Anam Cara

The warmth and wonder of your prayer

Opened our eyes to glimpse

The subtle ones who

Are eternally there.

Whenever, silently, in off moments,

The beauty of the whole thing overcame you,

You would gaze quietly out upon us,

The look from your eyes

Like a kiss alighting on skin.

There are many things

We could have said,

But words never wanted

To name them;

And perhaps a world

That is quietly sensed

Across the air

In another’s heart

Becomes the inner companion

To one’s own unknown.

GRACE BEFORE MEALS

As we begin this meal with grace,

Let us become aware of the memory

Carried inside the food before us:

The quiver of the seed

Awakening in the earth,

Unfolding in a trust of roots

And slender stems of growth,

On its voyage toward harvest,

The kiss of rain and surge of sun;

The innocence of animal soul

That never spoke a word,

Nourished by the earth

To become today our food;

The work of all the strangers

Whose hands prepared it,

The privilege of wealth and health

That enables us to feast and celebrate.

GRACE AFTER MEALS

We end this meal with grace

For the joy and nourishment of food,

The slowed time away from the world

To come into presence with each other

And sense the subtle lives behind our faces,

The different colors of our voices,

The edges of hungers we keep private,

The circle of love that unites us.

We pray the wise spirit who keeps us

To change the structures that make others hunger

And that after such grace we might now go forth

And impart dignity wherever we partake.

FOR A BROTHER OR A SISTER

The knowing that binds us

Is older than the apostrophe of cell

We formed from within the one womb.

All that flowed into us there

From the red village of ancestry

Sowed spores of continuity

That would one day flower

Into flickers of resemblance:

An unconscious gesture

Could echo an ancestor,

And the look of us stir

Recognition of belonging

That is ours alone;

And our difference finding

Its own rhythm of strangeness,

Leading us deeper into a self

That would always know its own

Regardless of difficulty and distance;

And through hurt no other could inflict;

Still somehow beside each other

Though the night is dark

With wind that loves

To clean the bones of ruins,

Making further room for light.

ON WAKING

I give thanks for arriving

Safely in a new dawn,

For the gift of eyes

To see the world,

The gift of mind

To feel at home

In my life.

The waves of possibility

Breaking on the shore of dawn,

The harvest of the past

That awaits my hunger,

And all the furtherings

This new day will bring.

ON MEETING A STRANGER

With respect

And reverence

That the unknown

Between us

Might flower

Into discovery

And lead us

Beyond

The familiar field

Blind with the weed

Of weariness

And the old walls

Of habit.

ON PASSING A GRAVEYARD

May perpetual light shine upon

The faces of all who rest here.

May the lives they lived

Unfold further in spirit.

May all their past travails

Find ease in the kindness of clay.

May the remembering earth

Mind every memory they brought.

May the rains from the heavens

Fall gently upon them.

May the wildflowers and grasses

Whisper their wishes into light.

May we reverence the village of presence

In the stillness of this silent field.

TO COME HOME TO YOURSELF

May all that is unforgiven in you

Be released.

May your fears yield

Their deepest tranquillities.

May all that is unlived in you

Blossom into a future

Graced with love.

AT THE END OF THE DAY: A MIRROR OF QUESTIONS

What dreams did I create last night?

Where did my eyes linger today?

Where was I blind?

Where was I hurt without anyone noticing?

What did I learn today?

What did I read?

What new thoughts visited me?

What differences did I notice in those closest to me?

Whom did I neglect?

Where did I neglect myself?

What did I begin today that might endure?

How were my conversations?

What did I do today for the poor and the excluded?

Did I remember the dead today?

Where could I have exposed myself to the risk of something different?

Where did I allow myself to receive love?

With whom today did I feel most myself?

What reached me today? How deep did it imprint?

Who saw me today?

What visitations had I from the past and from the future?

What did I avoid today?

From the evidence—why was I given this day?

BEFORE SLEEP

As I lay down to sleep,

May the guardian angel

Watch over me,

Coaxing all my cares

To unravel into peace.

As darkness within

Is wed to darkness without,

Freed from the weight of light,

Let my eyes sleep,

Relieved of all intensities.

Let my imagination

Trawl the compressed seas

To bless the dawn

With a generous catch

Of luminous dream.

May this new night of rest

Repair the wear of time

And restore youth of heart

For the adventure

That awaits tomorrow.

5                   States of Heart