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Nancy E. Holroyd, RN's avatar

To settle,

What does it all mean?

Arrive, stay, plant,

Yearn no more.

To seek, find, relax into?

I have found this space

deep within

where calmness resides.

It is a place of reconciliation.

Will it remain,

or will I need to continue

to seek, find, arrive,

and stay, yet again

and again?

Is always seeking away

to remain settled?

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Larry Brickner-Wood's avatar

This so good, Nancy. The questions you pose lead to answers seen and unseen.

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A. Wilder Westgate's avatar

Settle down, sweet love.

The world is so much bigger than this one moment,

but this moment is the one we have,

and it will be gone so fast.

Settle in,

make it last.

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Nancy E. Holroyd, RN's avatar

"but this moment is the one we have..."

Yes, and do we take the time to treasure it? This moments disappear so fast. This really hit me in the feels.

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Larry Brickner-Wood's avatar

This is such a sweet, tender poem, A. "The world is so much bigger than one moment," as it is. Brilliant!

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Joe Dura's avatar

Excellent! This is what so many people need to internalize (and I am no exception)

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A. Wilder Westgate's avatar

Definitely the kind of lesson you learn more than once.

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Chuck's avatar

Fast. So fast.

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Jane Anderson's avatar

I will not settle down.

But I will settle in —

to my inner wilderness

to my rage

to my love

to my voice.

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Katie Spring's avatar

Oh I love this distinction between settling down and settling in!

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Jane Anderson's avatar

Thanks Katie!

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jess's avatar

Yes!

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Larry Brickner-Wood's avatar

This is great, Jane. The contrast between settling down and settling in is so artful, and the journey into your inner wilderness so beautiful.

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Rachel Louise's avatar

As a child I learned

That to settle

Was to accept less

Than what was possible

From a world of

Daily expectations

Growing higher

By the maxim

To whom much is given

Much is required for

Years, decades,

I looked up and away

Eyes to the next horizon where

More was waiting, expecting

Until I strained to see anything

My limbs weak as

I found myself far away

From what, I had no clue

No choice, but to pause

Let the ebbs and flows

Of my mind wind down

So my compass could point

The direction home,

To that sacred place where

Memory, expectation, regret, desire

Could settle like dust

On a well worn path

Leading the way

Towards inner peace.

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Larry Brickner-Wood's avatar

This is so wonderful, Rachel. "So my compass could point/The direction home/To that sacred place where/Memory, expectation, regret, desire/Could settle like dust." Such a brilliant path to inner peace.

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Joe Dura's avatar

Beautiful!

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Hans Jorgensen's avatar

So beautiful

to see God settling

into actual life,

inviting and accessible

and accommodating and transcendent

all mixed together.

Like my thoughts.

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Larry Brickner-Wood's avatar

Very nice, Hans. God with us!

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Paula Gough's avatar

What a beautiful piece! For someone with 1000+ scattered thoughts, you captured my prayer life & my daily dance with the Holy Spirit. Have a blessed day.

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Kaitlin Curtice's avatar

♥️♥️♥️

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Sarah Hope Guppy's avatar

Today is a day when the words just aren't flowing coherently for poetry, so I shall have to *settle* for writing a wee note to you all! I have been immensely grateful to be here writing alongside you this past month. Kaitlin's prompts, and poems, have been so inspiring - though mostly the permission to show up just as we are is what I have relished. Myself and A. Wilder Westgate coined a phrase yesterday - poetic reciprocity - and there have been so many glimmers of this here for me this May! I shall miss accessing all of your wisdom and feeling on a daily basis, and hope to be able to connect in other ways over the coming months. Big, big love 💜 Sarah

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A. Wilder Westgate's avatar

So glad to be writing here with you this month! 🧡

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Sarah Hope Guppy's avatar

You too A.!! 💜

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Larry Brickner-Wood's avatar

Thank you Sarah! I struggled to find any poems in me today, and your note reminds me that is okay. Your gracious note is kind and embracing, amf full of heart. I ahvde truly enjoyed the wonderful array of poems as well, and appreciate yours every day in May!

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Sarah Hope Guppy's avatar

Ah I'm so glad to remind you of that Larry! And thank you so much for your presence and praise 😊

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Chuck's avatar

Food clothing shelter

Don't get too fuckin' greedy

More settle for less

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Larry Brickner-Wood's avatar

Enough for eveyone .

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Korie's avatar

Young folks are told

To settle down,

Buy a home,

Garden, have kids,

Put down roots…

This idea of settling

Is a good thing,

Such as reading a

Captivating book

Whilst curled within

A comfy chair,

But settling may mean

Compromising,

Accepting less than,

Betraying one’s heart,

Forging ahead when

It’s best to stop

And reflect,

This type of settling

Can have grave consequences.

