"The Gift" by Mary Oliver

Thanksgiving

Full from the feast

table laded

with fragrant dressing,

steam of onion and celery,

tender turkey and

five kinds of pies

The family gathered.

My parents smiled

at our busy banter

brothers

and sisters nudging and

teasing,  beaming

in the glow

of that happy day

so long ago.

Now you and I gather

our sons around us;

again we pause, pray

and eat the bounty

of this bright Thanksgiving Day.

They say that some things,

kind hearts,

hearty laughs,

enduring love

are so good

they persist long down  

the thankful

generations.

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(for Brian we are so thankful)

Passage: Sunset. Photo by Brian Federle, 2016

Paradise

Deep inside

I carry paradise,

A bright flood,

pours through

my soul’s veins,

but like those blind fish,

I cannot see

the holy river

running through me.

On a good, clear day, though,

staring hard beyond,

I can almost see

God’s holy fire

glancing off

my boundless sea.

(3/30/17)

In Contemplation of Seeking

….contemplation is simply the “experience” …. of God in a luminous darkness which is the perfection of faith illuminating our inmost self….. a flash of the lightning of divinity piercing the darkness of nothingness and sin. Not something general and abstract, but something, on the contrary, as concrete, particular, and “existential” as it can possibly be. It is the confrontation of man with his God…    Thomas Merton, The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation

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In my darkness I seek you

through deep caverns I run;

my dying flesh yearns for

your fierce, piercing love.

Through darkness I see

you’re glowing so bright,

but always receding,

deeper than night.

I fear that I’ll falter,

betrayed by frail will

when softly you whisper

“my child, just be still.”

(3 Dec. 2013)

November Sky

See the perfect sky of November

cloudless, cool, southern sun,

garden of blue eternity

vaulting over rioting trees, leaves

shouting that life is good

as they fall, and with red cover

the green world

with perfect red

as in perfect blue

life turns inward,

like the planet,

pursuing

the fleeting sun’s

fading hue.

(2013 - rev. 2017)