PRESENCE

When your presence
Finds existence
I am swallowed,
Taken up
In overwhelming
Understanding
Of the smallness
Of my love
Compared with
You who speak
Creation
And surround
All that we see
With power endless
In compassion
Never ceasing
But to BE.

IT

I looked for it,
But found it gone -
Funny how it took so long
To faith avow
And make response
Without anticipation.

I felt it there
In younger times,
Adopted it as ever mine
Until without
Was awkward more
Than being in its presence.

I miss it some,
For hinged on such
Was in myself a measured trust
But nonetheless
The safety there
Was never to fulfill.

I do not know
Quite how to feel
Without the constant need to heal
The sordid wounds
That taught me fear
I think I’ll live without.



KDC 4/2010

The Wisdom of Oswald

"You cannot have a moral vacation and remain moral, nor can you have a spiritual holiday and remain spiritual."