Benedicine Bards: poems inspired by the Monastery
Evening Prayer 2011 A.D.
Psalm 139 1037-967 B.C.
By: Michele J.Charvet
1
Evening prayer at The Monastery of St. Gertrude’s
Sitting beside my friend, Sister Cecile
I had been here before
engaged with the Sisters’ voices
Eagle strong Dove soft.
“Oh Lord, you search me and you know me,
You know my resting and my rising.
Four years had gone by…
You discern my purpose from afar
Twenty-four years earlier
When first I visited and heard
The Sisters’ melody of prayer
You mark when I walk or lie down,
Seasons had passed
sun set moon rose sun came sun went
Summer and early autumn were my chosen seasons
to visit those years.
All my ways lie open to you.
2
Tonight Psalm 139: Chosen prayer to pray
Before ever a word is on my tongue
You know it, O Lord, through and through.
I held my lips tight…no words..
Behind and before you besiege me
Instead Cloaked my soul wept
Your hand ever laid upon me.
Too wonderful for me this knowledge,
Too high, beyond my reach.
3
Harsh sorrow biting and tearing
No warmth from an arctic place inside me today.
Sister Wilma is not here
I used to look across the chapel and see her
Hands toughened by years of garden toil
gently folded in prayer: The very sight made my heart smile.
Now…she lies deep in the ice cold ground.
O where can I go from your spirit
Or where can I flee from your face?
If I climb the heavens, you are there.
If I lie in the grave, you are there.
The Sisters are loud in prayer
My broken heart clashes with my stoic posturing.
If I take the wings of the dawn
And dwell at the sea’s furthest end,
Even there your hand would lead me,
Your right hand would hold me fast.
4
Midway thru tonight’s prayer…I leave the chapel
With fists clenched, escaping outside
Twilight’s Winter air greets me.
Kicking frozen snow with my shoes
Miserable grief
If I say: Let the darkness hide me
And the light around me be night.”
Tears fall I curse God.
“You don’t exist and if you do: What a heartless shallow god.”
“Even the darkness is not dark for you
And the night is as clear as the day.”
5
A bird screeching interrupts my rant.
Why does it not keep still
In dusk’s sorrow of daylight gone?
My throat muscles grip and tighten.
I glare up to the sky.
For it was you who created my being,
Knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I thank you for the wonder of my being,
Loud screeching again
Shattering my miserable silence over and over…
“Leave my grief alone. Have you no empathy for sorrow?”
I call out and see an eagle flying thru the dying days light.
Already you knew my soul
My body held no secret from you
When I was being fashioned in secret
And molded in the depths of the earth.
The eagle calls and dances playfully in a circle above me.
Awe and musical laughter erupts deep within me.
Then the bird flies south blending into the night.
Your eyes saw all my actions,
They were all of them written in your book;
Every one of my days was decreed
Before one of them came into being.
I stare at the impotent darkness.
To me,how mysterious your thoughts
The sum of them not to be numbered!
If I count them, they are more than the sand;
To finish, I must be eternal, like you.
6
My eyes look down cold snowy ground
I look up to the dark night Stars are appearing
Maybe, Sister Wilma IS.
…O search me, God, and know my heart…”
Benedictines, Sing!
Carry the message to God
Remind him we are here
Sing, Benedictines, sing
To the heavens
So we can be heard!
Lift up your voices
Declare the words
The song of Psalms
Of praise and of pain
Let God hear your words
Speak for all of us, please!
Benedictines, will you be strong
As the world begins to fade
Or so it seems
Will you keep singing to God
Will you keep us safe
And give us hope?
We are the world who begs of you
Let God know we are here
Let him remember us
As the world seems to be lost
Let him know we are not!
Hope, you are our hope
Ones who sing to God
We ask you hear our words
And keep singing for us
You are our hope
Sing loudly sisters, sing for us!
~Affliliate amber lewis
Sanity
If I could open my eyes with my eyes closed,
Would I see the saints standing around me?
If I could get over the appearance of reality,
Would I see the rest of the world hidden beneath?
I woke up when I wasn’t sleeping
Under a tall pine in the cemetery on the hill and saw
Women in black standing around me
Substantial as though they stood firmly on another plain.
Some smiled that they had seen me before and
Some nodded, knowingly, like grandmothers amongst the young.
They embraced me without touching, their skirts touched by a breeze
Different from the one that moved the wildflowers at my feet.
And they followed me as I made my way down the hill,
A great cloud of mothers like a finely spun thread holding me in place.
If I open my eyes I can still see them,
Hear them whispering persistently to the colors of my heart.
-Erika Szymanski, Monastic Immersion Experience Intern
Debra's Poem
Ah, life is just a mop and bucket, sometimes
but still
pleasantly introspective
thinking about life, or just small moments
here and there
and then, in the quiet hall
I hear
A sweet-voiced nun, singing her praise
And I smile.
-Debra Graham, Monastery Employee
St. Benedict
They decided to poison you
On a whim
Out of the human condition called jealousy
And they plotted against you
And once more, like Jesus, they planned to take you away, useless to them
The scheme was simple, poison the cup
You blessed it, as you always did, giving all to God
And the cup burst and fluid flowed forth
Then, the bread was poisoned, this must not fail
Yet, you blessed the bread and a raven soared down and
Stole the bread
And you lived on, consumed in this miracle
Now, 1500 years later, your Rule sustains those who seek God
The Raven sits beside the Lord
As does the thief;
Bless the food and drink
And watch the miracles unfold
-Affiliate Amber Lewis