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Larry Brickner-Wood's avatar

This is said so well, Korie. It is amazing all the definitions and meanings that "settle" has. Your poem illustrates that quite well.

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Jane Longley's avatar

These verses from Psalm 139 were shared with me years ago when I left the UK and went to live in France for a year. They were the first thing that came to mind when I read the word 'Settle', so my poem for today reflects a little on what this means for me now, so many years later.

Settle

If I rise on the wings of the dawn,

if I settle on the far side of the sea,

even there your hand will guide me,

your right hand will hold me fast.

...

I never thought I would

I'm a homebody really

and yet...

First France

a year, testing the waters?

what does it feel like

to be the outsider?

How will I manage

as a stranger in a foreign land?

And then, years later

Nicaragua

Now that really is the far side of the sea

So hot, so dusty, so different

and yet...

I have settled

I have made a home here

I have found friends,

forged a family,

and even on the dark days

through the unexpected challenges

the storms I never imagined

I have sensed your guiding

and felt your hand holding me fast

even here, on the far side of the sea

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Dwight Lee Wolter's avatar

Coincidentally, I am preaching and the music for the service is all based on Psalm 139 this coming Sunday here in New York. Thanks for your post. Peace, Dwight Lee Wolter.

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Jane Longley's avatar

And this verse came up as my verse for the day on an App I have today :)

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Larry Brickner-Wood's avatar

This is beauitful, Jane. I love the Psalm 139 you begin with, leading into your own Psalm, a Psalm for settling.

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Dwight Lee Wolter's avatar

I am preaching and all the music is based on Psalm 139 this Sunday.

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Aaron R Wolcott's avatar

Her words, “Don’t settle!”

continue to reverberate

through the wandering

years I’ve lived. And yet,

I have also begun to learn

that some settling sifts

the years and makes

a bed, here in the home

where swallows build

mud nests under eaves

shading the surprising

joy uncontained

in this land of the living.

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Larry Brickner-Wood's avatar

Very nice, Aaron! :I have also begun to learn/that some settling sifts/the years and makes

a bed..." What grand epiphanies your poem reveals.

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Mareda Kennedy's avatar

SETTLE

Settle on the porch

Let your thoughts and feelings come

God's Love covers all.

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Larry Brickner-Wood's avatar

Thank you Mareda, a sacred, universal truth for sure!

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Korie's avatar

Kaitlin, I recite Keating’s Welcoming prayer daily. It is a gem of awakening to embrace those words. Thanks for today’s poem!

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Steven Barbery's avatar

settle

or

not settle

that is

the question

I want to

settle

my spirit

and

my debts

but

I do not

want to

settle

Gaza or Ukraine

or other

oppressed lands

I don't

want to

settle

for less than

human dignity

allows for everyone

and as the world

moves from

the cycle of

one chaos

to another

I want to

settle

into a

new way

of seeing

the gospel

and

settle into

new wineskins

to be a vessel

of grace

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Dwight Lee Wolter's avatar

Yes! A “vessel of grace.”

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Larry Brickner-Wood's avatar

I like this Steven. Your poem leads me to wonder why we "settle" for so little and such low standards from our leaders.

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Margaret Somerville's avatar

Come in, dear one

I’ll put the kettle on.

The words that always mean

Presence.

There’s nothing quite like the

Stirring and churring of the boiling water

Making its way to the hush

of full temp

That precedes the whistle.

She swirls the first pour of water around the teapot

To heat it up

And chucks that in the sink.

A spoonful of leaves for each of us

And one for the pot.

No strainers here when tea is poured

In the brown translucent cup.

There was a full set, earned by buying petrol at the station

Although she didn’t have a car

Brought to her by her sons when they came to visit

For Saturday night bacon and egg supper.

She was proud of them because they were free

And because

You could watch the tea leaves settle from the side.

Drink up and tell me how’s it been.

The neighbours loved when she read the leaves

And told them with great clarity

What was happening in their lives

And the directions they should take.

She winked at me.

Her party piece, she’d say.

But I knew her trick.

In all the minutes that it took the leaves to settle

She listened.

Presence.

And showed them in their leaves the very things

That they had said.

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Kate Hennessy-Keimig's avatar

This is so beautiful and evocative of time and place!

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Margaret Somerville's avatar

Thank you!

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Dwight Lee Wolter's avatar

Yes. Reading the tea leaves.

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Sarah Hope Guppy's avatar

So beautiful Margaret 💜

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Larry Brickner-Wood's avatar

This is excellent, Margaret! I, too, thought of tea kettles, and your poems winds throughout the poem so well.

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Joe Dura's avatar

Settle

To settle for

To compromise

To trade my dreams for ours

Brings Harmony

And Synergy

And greater good by far

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Larry Brickner-Wood's avatar

Right on Joe. Real wisdom for a real world.

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