Sometimes we need a little room for poetry. Not a lot, just a little corner.
Poetry can help us face the more challenging moments in our lives and world, it can give us a place to go, a place to be when experiences of any kind are far too much for words.
With this in mind at the coming of a new year, Randy Smit and Rhonda Edgington are going to try something new by hosting a little monthly poetry gathering, right here in the Hope Church news!
Over the years we’ve become aware of how many gifted writers there are here at Hope Church, and who knows how many lovers of language there may be?
If you’re a person who loves poetry, loves to write or longs to explore new ways to “put life to language and language to life,” we’d love to hear from you.
Starting next time, we’ll plan to highlight one author each month with an original piece, as well as a favorite poem or something that is speaking to them right now.
For this first edition, let’s all enjoy a poem Pastor Jill read in Early Worship the first Sunday of the new year, a blessing for this 2018…
We look forward to seeing where this journey of words takes us. Hope to hear from ya.
For Those Who Have Far to Travel
An Epiphany Blessing
by Jan Richardson
If you could see
the journey whole
you might never
undertake it;
might never dare
the first step
that propels you
from the place
you have known
toward the place
you know not.
Call it
one of the mercies
of the road:
that we see it
only by stages
as it opens
before us,
as it comes into
our keeping
step by
single step.
There is nothing
for it
but to go
and by our going
take the vows
the pilgrim takes:
to be faithful to
the next step;
to rely on more
than the map;
to heed the signposts
of intuition and dream;
to follow the star
that only you
will recognize;
to keep an open eye
for the wonders that
attend the path;
to press on
beyond distractions
beyond fatigue
beyond what would
tempt you
from the way.
There are vows
that only you
will know;
the secret promises
for your particular path
and the new ones
you will need to make
when the road
is revealed
by turns
you could not
have foreseen.
Keep them, break them,
make them again:
each promise becomes
part of the path;
each choice creates
the road
that will take you
to the place
where at last
you will kneel
to offer the gift
most needed—
the gift that only you
can give—
before turning to go
home by
another way.