Evening Prayer

Wind stirs in expectation,
softly strokes my face.

The March sun reassures,
warms my pale flesh
through layers of thick sweater
and winter coat.

Under indigo hills
new grass flows,
yellow and green,

as past distant ranges,
to the sky-bright, rounded sea
it flees and sends
a gift of clouds,
aflame
in glory.

Peace to the grass of the fields!
Peace
to dark hills and drifting clouds,
and to the sacrificial sun
peace!

(21 March 2014)

The Feast of St. Francis

Sisters of St. Francis of the Neuman Community

from "Canticle of the Sun," by St. Francis of Assisi: "Be praised, my Lord, through Brothers Wind and Air, and clouds and storms, and all the weather, through which you give your creatures sustenance."

Bird-song rises 

in clear, liquid waves

as golden leaves arc

twisting

to the ground.

Heavy gold

must fall.

October heat

gives way 

to winter rain,

yet inevitably life flows

like the breeze

rising from the broad sea

to the high Sierra;

grey clouds rise

and heavy snow falls.

All the living waters

give praise.

(10/4/2013 - 10/29/2017)

Prayer to St. Francis

“The eyes of the saint make all beauty holy and the hands of the saint consecrate everything they touch.” Thomas Merton

Look at me, O Saint,
sagging skin,
thinning hair, face
lined with roads
too far traveled.

Can you see
in me God’s
beauty?

Then touch me!

O take into
your holy palms
my living heart.
Fill me with desire!

Make of me
a holy psalm,
consecrated host,
eternal fire.