3 possible answers to an impossible question
Poem by Robert Whalley
(Berkeley 1980)
1.
Because all the songs of heaven
Find expression in your eyes
And you speak morning
In fine firm tones
I will serve you
In kneeling adoration
Or with head held high
To the sky of your grace
I so pledge you my service
To witness your light and
To allow your light to unfold here
In Silence and in time
And I will sing
In ecstasy of unknowing
With music given me
Your song.
2
What is not spirituality
Where do I not meet God?
Where is the land where
The Lord will not speak?
I often meet God in the shower
Holy water and good soap
Cleaning up the dwelling place
Making spiritual sense
I encounter God over coffee
With fellow pilgrims at the Egg Shop
Being corporately bewildered
By sunrise and all the rest
I work out with God at the gym
I lift my limits; going with
The given resistance, in graceful action
Leading to new vistas and new limits.
I eat (am consumed)
God (by, with, of, God)
Daily (in and out of time)
I (Drowning in Love)
Drink (The blood is given)
God (To give life)
Daily (And what is time?)
I sing God’s song
With the voice I am given
And I learn to sing
In appropriate intervals
I wrestle with God
In stranger times
Then I am given a new name
And try to limp gracefully.
Is God the stranger
Who calls to be reconciled in new community
Is God the parent
Who constantly bares me
Into new beginnings
In God the child
who waits for my blessing with watchful eyes?
What is spirituality?
(It’s like dog shit
With rain and time
It provides a place for flowers).
What is spirituality?
It is place we are placed
It is song we are sung
It is word we are given
It is between, among, within,
It is note of creation
It is word it is Yes.
3.
Spirituality
is wrestling and resting
and growing and being with God
It is earth, air, fire and water
Gracefully received, raised up, given
Given up and taken to new possibilities.
It flowers in common ground
And blooms in wondrous place,
It kills, consecrates and makes new
And always and everywhere it is telling
To us our first and final name
And always and everywhere
It is gift.
In kneeling adoration
Or with head held high
To the sky of your grace
I so pledge you my service
To witness your light and
To allow your light to unfold here
In Silence and in time
And I will sing
In ecstasy of unknowing
With music given me
Your song.
2
What is not spirituality
Where do I not meet God?
Where is the land where
The Lord will not speak?
I often meet God in the shower
Holy water and good soap
Cleaning up the dwelling place
Making spiritual sense
I encounter God over coffee
With fellow pilgrims at the Egg Shop
Being corporately bewildered
By sunrise and all the rest
I work out with God at the gym
I lift my limits; going with
The given resistance, in graceful action
Leading to new vistas and new limits.
I eat (am consumed)
God (by, with, of, God)
Daily (in and out of time)
I (Drowning in Love)
Drink (The blood is given)
God (To give life)
Daily (And what is time?)
I sing God’s song
With the voice I am given
And I learn to sing
In appropriate intervals
I wrestle with God
In stranger times
Then I am given a new name
And try to limp gracefully.
Is God the stranger
Who calls to be reconciled in new community
Is God the parent
Who constantly bares me
Into new beginnings
In God the child
who waits for my blessing with watchful eyes?
What is spirituality?
(It’s like dog shit
With rain and time
It provides a place for flowers).
What is spirituality?
It is place we are placed
It is song we are sung
It is word we are given
It is between, among, within,
It is note of creation
It is word it is Yes.
3.
Spirituality
is wrestling and resting
and growing and being with God
It is earth, air, fire and water
Gracefully received, raised up, given
Given up and taken to new possibilities.
It flowers in common ground
And blooms in wondrous place,
It kills, consecrates and makes new
And always and everywhere it is telling
To us our first and final name
And always and everywhere
It is gift.
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