Friday, September 26, 2014

Rosh Hashanah:
Serious Redemption


You'd Like a Shot at Serious Redemption

You'd like a shot at serious redemption,
Only, like us all, you have no clue.
Mostly satisfied, you leave your pew
Knowing that you've satisfied convention
Instead of being some more painful you.
Perhaps there is no other truth than this;
Perhaps the yearning must be unfulfilled.
Unredeemed, you pay your debts as billed,
Returning to a bliss that dreams of bliss.


Nicholas Gordon

My friend Jacquie says, "What an iconic picture of home."
Thanks Jacquie!

Another kind of redemption:
loving the World, fully and completely:

Equinox

The Garden releases its last
radiance, not as something failed,
but as its full reason for being: to give
continually, to its last bit of energetic being.
Its giving is its beauty. It is a smile,
it is the heart of love.

So the birdsong that surrounds me
is given, not away, but into the world.
It is given as rain, as sunlight, as snowfall
and autumn leaves. It falls on our ears
as what it is, with no deception,
the complete truth of being.

Even the smell of decay, drifting from
the deer, dead by the side of the road, says:
“This is what I am and no other. I do not
pretend to be. Even in death I speak
without deceit, even unto my flesh,
my very bones.”

Be tolerant of these songs,
my musings on the way these things are.
For I cannot give up this Summer except by
giving myself as well, fully and completely,
into the praise of our mutual beauty,
our total loving of the World.
[emphasis added]

Richard Wehrman

Homecoming Photo by Ben McCartney
"Home for the first time in 2014!"

5 comments:

  1. "The birthday of the world"

    On the birthday of the world
    I begin to contemplate
    what I have done and left
    undone, but this year
    not so much rebuilding

    of my perennially damaged
    psyche, shoring up eroding
    friendships, digging out
    stumps of old resentments
    that refuse to rot on their own.

    No, this year I want to call
    myself to task for what
    I have done and not done
    for peace. How much have
    I dared in opposition?

    How much have I put
    on the line for freedom?
    For mine and others?
    As these freedoms are pared,
    sliced and diced, where

    have I spoken out? Who
    have I tried to move? In
    this holy season, I stand
    self-convicted of sloth
    in a time when lies choke

    the mind and rhetoric
    bends reason to slithering
    choking pythons. Here
    I stand before the gates
    opening, the fire dazzling

    my eyes, and as I approach
    what judges me, I judge
    myself. Give me weapons
    of minute destruction. Let
    my words turn into sparks.

    Marge Piercy
    from "The Crooked Inheritance" ~ 2006

    https://www.facebook.com/sheri.reda/posts/10221530551465855

    ReplyDelete
  2. "The Barricades of Heaven"

    Running down around the towns along the shore
    When I was sixteen and on my own
    No, I couldn't tell you what the hell those brakes were for
    I was just trying to hear my song

    Jimmy found his own sweet sound and won that free guitar
    We'd all get in the van and play
    Life became the paradox, the bear, the rouge et noir
    And the stretch of road running to L.A.

    Pages turning
    Pages we were years from learning
    Straight into the night our hearts were flung
    Better bring your own redemption when you come
    To the barricades of heaven where I'm from

    All the world was shining from those hills
    The stars above and the lights below
    Among those there to test their fortunes and their wills
    I lost track of the score long ago
    Pages turning

    Pages we were years from learning
    Straight into the night our hearts were flung
    Better bring your own redemption when you come
    To the barricades of heaven where I'm from

    Childhood comes for me at night
    Voices of my friends
    Your face bathing me in light
    Hope that never ends
    Pages turning

    Pages torn and pages burning
    Faded pages, open in the sun
    Better bring your own redemption when you come
    To the barricades of heaven where I'm from
    Better bring your own redemption when you come
    To the barricades of heaven where I'm from

    Jackson Browne, et. al.

    On the album "Looking East"
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looking_East

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiE5-II0v7w

    ReplyDelete
  3. https://www.facebook.com/kitti.carriker/posts/10213536058623298

    ReplyDelete
  4. For Palm Sunday 2021
    https://savedbydesign.wordpress.com/2021/03/27/just-a-little-sobbing

    with poem by Emily Dickinson

    Better — than Music! For I — who heard it —

    I was used — to the Birds — before —

    This — was different — ‘Twas Translation —

    Of all tunes I knew — and more —

    ‘Twasn’t contained — like other stanza —

    No one could play it — the second time —

    But the Composer — perfect Mozart —

    Perish with him — that Keyless Rhyme!

    So — Children — told how Brooks in Eden —

    Bubbled a better — Melody —

    Quaintly infer — Eve’s great surrender —

    Urging the feet — that would — not — fly —

    Children — matured — are wiser — mostly —

    Eden — a legend — dimly told —

    Eve — and the Anguish — Grandame’s story —

    But — I was telling a tune — I heard —

    Not such a strain — the Church — baptizes —

    When the last Saint — goes up the Aisles —

    Not such a stanza splits the silence —

    When the Redemption strikes her Bells —

    Let me not spill — its smallest cadence —

    Humming — for promise — when alone —

    Humming — until my faint Rehearsal —

    Drop into tune — around the Throne —

    ~ Emily Dickinson

    ReplyDelete
  5. https://www.facebook.com/kitti.carriker/posts/10158358107853867:65

    ReplyDelete