Tag: love

Poetry by Patrick Jennings

Ascension

You, dear one
On your own stormy passage
Astride God’s wing
These waning days
Rising through your fall
Into His grace

Slowed in wit and voice
Ever keener of spirit
You ascend

Passing through
Deep featureless slumbers
Parting clouds offer
Fleeting glimpses of the love
Gathered ’round you

Then
With swift finality
Through the cloud
Into heaven’s azure
There to witness
God’s full blaze
And in His embrace
The lesser stars
Of those who’d passed
This way before

And there too
The One True Love
You’d lost so long ago
Now with God
He welcomes your return
To Love’s eternity

Poetry by Patrick Jennings
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Beachcomber and Lover, Cannon Beach, Oregon, United States of America

Beachcomber

Beachcombing
You come with me
The same way you come shopping
Indulge me

Shopping
You come into the mall
Find a comfortable place
Then sit and read
Or people watch
Feign interest in the things I buy
Then watch over the bags
While I go to another shop

At the beach
You walk safely
Beyond the longest waves
While I splash about
Getting soaked
Finding sea stars and shells
Sand dollars and seaweed
Always feigning amazement
At the wonders I bring

But whether a crowded mall
Or an empty beach
You always come
Often despite my protestations
That you don’t like to shop
Or go beachcombing
That you’ll be bored
And I’m sure your time
Would be better spent
Doing something else

“No”
You say
“I’m coming”

And it always surprises me
Takes my breath away
When I notice that your feigned pleasure
In a new scarf
Or a hermit crab
Is just a distraction
Because you’re not looking at the object
I’m showing you
You’re looking at me
With the sparkle of wonder in your eye
And I’m reminded again
That you come
To be with me
And there’s no place
You’d rather be

And, my god
I could not love you more
For the way you take pleasure
In indulging me

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Poetry by Patrick Jennings
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God's House, Cathedral of the Madeleine, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America

One of Many Paths to Goodness

Raised beneath
Steeples and spires
Kneeling Sitting Standing
In pews row on row

First Holy Communion
Confirmation
Confession
Ash Wednesday
Palm Sunday
Incense and palm leaves
Midnight Mass

Now another confession:
Never a believer
Earliest memories
Saying what was expected
Doing what was expected
Praying aloud the lie on my lips

Though there were Pastors
Two at least
Who made as much
A philosophy of sermon
As theology
Who bespoke love
And compassion
Forgiveness
And kindness
As if these were as important
As believing in Father, Son and Holy Ghost

I kept the compassionate love
Discarded the trinity
And for a long while
Wanted nothing to do
With religion
Or the religious

Until I finally saw
The strength faith gives my mother
Courage, resilience, tenacity
Powered by compassion, love and kindness
All in God’s name

Now I understand
Something about the nature of goodness
And the many paths we may travel
To bring ourselves to the love
Which is its foundation

Continue reading One of Many Paths to Goodness