Design for a bird-less cage

Birdless Cage

by cathy g.

Take your freedom O bird:
take flight
take the stream of golden sun to your feathered and filigreed wing

Take the air to your lungs
Nourish the tiny pink and beating heart within your breast
Do not be captive to the bars
or to the expectation that you will sing

when the king demands a song
Sing because you have voice
because you have joys of your own
that must be offered to the mixing and blending
of the sounds of the universe

Take the wind
beneath the curve of your body,
float and soar and journey out
Take the pathway
Take the wilderness
Take the world by surprise
as you take the ancient route of your ancient mothers
Take it all
without a map because
it lives there inside you

Take it because it is yours for the taking
Take it because the love that moves the universe
has offered it to you free

Take your freedom, O bird
take flight.

A prayer

by M. Wilson

God, I am in the midst of a struggle.  I am unsettled.  I am longing.  I feel that I want to be some place else.  My old ways of avoiding have passed.  I don't want to run anymore.  There has been a change, a shift within me and I'm fighting to come out.  Perhaps I'm fighting to stay out.  My heart and soul is sad because I know something more.  It's not just that I am longing for it - I know it, feel it, taste it, smell it, and see it.  That is my faith. However, I feel delusional because it is not here and right now.

This change came quicker than the last one.  I felt like I just got through the last shift and here I am again.  You must be moving me along fast to get me in line and prepare me for something.  However, I do not know where I am supposed to step in and take charge and where I am supposed to step back and let You show me. 

I'm in this awkward embrace with Your will.  Don't go in too fast, stand too close, hold on too long.  However, my soul wants to grab it tight and fold into it.  Disappear into it and then reemerge spirited and shining and renewed.  Unwrap me to tangle me into the love and passion of my purpose and tie and bind me to those who are to share this journey.

My heart races in these moments.  My tears come quicker and feel warmer and taste saltier.  Dear God.  I am surrendered. Please, release me.  This caged bird is trying to fly.  I am singing my song from within, but the notes and the melody need to be carried out - they are growing in strength and bravado ... 

Lord, I struggle. Sweet, Father I struggle.

interrupted

by erin 

I walk around with an unspoken... 
grief? 
most of the time, unknown to me. 
Until, I walk into the kitchen to... 
what?
to do something...to get something... 
interrupted-
I stumble.
Where am I?
Why did I come in here?
For a mug? For tea?
No.
Why, then, did I walk into this room?
Full of purpose and knowing. 
Now I am here and words fail me.
interrupted-
and empty handed I stand still
waiting for it to dawn, 
reaching out for epiphany
and it is in this moment that the grief rolls in...
yes it does.
Tears seek my eyes, throat tightens its grip,
What is this sadness?
Where does it live?
In me?
I do not even remember what I lost
to cause such mourning,
which comes so willingly...
And then-
I remember!
That pesky grief crawls back
into its lonely room
to be born another day 
when I become
interrupted-
and stuck in time again.
interrupted-
when I am most vulnerable.
interrupted-
grief bears witness 
to my being stuck
in this imperfect state.

God, spare this interruption
and keep me moving on and on.
No need to remind me 
of my place in this paper thin world. 

God might say

by cathy g.

if the heart of god were to explode
beneath the surface of some uncharted deep
carried away on the current of an underwater wind
what cacophony would emerge
what beauty
what pain
what fear
what hope
what loss
what prayer
would drift and swirl
...like a color wheel
dissolved and set mindlessly adrift.
what secret would be revealed -
aeons of thread-bare whispers
unraveling sky-high as through the blowhole
of a wandering dolphin
caught unawares
and unprepared for dainty puffs of discretion.
o god
god might say
i thought my heart might contain it all
submerged and cooled
in this thin and saltless sea.
it seems perhaps not.

the war on terror

by erin

communication stations in the
frame of this Nation, and its nations,
chaotically flows into ears and brains
and drains us down the tubes of fear-
bending our minds into times
that are crushing the lines
of justice.

the use of this fearing
is leering into our hearts,
is peering into our souls
and is sneering as we go
quivering into our closed rooms
where we sweep up confusion with brooms
made of definitions and rules-
creating a truth that binds us into a fuss,
until we surrender
and drool out the sad remnants of faith.

handing over and over again, our lives
into those hands that thrive
on our misery, it is their only epitome,
and drive us
off the cliffs into an abyss of list-less-ness...
the depths of submission
because we gave them our permission.

and it Reigns and it rains
down on us
trying to wash the stains away
we forget-
but we stay, and we pray
that they, may have
the solution to the problem.
and we are surprised to find
they don't.

we scream and we cry,
"these solutions are pollutions!"
and they ignore
because they are bored
with our cries,
so they glare
and continue to stare
at our problems that weren't even there
from the start.
but they tell us that they care
and our downfall is,
we believe them.

running and flailing around
we drown
with out any knowledge of how to swim
because we gave it away.

little did we know how grim
when we signed our names
on those lines that sought only to frame
us inside prison walls.

and nothing is gained
from this game parade
of blame and shame.

it's not them that will save you.
it's nothing you couldn't already do;
it's here and it's now.

so throw the radio to the wall
and watch it crumble and fall,
its fallible, don't worry that's not radical,
its real.

pick up the false broom,
crack the handle against the door of your tomb.

run out
into the fields of your old soul,
roll around and unfold your mold
in the memory of what you were from birth:
a miracle.

I Pray

by erin

Holy God. You imaged us into the world, into these bodies we use day in and out. As night comes to us, we pray for rest. Grant us peaceful and renewing sleep. A sleep that brings healing to the bodies you have given us.

God, giver of life, reside in our hearts as they pump blood to our organs.
God, giver of life, reside in our lungs as they breath, sending vital air throughout our body.
God giver of life, be with our eyes as they rest behind closed lids rejuvenating our sight.
God giver of life, take the noise of our worries from our ears and grant us silence.
God giver of life, ease the aches in our bones and the cramps in our muscles; release what has gotten tied up by the stress and anxiety of our days.
God giver of life, let your Holy Spirit fall over us as we lay in our beds. Help us to let our minds stop their planning and our hearts to stop their suffering with anxiety.
Help us to remember Your Sabbath day of rest.

God with your peace we will sleep and be rejuvenated.
God with your grace we will rise the next morning with a renewed energy for the day's tasks.
God with your strength we can follow your call for us.
God with us, holy and eternal, we pray for restful bodies and a peaceful sleep this night.
Almighty and ever-loving God, in your holy Name, we pray.
AMEN.

i am from

by erin

i am
from a community that journey with,
turns and twists me into
the Maple trees that line
the black wooden fence rows
of the rolling green hills

i am
from the tips of the corn's cobs
dancing in the fields and breeze,
from the horses that trot along,
to these melodies, i sing
"my old home"

i am
from a traveling home
full of wandering foods
whose spices paint the canvas' scenes
and bouqets of words in
books grow on walls

i am
from the stories
of my mother's eyes
as she looks and sees all
the years before, that came and
all the years to be
a gift

i am
from the stories of my father's heart
shepherding me into a new land
of wondering love
where a rain drops down
and gives me growth

i am
from the arms of a loving partner
and friends who
wrap themseleves around and feed me
their smiles and laughter
singing songs that carry me
into a world where,
i am blessed.