Good morning…
We sat in a small, sacred circle, ranging from one-hundred-and-one years old, through ninety-eighty-seventy-somethings, to fifty-five year old me. Our soulful speaker, a dear friend of mine, read aloud wisdom from Richard Rohr: “Poetry gives you resonance more than logical proof, and resonance is much more healing and integrating.” He continued reading Rohr in his slow, rich voice: “For poetry to be most effective, I believe it should be spoken aloud, embodied. After all, God didn’t think, ‘Let there be light” (Genesis 1:3). God spoke, and creation vibrated into existence.”
Then my friend read aloud to us a series of his favorite poems, beginning first with a famous one, a poem I, myself, had never met. Now, let’s take my friend’s advice and read aloud these simple words with our own slow, rich voice.
******
Trees by Joyce Kilmer
I think that I shall never see
A poem as lovely as a tree
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
******
Life reverberates in me. First I am filled with palpable peace, the same peace passing between a nursing breast and a hungry babe. Then my inner eyelids lift in prayer to experience God all day, all night. Finally my thoughts drift through the seasons, each curtsying with extended hand: “Please dance with me in intimacy.”
Words fall short, as short as me, but I love the God who makes each tree.
Is anything too difficult or too wonderful for the LORD? (Genesis 18:14a, AMP).
…Sue…
P.S. A special thanks goes out to Gina MacFarland, my talented web designer who created this gorgeous tree image for the main page of our suetoyou.com website, to Jerry Coker who read us poetry from his soul and shared with us the soft fur of Norma Jean, the service dog he has trained, and for the Cannon Circle of the United Methodist Women at Northside Church who hosted an intimate conversation I will never forget.
