Here, Now and Forever

Here You are beside me.
Here You are within me.
Here You share Your Being as Bread for my living.
Here I am believing.
Here I am becoming.
Here I receive Your Spirit as Life for my soul.

Here we dwell together.
Here we dwell in loving.
Here we give, completely,
Ourselves, One to the other,one to the Other

©2015 Joann Nelander

Smiling Eyes

Lying in the sunshine of Your love,
Recounting humming bird days,
Flitting as flashes flung to the heavens,
I look to the horizon,
For the rising of yet another sun.

I feel I know You.
It is me I doubt,
But I don’t know why.
I have spent my life
Becoming what I think
You want me to be.
Others, though, have always
Seemed to do it better.

Here I am at eve tide,
Recounting the many waters,
That wash these shores.
Your Beauty plays for me,
Painting the setting sun;
I guess, to reassure my clay
Of The Love You are,
As I still look for me,
Reflected in Your smiling eyes.

copyright 2014 Joann Nelander

Giving Gifts to God

Adoration of the Wise Men by Murillo

Adoration of the Wise Men by Murillo /Wikipedia

Babe of Bethlehem,
Your Star still lights the way.
You are the loveliest flower,
Your Father’s good creation,
A wondrous bouquet.

Kings are approaching,
Bearing gifts,
While this New Day dawns.
This day finds me by Your side,
Reverently watching,
As you nurse
At Mother Mary’s breast.
In the ordinary tasks of Motherhood,
Mary is all gift.

Strangely, I am learning
As I gaze on Your Holy Family.
I squeeze between
The donkey and the lamb,
Service and sacrifice
Becoming everything in Love.

How can I help?
What can I bring You?
Mary reads my heart and smiles.
You have made her a Mother,
And she already knows,
She is mine.
In loving You,
She is loving me,
And I am wrapped in familial sweetness,
Wanting to give in kind.

Precious Infant, You
are changing everything.
The world without is passing,
Almost as a stranger.
I let it pass,
For I, now, know,
I am passing, too.

Without fear, I look on You,
Your days on Earth are numbered,
And yet, they are without end.
I, too, accept Your Father’s will.

Kings are approaching,
Searching for meaning,
and giving all
To come to You.
Wise Men, heartened by Your Star,
Following the signs
And listening with their hearts,
Doing all that they can do,
And accepting from your angels,
What they could not know on their own,
Open hearts and open ears;
I must have the same.

I listen in the dark,
As new day dawns upon this world,
Now, filled with wonder;
I wonder, too.
What shall I give to You,
Having already given You my heart,
And all my dawning days?

Your Soul reaches out at my behest.
I hear You.
I, now, hear You.
It is, of course, the beat of Your Heart
That whispers in it’s smallness,
Yet seems to thunder
Within my breast.

“Souls, souls, souls;
Give me, souls!”
As Mary I become your handmaid.
I answer my “Amen.”

By Joann Nelander

Writing in Gold

Writing in Gold

I’m here,
Once again,
I’m here.
Awake to You.

Before dawn wakes,
I anticipate,
Opening the door of my heart,
Like a flower,
Invited by the light
Of a thousand yesterday’s.

We have a history,
And though my memory fades,
You cherish our moments.
Even the mundane,
You write in letters of Gold,
Recording them,
Transforming them.

I’m here, again,
Awake to You,
You, Who have been watching,
Guarding,
Writing,
In Gold,
Gold,
Precious Gold.

In the Gold of Ophir,
You write.
You tell,
My story,
My life,
In refined Gold,
You inscribe,
In Your Book of Life.
My heart,
On Your Most Sacred Heart.

© 2017 Joann Nelander

A Home for My God

David, Thy Servant, desired to build You a house.
I, too, desire to build You a holy dwelling.
I desire to build it here,
In this space in which I live.

Here on this ground of my being,
More than brick and mortar,
More than outward beauty,
I raise its rafters of prayer.

I desire this house to be a home,
Where angels and saints are welcome,
And drawn by the Heart of this dwelling,
For the home I will build is totally Yours.

With Davis, Your servant, I desire.
I desire to please  and serve my God.
Make of me a home, an abode,
In which we may sup,
Now, and eternally.

(C)2016 Joann Nelander

 

Choices

I believe that if we realized the person in-utero is not hanging in some ethereal place while we decide whether or not we can accommodate our lives to their presence in the here and now, realizing that they are a reality and not a choice, and that their one life is all they have on earth and they want it just as much as we want, defend and protect our own, for they precious to us, then the abortion debate would be over.

Here I Am

Here I am, beneath your heart,
My heart beating in happy harmony,
As my frame perceives
The gentle throbbing within your breast,
Serene.

I began in secret and in darkness,
A mystery, even to myself.
Day by day, nature shapes my clay,
As you await the blessed dawn of my birth day.

What I know, I know by existence.
I am now all trust,
Simply growing,
Simply becoming who I am.

Comfort, you give comfort.
Love, you are all I know of love.
As you wait for me, my mother,
The eyes of my soul are wide open.
I behold you, smiling upon me.
Expectant, vigilant and gleeful,

Mother of my moments,
You cradle me.
You are my home of sweet delight.

© 2011 Joann Nelander