Another poem which has taken a while to see the light of day! This one was inspired by a workshop by Brother Stephen in Taize last summer. He used a number of artworks to explore different types of human love: between parents and children, between siblings, between friends, between lovers; leading to an exploration of what insights they offer into our understanding of divine love. This poem was my response to some of the ideas raised.
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| Rembrandt - The return of the Prodigal Son |
As a beloved child
This warm embrace
Of discovering
This loving gaze
That’s scarce remembered
Yet deeply felt
Daring to stretch
A hand that holds
This gift of life
Our accepted vulnerability
In all we are and cannot be
There is a spark of the divine
In this unconditional welcome
We call love
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| Bonnat - Jacob Wrestles with an angel |
As siblings side by side
This crucible of yearning
Of learning
To love and lose
To fight, to fall
And then forgive
Daring to stretch
A hand that says
In all the pain I do to you
And you to me
In all we are and cannot be
There is a spark of the divine
In this eternal struggle
We call love
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| Icon - Jesus and St Menas (Jesus and his friend) |
As friends who tread
These interwoven journeys
Of exploring
Identities
Which converge, divide
But do not force
Daring to stretch
A hand that guides
And gives permission
To stay close, or drift away
In all we are and cannot be
There is a spark of the divine
In this shared understanding
We call love
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| Chagall - Song of Songs |
As lovers lives which intertwine
These creative places
Of knowing
That I can just be me
And yet together
We
are somehow something more
Daring to stretch
A hand that offers
Completion
In ways I didn’t know I wasn’t
In all we are and cannot be
There is a spark of the divine
In this burning passion
We call love
In the welcome and the struggle
The sharing and the passion
In this dance of human lives
Incarnate
With all we are and cannot be
There lives the whole
Of the divine
In this mystery of love
We call God
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