The 60-Second Sabbath

Awake

Soul slap.
Spirit snap.
Mind whack.
And you're awake.

Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. 

Both Cats

Both cats merge on my lap:
twenty-four total pounds
of silky, satisfied blackness.

So my question is:
Am I sitting with a lap full of cats
or a lapful of cat?

This kind of question bugs me.

Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. 

Am I a Gospel?

Can I view my own life--
my story--
as a spiritual text
revealing God?
Am I a gospel?

Sit with your own story:
Where is goodness revealed?
faithfulness? challenge?
testing? nurture?
constancy? mystery?
death? resurrection?

Tell me your story;
read me your gospel:
I want to see God.

Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. 

 

The Normal Trajectory of Maturity

The normal trajectory of maturity
moves us from ego and pride of intellect
to gentle yielding to the opinions and judgments of others.

I'm moving slowly along that trajectory,
but embarrassed by how often
my imperiousness blocks my forward journey.

Arrogance.
Moral superiority.

I am so sorry.
Your story is your own to write.

Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. 

 

 

Say, "Yes!"

Does it bring you life?
Say, "Yes!"

Does it break you open?
Say, "Yes!"

Does it pour you out?
Say, "Yes!"

Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. 

All Fish Could Sing

"All fish could sing," the old one said
as she scraped the scales and severed the head.
"They sang to each other their songs of dread,
of silt, of sunlight, of someone to bed,
or why the fisherman's lures of lead
were dragged through the satisfied lives they led,
were dragged through their reeds of russet and red."

For the lost songs of fish few tears are shed--
songs once sung by fish long dead.
"All fish could sing," is what she said.

 Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. 

 

The Simplest Prayer

What is the simplest, most elemental prayer?
Some say, "Help!"
Others say, "Thanks!"
Or perhaps it is "Wow!"
uttered in moments of unanticipated wonder
(or for the inarticulate and our animal cousins: "!").

I say,
for all living, breathing beings,
the quintessential prayer is this:

                <sigh>

whether issuing from contentment,
frustration,
or final expiration.

No matter:
the "!", the <sigh>---
the prayer in whatever form--
issues as much from the Beloved
as from us.

Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. 

Your Tongue

Your tongue
like the clapper of a wind-battered bell,
constantly clangs and clatters.
Why the ceaseless alarm?

Hush now and allow
the sufficiency of silence.

Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. 

I Sit in Bed Writing This

I sit in bed writing this.
Willy curls beside me,
his front right leg,
thrown over my calf
as over a bolster.
He watches me--
just watches me--
for minutes on end watches me--
green eyes wide and calm
framed by the roundness of his midnight face.
Watches
content
complete.

Oh, to be this kind of catlike.

Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. 

Dinner in Eden

The fruit
newly, neatly peeled and sliced,
fanned across the plate,
waits for them.

"Why not?" she asks.
"What possible difference could it make?"

Silence.

"That's the crux, isn't it?
We don't know--
We can't know until we know."

She inhales:
"It smells heavenly--
both sharp and sweet--
like grapefruit and guava--
like release,
like candor."

They don't take it lightly,
this decision between innocence and knowledge:
either could bring loss;
either could bring wisdom.

This meal could be their last
or their first.

Text and image © 2011 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.