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.
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.
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
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!
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.
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.
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?
This so good, Nancy. The questions you pose lead to answers seen and unseen.
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.
"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.
This is such a sweet, tender poem, A. "The world is so much bigger than one moment," as it is. Brilliant!
Excellent! This is what so many people need to internalize (and I am no exception)
Definitely the kind of lesson you learn more than once.
Fast. So fast.
I will not settle down.
But I will settle in —
to my inner wilderness
to my rage
to my love
to my voice.
Oh I love this distinction between settling down and settling in!
Thanks Katie!
Yes!
This is great, Jane. The contrast between settling down and settling in is so artful, and the journey into your inner wilderness so beautiful.
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.
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.
Beautiful!
So beautiful
to see God settling
into actual life,
inviting and accessible
and accommodating and transcendent
all mixed together.
Like my thoughts.
Very nice, Hans. God with us!
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.
♥️♥️♥️
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
So glad to be writing here with you this month! 🧡
You too A.!! 💜
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!
Ah I'm so glad to remind you of that Larry! And thank you so much for your presence and praise 😊
Food clothing shelter
Don't get too fuckin' greedy
More settle for less
Enough for eveyone .
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.
This is said so well, Korie. It is amazing all the definitions and meanings that "settle" has. Your poem illustrates that quite well.
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
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.
And this verse came up as my verse for the day on an App I have today :)
This is beauitful, Jane. I love the Psalm 139 you begin with, leading into your own Psalm, a Psalm for settling.
I am preaching and all the music is based on Psalm 139 this Sunday.
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.
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.
SETTLE
Settle on the porch
Let your thoughts and feelings come
God's Love covers all.
Thank you Mareda, a sacred, universal truth for sure!
Kaitlin, I recite Keating’s Welcoming prayer daily. It is a gem of awakening to embrace those words. Thanks for today’s poem!
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
Yes! A “vessel of grace.”
I like this Steven. Your poem leads me to wonder why we "settle" for so little and such low standards from our leaders.
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.
This is so beautiful and evocative of time and place!
Thank you!
Yes. Reading the tea leaves.
So beautiful Margaret 💜
This is excellent, Margaret! I, too, thought of tea kettles, and your poems winds throughout the poem so well.
Settle
To settle for
To compromise
To trade my dreams for ours
Brings Harmony
And Synergy
And greater good by far
Right on Joe. Real wisdom for a real world.