An Archaeology of Time and Secrets

We fled the hungry streets
To find solace in upturned faces,
The eyes always speak what the mouth cannot.

The pedestal, such a lonely place
And craving for what can never fill,
The heart expands into precipitation and rain.

We are peeling the layers of earth
To dig up an archaeology of time and secrets,
Gently we brush away soil from each bone.

We have found inside of us a voice
Interlinked with the wisdom of generations,
A whisper is all it takes for these bones to rise once again.

Jenneth Graser

Photography Dane Deaner Unsplash

Join the Poetry as Therapy online Retreat - it's easy, just enter your email into the sign up form at www.secretplacedevotion.weebly.com and you will receive an email a day for 21 days in the comfort of your own home 1-21 June this year.

May We Rise

May we rise
As eagles who lean on thermals.

May we rise into the music,
Into the sky and higher.

May we rise
Above the turbulent waters of many conflicts,
Above the need to figure it all out.

May we rise above the thirsty earth,
Above the insatiable need for more
And then higher.

May we rise above the past, present, future
And breathe through timeless places.

May we rise into the great company
Of witnesses, all welcoming.

May we rise into the essence of prayer
And unconditional being.

May we rise into the fragrance of worship
Where every note creates a new possibility.

May we rise into Ascension,
May we rise in resurrection.

And there let us be taken
On the thermals of many praises
Where only higher we may find ourselves
At one with all Love is.

Jenneth Graser

Photography Amonn Maguire

The Verge of Light

Winds of change have swirled the waters
into disarray.
Streams are flowing over the mountain hewn rock
into a time of change.

You have appeared to us in our dreams
through different guises.
You have been calling for a very long time
on the waters of disarray.

Everything is the same

and yet everything isn't.

The cross that drove the nails of our shame
into your hands must be looked at
before we can be on the threshold of wonder
at an empty tomb.

When we stand there on the brightness of angels
we will hear the words we have been so longing to hear.

We have made peace with the things that have haunted our days
and now we are ready for new things.

We hail you our Son, under the darkest part of the night,
on the verge of light coming.

Creation will awaken us with the news of resurrection.

King of all kings
Prince of Peace, all hail, all hail!
Bright Morning Star
Risen Lamb, all hail, all hail!

Jenneth Graser

Artist - Arthur Hughes

A Time of Resurrection

We have set aside our treasures
and unearthed the familiar
of your voice on the pages of the Gospels
to find you in the flesh as the Son of God.

Every parable seems written with a message
reserved for our ears
to hear.

We have turned off the bright lights
and walked out of consumer packages
promising so much contentment.

We have taken in so much information
and been led to so many sources,
but we are choosing silence.

We are choosing the source of all sources
and learning to forget some new-fangled ways,
so that we can rediscover our foundation.

So that we can see the faces
waiting for our eyes.

We have held your hand on the Via Dolorosa
and cried with you and asked to bear your cross.
And you have carried our tears with each heavy load
into a time of resurrection.

Jenneth Graser

Reach into the Side

Ashes strewn to the ocean
have returned to us as birds.

Notes are tied to these messengers
for the ones who have waited too long.

You felt forgotten amongst the heavy agenda
of Heaven's timetables.

Intercessions floating up to the throne
didn't seem to bear your particular fragrance.

But God has written down something for you
in his own hand.

Communion is once again opening
with lines that are clear.

You've been blessed with the
blessings of fumbling Thomas.

We too, have felt the doubt and the pain.

We too, can reach into the side of Christ
and come away with resurrections of faith

on wounds and scars, transformed.

Jenneth Graser

The Sound of Amen - this newly released collection of 100 poems for download at Noisetrade is birthed out of a one year pilgrimage with God through difficulty, loss, the end of seasons and the beginning of new things. Discover an adventure into the deep places of your listening heart. 

Wait for Resurrection

Leave every watch and clock behind.
Go to places the earth receives
the barefooted pleasure of you.

Where you are able to
notice yourself as a breathing,
living human being.

Emotions may rise and fall
with the spending of a day
on what seems like nothing.

But there are tears here
that come on laughter and on pain.

And there are tears of another kind
when beside the tomb of evil fruits,
you walk straight into a man weeping.

Interpretations of reality
are determined by your
outlook on life accumulated.

But sit with God
from the viewpoint of things eternal
and you realise love must still be greater.

Awareness steeped
in veins of blood that ran
for all mankind,
transforms our ability to
really see.

We are changed by the tears God sheds
at the mouth of every tomb that
waits for resurrection.

Jenneth Graser

#write31days
Day 13 Prompt - aware

Artist - Daniel Bonnell

Listen to Resurrection - Nicol Sponberg