The 60-Second Sabbath

Hymn

Lay down in stillness.
Lay down in stillness.
Lay down in stillness,
    the stillness of God.

Surrender to sorrow.
Surrender to sorrow.
Surrender to sorrow,
     the sorrow of God.

Rise up in wholeness.
Rise up in wholeness.
Rise up in wholeness,
    the wholeness of God.

Text and image © 2012 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.

Porcelain

We have a favorite CD,
titled Porcelain--
fragile music,
delicate, round and translucent,
soothing, cooling and smooth,
layered with soft color
and subtle flavors,
protective and nurturing.

So many nights
we float to sleep,
wrapped in gentle cadence...

Text and image © 2012 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. (Porcelain by Helen Jean Long)

Times Square, September, 2012

I just returned from NYC.
Each day,
to get to the office,
I walked through Times Square.

People come from around the world
to stand in Times Square--
crowded, noisy, littered--
and take picture after picture
of gigantic advertisements.
That's all Times Square is--
enormous, stories-tall advertisements.

I don't get this.

Text and image © 2012 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.

Fill in the Blanks

blank page
    blank heart

a page of possibilities
    a heart of possibilities

with what will you fill yours? 

Text and image © 2012 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.

 

Everyone

Everyone is interesting.

Everyone has a story to tell.

Everyone's history is everyone's history.

Text and image © 2012 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.

The Purpose of Beauty

While walking solitary in the mountains, 
I emerge from the woods
and step out into clear and open air,
into a vista of astonishing beauty,
into sacred space beyond breathing.

I ask:
"Am I the only one to see this--
beauty this piercingly expansive--
which may not last more than a minute,
given the fickle light,
the ever-changing slope of sky?
What is the point if no one is here to enjoy it,
to capture it,
if not in words or photos,
at least in memory?"

Emerson says,
"Beauty is its own excuse for being."

I draw a similar conclusion about us:
Each in our own way,
we encapsulate God's goodness and beauty,
no matter if all...or only some...or none at all
ever witness it.

To paraphrase Ralph:
Even if never acknowledged,
you are your own excuse for being.

Text and image © 2012 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.

Hauntings

We are our own ghosts.
We are what goes bump in our nights.
We the ones who rearrange the nicknacks,
later confounding ourselves,
wondering who (or what?) moved that thing
from the living room to the bedroom,
from the study to the garage.

We are the poltergeists
tossing the pillows from the bed,
setting the hallway portraits askew.

We don't remember, that's all.

It's ourselves we haunt.

Text and image © 2012 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.

For Bonnie

Somewhere in the city,
this dark September morning,
before light infuses the eastern sky,
before the crows stir and lift and caw their way
	back into the day,
someone I know
keeps watch at the bedside
of her dying sister.

This sister, the one hovering near consciousness,
may or may not know what is happening to her.
Drugs--angels of mercy--may be dulling her
to death's patient presence,
or those same drugs
may be clearing the path
in ways we can't imagine;
perhaps the morphine brings clarity and acceptance,
opens inner vision to embrace One
who approaches to embrace her.

But outside, here, in what we call the real world,
we wait,
we hold the slowly cooling hand,
we shed our tears
and flip through the channels of memory;
we hope all necessary words have been said
and unwelcome demons sent packing.
Our breathing slows to mimic theirs
until time itself--
and the universe--
holds its final breath.

Text and image © 2012 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.

What Dirk Might Know

Does Dirk understand
he's adopted?

Text and image © 2012 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.

 

What the Cats Might Know

Do my cats understand
they're adopted?

Text and image © 2012 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved.