Wilderness Poems

This weekend I able to spend time in the mountains and woods at St Dorothy's Camp in Sonoma County on an Artist's and Writer's retreat. It was an amazing way to go deeper into the season of Lent. As I walked through the redwoods, I thought and prayed about what it means to follow the Spirit into the wilderness and I looked for the way that God speaks through the wild landscapes of trails and mountains and tangled forests. I wanted to share some of the writing (always a continued work in progress) that came from my weekend away.

Wilderness Poems

I.

As this ground cracks herself open

to make way for such insistent sprouts,

does she know what a miracle she is offering?

Does that dark, fertile soil know

she is a womb giving birth to new life

with each cresting moment?

Would such knowledge

make this eternal labor

any more or less

miraculous?

II.

This earth is a body being broken.

She is split and torn

as determined roots

push their way

through her toughened flesh.

She is both fractured and strong.

I come to this wild place

seeking gentleness

But what I find is

sometimes life, like birth,

is a kind of violence.

III.

This earth is God's body.

Her gentle curves willing to endure

both our uglinesses and our brutalities.

I know no other word

for this but love.

Her embrace persists

through my many rebellions.

When I come back to her

barefooted, like a child,

she receives me into her

as though I have at last

come home.