One Week of Paying Attention (continued)

Our preparation assignment for this year's poetry writing retreat has been to write a 7-lined poem each day for 7 days, and since prayer and poetry are both "focused attention", to write those poems about something that caught our attention this day.

These are the last two poems I wrote during this past week.

Day 5, October 7, 2014, Poem 6

Darkening skies

Distant rumble

Swelling breeze

Concentric circles

spatter the creek

Sweet smell of rain

Holy water above and below.

Day 6, October 8, 2014, Poem 7

Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat

All around me, patterns repeat.

“Behold I make all things new…”

Yet, I observe familiar patterns even in the new.

The concentric ripples on the surface waters of the creek,

the riff of the mockingbird’s song,

even the carefully measured, cut, and placed rails

that stand at attention in solidarity around the edges of our deck

speak with a voice.

I've heard it said, “Familiarity breeds contempt.”

Not today. Today it brings peace and comfort.

Today is a Liturgy.