanting to be known.

Every smile is not taken for granted
where laughter is medicine
and we open this precious gift
that costs us nothing.

We come upon it as grace,
while imagination flickers with picture upon picture
of how the world could be.

We find ourselves praying into dark places
with hopes that are longing for more.

Wonder promises us that miracles
are here to stay.

Through every impossible dark,
there is one ray of light to point the way.

So we pick up the fractured pieces
as Spirit somehow makes sense of it all
in the way only Spirit can,

beyond reasoning or understanding
peace combines with wonder
as healing melts through the sun.

Jenneth Graser

Photography Silvia Stödter

It is Time

There were blank canvasses in cupboards

Unwritten pages in many journals,

Oil paints in wrapping, as yet untouched.

There were books like notes

On staves, unread on shelves

And dancing shoes under the dust.

There were days of perfect sun

Light, making history on the water,

With an empty bench for the view.

There were jackets needing mending

And clutter building up

In the kitchen, pots, utensils.

There were many buttons in

Grandmother’s box, from the good old days.

Envelopes and stamps as yet unlicked, unsent.

There were photographs set on origami

Paper cranes, from which eyes

Observed the passage of time.

There were guitars in their cases

And a piano, needing tuning.

~

Take out the canvasses, dear

Today is a perfect day for painting.

Write your poetry and your gratitude

In a journal of your choosing.

Squish your oils on a palette –

Mess with colour, mix, ooze.

Take out a book that speaks

Of places yet unseen, turn pages.

Put on shoes for dancing

To the beat popping the air.

Slow into your time dear,

On the bench made for you,

To satiate your mind with all you care to see.

Take those old jackets down to charity,

The pots, utensils too.

Make mosaic button rainbows,

Write a letter in your leisure;

Then call up the tuner

And peel off the cases –

It is time to make music.

Jenneth Graser

Photography credit unknown

Resting Seat

There are many things that could be said,
many that could be done.

Mountains to climb, up to the very top,
lists of the bucket kind.

A feeling of to-do lingers at the fringes of the day
as we drop exhausted into bed.

And Lord you are calling us,
you are calling us still...

Come my Beloved,
into a time outside of time.

Come to the resting seat in the garden
of my habitation.

There are no nagging voices or things to be done.

Here, there is presence that guides
everything you do on earth.

Listen to my voice, put on the music, lay aside your rushing.

Move into the pace of ease where my Spirit speaks
strength into your frame.

And whatever you need to face,
we will do it together.

Jenneth Graser

"My lover is mine, and I am his.
Nightly he strolls in our garden,
Delighting in the flowers
until dawn breathes its light and night slips away."

Song of Songs 2:16 MSG

Photography - Jenneth Graser

Listen to Ruth Fazal - instrumental violin album - Songs from the River 2

Make Room for You

It is time to make room for you
to come in ways I have not known.

My heart has become eager for the stretch
of tent pegs and widening of stakes.

The pain of a good stretch will be worth it,
to receive the mystery of your voice in the shade.

I will meet with you in places unfamiliar
and break bread with you, and drink wine.

I will linger over your features
and we will be silent for awhile.

I may not feel like talking,
you may not feel like talking too.

But we will be with the love that grows
through all things hard in a breaking of ground.

We will stay and observe what may come
from such a union, where old love feels new.

As our hearts synchronise,
we hear the rhythm combined.

Jenneth Graser

Image credit unknown

Brother Lawrence's Kitchen

I fold back the sleeves of the day
into Brother Lawrence's kitchen.

The dusky light shines through motes
making a silhouette of this homely monk.

The hard work of food, cooking and dishes
happens without the use of the word busy.

I feel love through the pores of him breathing
and his eyes connected to fellow, self and God.

No ordering about and yet, everything has a place.
No rushing, and yet look, it is all done.

There is peace in each duty performed.
There is a divine connection in the work.

Lord, your presence is all around me as I do,
everything that has a need can be settled into
without the driven edge of stress.

Let us practice the presence of grace
and rest in the bosom of your love
where work is worship.

Jenneth Graser

Credit unknown - From a book published by Fleming Revell Co. in 1900

An audio reading of the book The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence:

Born out of time

On her death bed,
a woman transported on one of her final
breaths
to a time in her past.

Young as ever she did appear
and aware of what awaited her,
this window
into life as it had been lived
was given as a gift before she travelled through.

The moment chosen for her to relive
was on the blink of a mid-life
realisation
whilst snuggling her daughter during nightnight prayers.

She was with the little ones when they were so
small
and words rippled out of their mouths,
confounding them with sage-like wisdom.

"I love you with all the colours of my heart"
"Thank you that we are the praise of God"
"Your songs come into my mouth and my songs go into yours"

Fingers, each so like petals held
on,
as she leant into a beating heart.

Her daughter stroked her hair
as though she was the comforting mother
and the mother, her child.

And the revelation came: she could see herself as an old woman
looking back over time to this moment,
(a time often raced through to get to the next thing),

and she felt herself travel back to be here, be here now
and she knew that for the rest of her life she would
make every attempt to abandon herself to the call of love
by becoming more mindful
of living
in
the
present.

And then the woman found herself back in her bed
with the faces of those she loved around her.
A holding of hands, a kiss on a
breath
and she was born out of time into God.

Jenneth Graser

Photo credit unknown