Anticipating Leaf-peeping

Tourists come to these woods
in cars and buses that choke highways,
and mighty glad we are
in New England
for the dollars that keep our diners,
the mom-and-pop motels,
the state and national parks,
viable for the locals
to enjoy the rest of the year.

They come for foliage,
though their guides point out
that guessing peak is always … “guess.”
They insist on great splashes of color,
hill after hill painted
in amber and gold,
scarlet, ochre, umber, even purple,
a landscape’s dying splendor.

But every year I look carefully
for the first leaf to turn
and the last to drop,
for the single leaf that catches
this light of sunset,
or crunches under my foot.

I want my time leaf by leaf –
the tweet of the season,
the haiku,

a friend’s numbered breaths.

Photo by Adam Stuart on Pexels.com

“I always cry at weddings”

A Muslim wedding ceremony does not include
“till death do us part” as do the weddings
with which I am more familiar.
The Nikah Vows include Ijab-o-Qabul,
meaning offer and acceptance by both parties.

The new US strikes in Iran,
were not so clearly targeted yesterday.
They were ,”Broader and more intense,”
certainly not offered and accepted,
Ijab-o-Qabul,
and those of us in the United States
need to know that among those dead
were civilians, including those
who were celebrating a wedding.

In this country, we should be crying.

Love by Lap — Guest Post from Mark Saline

 LOVE BY LAP                   

A  child’s soul is not made of cells, but is born in grandma’s lap and craddled in her voice… Wherever the child goes in years to come, grandma’s lap and voice go with them. If a prodigal child needs to come home again grandma’s lap will open to them, and her voice is what their soul needs to hear for healng: ‘WELCOME HOME, MY CHILD!’ … ‘The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.’ – John 1:14… In differences & conflict, fathers & men tend to exile Different Others, and mothers & women tend to reconcile Different Others. Mothers & grandmothers reach, love, weep, and befriend across boundaries. As a metaphor, it is more true than not, to suggest a child’s first experience of ‘god’ is the unconditional love and non-anxious presence of grandmother. Eden was grandmother God’s lap of life where everyone belongs;  ‘And it was very good.’

Prayer after the Grand Canyon Flash Flood

God, who offers hope in times of danger,
we pray for fifty people still missing
in the flash flood in the Grand Canyon,
that they may feel calm
and find ways to identify their presence.

We pray for speed, safety,
and even for right-guessing,
for those searching against the clock,
as more rain is predicted,
and against the fear that the longer
the lost are unfound, the risk rises
of more injuries and more casualties.

We pray for the family and friends
of the victim of this natural disaster,
and for all those who wait for news
of their friends, their family members,|
and for Park Service Staff
reaching out to give strength and comfort.

Be present at Bright Angel Canyon,
with the very hope of its name. amen  

Prayer for Nepal and Tibet

For help in the midst of floods
and safety from mudslides,
for shelter as ice pours down
from the heights of the Himalayas,
we pray.

For rescue of those separated
from home and family,
and recovery in safe spaces
where families can find one another,
for tourists stranded and frightened
and those who wait for news
of loved ones from their distant homes,
we pray.

For food and shelter shared,
for the generosity of the world,
for medical crews and trained searchers,
for leaders in China and Tibet,
for leaders in Nepal,
we pray.

For compassion in those near and far
for news shared with the ones
in all nations
who work to slow the heating
and melting and destroying
of precious places high and low,
and the setting aside
false promises of safety,
by those who profit from tragedy,

we pray. Amen.

Remembering Dolly Parton

“I will Always Love You,”
is the song I think of most,
because she sang it
the year that I was married,

but I also had a mother like hers
so “Coat of Many Colors”
made me cry, smiling all over,
and “9 to 5” still makes me laugh
and these are times
when we all need really
a lot of laughing …
maybe I’ll see the movie again,

but today, waking up
to read that Dolly Parton died,
“Islands in the Stream” is the one …

“that’s what we are,
no one in between …
and we rely on each other …”

We remember Dolly Parton
generous, loving,
making music for years and tears,
and leaving the world
with her big-hearted cover
of all the best gospel songs …
“Precious Memories,”
“Heaven’s just a Prayer Away,”
“Church in the Wildwood,”

and it just won’t be Christmas without her …
“Go, Tell it on the Mountain.”

And, so, we remember Dolly Parton,
and that she sang to the world

that even sadness
is always really, “Amazing Grace.”

Improv on Exodus 3

Before the ten commandments,
before the dance with the tambourines,
before the plagues,
before any particular religion
and a name for God

(after all, the people of Asia and
most people who eventually built mosques,
must have heard it, too.)

There was the barefoot directive —
take off your shoes
and touch it –

the earth under your
(not somebody else’s) feet,
notice
this ground, bush, fire.

I’m talking to you –
not because of your impressive brain,
compassionate heart,
not the beautiful singing voice,|
rippling muscles, spiritual depth,
perfect complexion, long hair.

You with the toes,
are you listening?

This is the holy moment.

Photo by Feyza Yu0131ldu0131ru0131m on Pexels.com

Prayers for Kiev

The news tells us ballistic missiles
are “raining” on Kiev, and we weep.

Let us pray for those who grieve
fifteen civilians killed yesterday alone,
more than forty wounded.

Let us pray for a school damaged
and a children’s hospital
and wonder what bombed-out heart
makes a target of these.

Let us pray for forty-thousand people
who slept in the subway last night,
or lay awake in fear,
and will return again tonight.

Let us pray for the bare grocery stores,
destroyed food warehouses,
and the people walking down aisle
with empty carts …
and their children’s empty stomachs.

Let us pray for the losses of today,
on the front line of ordinary people,

but hold on to some breath,
for every day is growing worse.

Kiev Subway

Guest post from Mark Saline

REMEMBERING THEM  

I remember them, way back when, and feel them again, what happened to us then, and what might have been… Their haunting never ends, the deaths, our griefs, never mend. Godsent  family at rope’s end, we hung in pain I can’t suspend… I pretend, but can’t deny our blend. I am them, and not them. So many emotional loose ends, which I tend and contend… They were my world, but worlds end. In emptiness I descend, remembering them. My phantom limb heart bows to them. They, my prayer and daily bread, never end. Amen.

Mark writes: Pic & poem are my family of origin – an extended family. By age 14, four people in the pic died : mom & grandpa died of liver cancer two weeks apart. Two uncles died a year later. The poem is about grief.

Reader, If you don’t have a way or place to put words that matter to you out into the world, you may send them here for me to share at giftsinopenhands@gmail.com. I am grateful for such gifts. Maren

The Midwives’ Call

I’ve preached the midwives and how,
without Shiphrah and Puah —

Moses would have never grown up,
to be rash and tongue-tied,
observant enough to notice
the bright, hot Spirit in a common bush,
humble enough to go barefoot,

and so on and on —
blood on the lintel, water parted,
manna and listening to his father-in-law,
two sets of engraved holy stones,
the view
from the mountain of it-ends-here,
to the one of transfigure-this,

but I never realized
that the story isn’t about this at all.

The story is not
about Shiphrah and Puah saving Moses.
It is about Shiphrah and Puah
who saved every baby boy, every time.

Notice how many men of Moses generation
departed in the Exodus.

And the footnote that the two midwives
quit to raise their own families …

Code for:
Pharaoh-forced early retirement.

Shiphrah, Puah, Jochebed, Miriam, Pharoah’s Daughter, and the infant Moses
Date:before 245 Dura-Europos Synagogue