Iphigene here!
It’s been quite a while since I posted anything in Gathering Books. I’m still technically on a blogging hiatus, but I was asked to step in, so here I am. I’m quite excited to be back for Poetry Friday today. I’m sharing an original poem I wrote sometime in December 2016. It’s part of a series I wrote called Open Spaces which are poems I worked on based on some of the paintings I made. I hope you enjoy it.
I’m delighted to be able to contribute to Poetry Friday today and seeing that Linda of Teacher Dance is hosting!
Holy Ground (Open Spaces #3)
They taught me how to pray—
A formula of words repeated
Across beads lined up in 10s
Each recitation a promise
Of finding God
Of growing Holy
And yet each utterance
Left my mouth,
while my thoughts
Filled with things to do
And people I knew
As my hands sped through
Bead after bead
With words learned
In my youth.
I thought of God as contained
In these little practices
Of prayers, Of kneeling
And houses with crosses
Upon their roofs.
Only to find walls and words
Fading into the repetition
And then, upon a hill
Outside these churches I knew
Beneath the open sky
I saw the trees sway
The flowers bloom
The mountains stand in glory
When wordlessness
Filled my mouth
I found the God
My prayer thought they knew
For in the vastness of nature
In its beauty and wildness
Lay a prayer only uttered
With open mouth and
Wonder, a holiness
Found in my smallness
Against this holy ground
Of greatness.
(I have posted this poem in some obscure part of the internet under my pseudonym)
Gathering Books 
This is beautiful. I love it so much.
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Hi Akilah,
Thank you. I am glad that this poem spoke to you. 🙂
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Oh, Iphogene – this is one of my favorite things you’ve written that I’ve ever read. So deep and light and full of life. “Wonder, a holiness” – yes. I’ve been thinking a lot about space lately (how, like white space in a poem, I need to cultivate more of it in my home and studio and mind!), and this poem is a lovely way to greet Poetry Friday this new year. Blessings to you! And thank you for sharing.
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Hi Robyn,
I am fascinated with space and my heart desires for it. It reflects in my paintings and the poetry inspired by those paintings. I have re-arranged my life recently to make way for space, to allow myself to be away from clutter both inside and outside. I am delighted that this poem spoke to you, that it resonated in its tone and depth. Thank you too. Blessings to you as well!
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This is beautiful, Iphogene and matches wonderfully with your painting.
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Thanks Sally. 🙂
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This is so beautiful. I have often thought that it is in the wonder and beauty of the natural world that we can find what our mind and spirit are searching for. Thank you for sharing this, it really is something special.
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Hi Jane,
I have always lived in the city, but in the past two years have grown to truly love nature and the wonders it has to offer. If there is anything that truly awes me—that shows me greatness it is nature, its beauty and diversity and the life that surrenders to everyday.
I am glad this poem resonated with you. Thank you for taking the time to read it. 🙂
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So much creativity in your heart, Iphigene! I like how your painting and poem fit together. My favorite line is “a prayer only uttered with…wonder.” Here’s to creativity and wonder in 2017!
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Hi Tabatha,
You do not know how much that means to me, to be told i have creativity in my heart. It took a while for me to truly believe i was ‘creative’. So indeed, Here’s to creativity and wonder! cheers!
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I’m glad you’re here today, Iphigene for you filled a space so beautifully about holy places that are unexpected, but fill the empty up. I love the painting too and the twoness of the connection: “a prayer only utteredWith open mouth and/ Wonder.” Nature means much to me, but I don’t think I’ve captured it quite as beautifully as you have. Thank you!
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Thank you Linda.
Yes, we think of Holy as limited to the symbols we’ve grown to associate with the word. Over the years, I have come to realize that outside these symbols is something so awesome that one cannot help but be open-mouthed in wonder.
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Hi Iphigene, Your poem spoke to me, too. I often think we can hear God best in silence, in the cathedral of nature, with natural light all around us. The painting is beautiful, too. If only our crowded cities could retain some places for that silent worship. I adore this line: “a holiness/ Found in my smallness” for there we find forgiveness, too. Great poem! Happy New Year! Brenda
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Hi Brenda,
It seems many from the Poetry Friday have a strong affinity towards nature and the wonder that it brings. Yes, in the appreciation of the natural we see greatness that I think not any book or prayer can teach us. I’m glad you liked both poem and painting. 🙂
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I think when we’re in nature, we’re discovering it for ourselves. We are the creator –of our own thoughts and ideas — as well as being in the presence of the creator. Whereas when we are reading or looking at art, someone else got there first, and they are translating. As if they become the clergy. And we are the parishioner. Or perhaps we have all read Thoreau, and we are his acolytes. 🙂
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Hahaha. Well, Thoreau, i am pretty sure has influenced many. I agree with you, to read about nature and to experience it are two different things. I remember reading a whole collection of Mary Oliver as well as look at images of birds, i was curious about birds. Drew them even, but when i saw them, i was overwhelmed. A stillness overcame me.
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I think that stillness allows in the divine. Thanks for the chat. XOXO
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Iphigene, this is enchanting! I love the painting and the whisper of words in your poem. There is such greatness found in smallness!
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Hi Keisha,
Thank you for taking the time to read this poem. I like how you describe it as a ‘whisper of words.’
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What a beautiful poem that speaks to my soul. Reading it makes me think of my favorite places to worship–a church that had floor to ceiling windows behind the altar that overlooked the valley below. Another was a church on St. Croix whose windows were open to the sea. Something about natural beauty calls me to God.
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Hi Kay,
Thank you. The Churches you describe sound wonderful. Its amazing to realize that God is not confined in these traditional places of Worship rather he is everywhere and nature is one if those places of worship without walls.
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Thank you. Not only is the poem lovely….it hits deep. Faith is such a journey. There is sacred God and there is religion. Often the two meet….but the older I get the more I see and feel where they don’t. I grew up with those beads too….but I no longer use them or practice faith with them. Bless you for finding sacred in the open spaces. I’m sure God smiled when you discovered them too.
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Hi Linda,
Yes, there is more to faith and God than the prayers we learn. While I still identify myself as part of the religion I was born in, I go beyond it when i think of Faith and God, for truly that belongs in the Open Spaces. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on the poem. 🙂
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You seem to have found some enlarging, too! Well done, Iphigene!
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Hi,
Yes. I am grateful that as I am getting older, I am seeing a bigger world and learning to grow into it. Thanks you for reading.
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This is so beautiful–thanks for sharing this personal, powerful poem!
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Hi Molly,
It’s nice to know that other people enjoyed this little piece. You’re welcome, its always a pleasure to be able to share a bit of myself in my poetry. 🙂
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