Category Archives: Poetry, Prose & Prayer

Poetry, Prose & Prayer

Who?

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“Who do you say I am?”
Jesus asked.
Who do you say I am?

The jars lined the walls.
Each one marked:
A weight and words,
“Products of conception.”

Parts, just parts!
Parts, just parts?
Who do you say I am?

©2012 Joann Nelander

Sounds of Yesterday

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Sounds of yesterday play hard against my soul.
Voices shouting through the years,
Silenced as rain upon the shoal.
Sounds of yesterday play hard against my soul
As pillowed sobs still take their toll.
Nothing so hard to bear as tears.
Sounds of yesterday play hard against my soul
Voices shouting through the years.

©2012 Joann Nelander

Your Light, My Light

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As the dark of night
Makes way for Your Sun,
Open our eyes to New Day.

To the Temple of our God,
Your Light is carried forth,
In the arms of the Virgin.

Pure Mother of Nations,
May we, too, be bathed,
And come up from the waters,
Open to Light and Life.

copyright 2015 Joann Nelander

Stir into Flame

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Fire once flame

Enkindled by the Spirit,

Smolder.

Embers still aglow,

Await a new Wind,

And a prayer,

Sent on the breath

Of the will,

Catalyst and fuel.

 

O Spirit blaze again

To the heavens,

Sending heat and light

To ignite those cold,

World-weary and, now, ready.

 

Then will the sparks fly

And the earth shake.

Lord Jesus, send forth Your Spirit,

We are athirst and longing.

©2012 Joann Nelander

Blossom in the Desert

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Sad the plight of Man,
Mourning the lose of Paradise.
Captive to cowardice,
Hiding from his God.
Cast out, betraying,
And accusing one another,
Empty of grace, forlorn.
One garden of hope remains.
One paradise,
Ready for the Spring.
One immaculate heaven on earth.
O Virgin, say but the Word,
And your “Fiat”
Will blossom forth in Faith,
Rarity of your virginal ground.
Immaculate fecundity,
Queen Mother, Desert Willow,
New Eve, bearer of New Adam,
With new creation, rejoicing.
Voicing all thanksgiving,
A Eucharist for the sons and daughters of God.

 

© 2011 Joann Nelander

“Fiat”

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“Fiat.”
To Mary’s “Fiat,”
I say, “Amen. Amen. Amen. ”

“Fiat”, my gift to You, my King.
I give You, here in my heart, Mary’s “Fiat”,
That so inflamed the heart of Your Father,
That He gave her His Kingdom,
Enfleshing You, His Son.
The instant Mary formed her ascent in her heart and mind,
And her lips forms the word “Fiat”,
You, my God,  began Your Human life in the womb of the Virgin.

O Mary, more than a chalice,
For of your seed sprang God,
Fully human, Fully Divine ,
Of you,
Eucharist was conceived
In Immaculate Splendor.
Thanksgiving began in the heaven of your Soul
And took flesh from the heaven of Your being.
Amen. Amen. Amen.

Father, my gift to You
This morning,
Mary’s “Fiat”
May it ring out
From this lowly Earth
That heaven come down
And live among Men.
Rain down Truth and Beauty, born of a Virgin,
His Body,
Forever bearing her donation.
Mystery, Divine,
Remember Your Love, throughout Time.

©2011 Joann Nelander

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