A Psalm of Broken Praise

Lord you have made yourself
to be my rearguard.

Your angels assign themselves
as ministers to all
who call on your name.

And I say, thank you
and the gratitude spills plenteous.

I have broken open my heart
as a vial of perfume.

I have poured the inner oil
over your feet beautiful.

I am coming through what fractures
into a greater praise.

I am entering by the gate narrow
to find a garden expanding on my sight.

I will put on shoes of the news that is good
and walk it holy into the ground

where healing herbs are bruised, the fragrance seeps,
and we are loved as we are.

Jenneth Graser

Photography Wang Xi Unsplash

An Embrace that Holds On

In the hands of some people
there are beautiful things.
There are hands reaching
out to give these things away.

There is a heart restricted
so tight it can hardly breathe.
It is time to unzip this heart
and place what is inside
into a field.

I am moulting
and finding I know not what,
but this must be OK,
to not know and to be so angry
under the peeling skin.
Anger first,
then what is to come, can come.
What is to be, can be.

There is a hammock in the
field for misunderstood
misfits who have looked a long
time for a place to belong,
always on the fringes
of other people's dreams.

Memories dislodge with the voices
of laughing children and
water on the rocks.

There is an embrace that holds on
until the heart relaxes once again.
Sun may shine on such an
awkward feeling until the
muscles thaw out and
remember the sweetness of being,
out under the warm light of
everything lovely about the sun.

Jenneth Graser

Photography - eu.fotolia.com

Neighbours

He took the leprous and unsightly hands
of a woman kicked to the outskirts.

He took them in his own and pressed every doubt
out of mind with one word, Clean.

He saw hope where there was no
rightful reason for hope to be and yet,

I will come to your house.
I will eat with you.

With a calling forth, his words
brought life where there was none.

He takes my breath into a place air is sweet
and gives me space inside my chest
to take in beauty beyond the pain of it.

My womanly being is welcomed where
perfume breaks open on moments like these.

Every soul is seen with eyes that see,
without constraints or definitions narrow.

Love has shaped every person born.
We are all neighbours.

Jenneth Graser

#write31days
Day 18 Prompt - neighbours

Artist - Nicole Roggeman

Music on Those Words

The music incorporates
the instruments of every culture
that has ever existed.

Worship to the listeners
sounds like love carried on the wind in a cry.

His shoes syncopate a beat
that invites a body to respond,
or not, as they please.

He placed the essence of himself
in the shoes of the other -
God made man.

Love felt the sting of all evil inclination
and every response we imagined he would take
passed him by.

Study the nature of God in the words:
"Father forgive them,
they know not what they do."

The music on those words
can reach every corner of the soul
of every human being.

There is no unreachable place.
There is no unreachable heart.

Jenneth Graser

#write31days
Day 17 Prompt - study

Photography - Jeffrey Vanhoutte

Sacred Trust

My Dear Child,

You have been feeling drawn out
on the worn threads of yesterday's carpets.

You have wondered at the way
time seems to run under the river.

There have been times of walking
for long stretches through dry lands.

You have kept your eyes out
for signs of life on dew-kept nights.

But I led you to the sea instead.

At first you kept watch as the waves
invited you ever so gently.

You didn't know which way to turn
anymore, so instead you dived straight in.

There is another world of hidden dimension
in the deep heart of my life kept for you.

Like the reef that births colour with
verdant flashes of fish through coral.

In the right element you will thrive,
my Beloved Child.

In the deep heart of my life
where I keep you, close.

You are growing even though the
tides wane on the moon's pull.

You are going places in my Spirit
you will only find when your spirit is stretched.

I pour every grace into your life known and unknown
and I am working behind the scenes.

The gift of your trust is sacred;
every prayer and tear is to me, perfume.

I love you with a love that always grows,

Your Heavenly Father

Jenneth Graser

#write31days
Day 14 Prompt through Five Minute Friday - mail

Artist - Charlie Mackesy

Watch and listen to the Father's Love Letter

The Dazzling Awkward Road

There were years of preparation
for perfection.
"One day, when..."

When all the ticks mark all the boxes
and your longings are laid to rest.

When you are always in control
going where you want to go.

But, all of those plans
got wedged between diaries on shelves.

And you still make mistakes.

Take a long look into the mirror
and see...you.

Not the you you want to be
or the you you were,

But who you are now.

It is time to let go of perfection,
of should have, could have,
would have.

It is time to learn how
to be a dear friend
to yourself.

Yes, all of the fractured cracks
and fierce glowing embers have combined
to form a one-of-a-kind thing of beauty.

Art in its purest form:
imperfection in harmony
with grace in motion.

You have come upon the dazzling
awkward road towards finding yourself

Beloved.

Jenneth Graser

#write31days
Day 6 Prompt - You

Artist - Gustav Klimt

Yet, he would kneel for you

His vast intelligence
Called a universe into mathematical being.

Andromeda, Tucana, Triangulum, Centaurus.

Yet, he would kneel for you
With a towel wrapped around his body

To present you with a bowl.

He would take your feet, one by one,
Swirl them in warm water,

Wash them carefully.

Pour fresh water over them and take them
Into his towel to be dried,

To be clean.

Jenneth Graser

Artist: Robert Gilroy, SJ. More at http://www.prayerwindows.com/

This Dangerous Love

The ocean has risen from the
Boulders with fierce intention.

Grace can be disguised in power.

A surge of purpose can come with
Storms of re-direction.

Nothing is too large or too small
To be noticed, taken in, seen.

The arc of each wave has crested over
Our heads with just enough room to breathe.

The waves will greet the shores
Of every landmass the planet provides.

And we, we too will be met relentless
In ways we do not yet understand.

We will be baptised into what is different.
We will be humbled by love that reminds

But doesn't crush.

We will be safe in the presence of danger,
This dangerous love.

Jenneth Graser

Photography - Clark Little