Invocation of the Trees
Have mercy on us
we who are poor in spirit
we who are never satisfied
we who strive to possess everything
We who are poor in spirit
bless us and teach us
we who strive to possess everything
fill us as vessels with the breath of stars
Bless us and teach us
cleanse and heal our weary hearts
fill us as vessels with the breath of stars
attach our roots with grace and truth
Cleanse and heal our weary hearts
quench our hunger with light
attach our roots with grace and truth
you who honor both heavens and earth
Quench our hunger with light
we who are never satisfied
you who honor both heavens and earth
have mercy on us
Another pantoum, for Sue Vincent’s photo prompt, above. It seems a good form for call and response.
The trees have been talking quite a bit lately, with a background of running commentary from the birds.
28 responses to “Invocation of the Trees”
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- - July 19, 2018
Perfect wording to paint the picture. Amazing work, really. 🙂
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Thank you.
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Wowwwww! This painting and these words take my breath away….
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Thanks Jodi.
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This is wonderful. It could become a prayer/song for our age.
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Thanks Suzanne. The forms we’ve absorbed from attending church are really not so different from words that have always been used to speak our feelings I think. Sometimes we just need to find new words.
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I agree – we need a whole new language sometimes
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Stunning, Kerfe. I love the artwork… and the pantoum is a perfect invocation.
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Thanks Sue. Your photos are like rorschachs, illuminating what we need.
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That is a rather nice way of thinking about them, Kerfe 🙂
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I wonder who the incantation is addressed to? Asking to be filled with the breath of stars is such an utterly pagan idea. I love that picture too. It’d like the tree world seen through a giant raindrop.
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Thanks Jane. The watercolor somehow reminded me of Sue’s tree, and you’ve captured the feeling, although I hadn’t articulated it. As to pagan ideas…I was brought up in the church and left its narrowly boxed up view of the world long ago. But the music, the poetry and images, those have always contained the spirits that people honored before they were outlawed by governments and clergy.
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I share your views about beauty. Organised religion has no feeling for beauty at all. Even the great church music only exists because great composers wrote it. Same for the church paintings. Princes and Popes would have been content with any old pompous rubbish.
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Beautiful poem. I love the phrase “breath of stars.” Jane describes your water color perfectly.
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Thanks Merril. I tried many words there and that phrase was a gift, it just fit. These watercolors are full of surprises for me, and just what I need right now.
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I think it’s always a sort of gift when words and/or art fit. A kiss from the muse.
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Yes it is.
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I can see us all hand in hand around the trees reciting this poem/prayer. Your painting is mysterious and very soothing.
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Thanks Sharon. Trees are mysterious and also comforting.
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I like your prayer/invocation very much..I could see it being used in some settings…Unitarian, for example.
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Thanks Janice. We all need some sense of the spiritual I think.
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Beautiful abstract watercolours… !
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Thanks Evelyn!
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Everything about this is gorgeous! Love it! 😍
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Thanks Charlie!
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Very beautiful, Kerfe – both artwork and poetry.
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Thanks Betty.
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