Transmission Tonight
April 18, 2007
By Bowie Snodgrass
we like to make ministers.
so far we have 8 or a dozen.
we are part of a religion
two millennia old in 2000&7.
we met at St. Mark’s in-the-Bowery.
we prayed & ate fresh-cooked food.
introduced our selves and
said something about our day today.
we were ten people present tonight.
three readings echoed through
the almost empty chamber.
we had retreated like Elijah
only to find a still small voice.
to dwell in the house of God.
we broke into pairs to talk
about sacred spaces. one
woman brought up slaves
buried beneath the building.
three of us laid hands on the windows
blessed colored morning rays of light
we laid our hands on the floor – we
need to remember the cruel truths too.
we were transmission tonight.
Miss Good Friday?
April 7, 2007
Were you too worn out to make it to church last night? Did your boss make you work late? Did you have a better offer to go out with some friends?
Well, never fear - I’m bringing you a nice good Friday meditation featuring the poems of Barbara Crafton and the music of, well, me. So turn up your speakers, turn down your lights, and spend some time getting ready for Easter…
[audio:goodfridaymeditation.mp3]
Enjoy!
PS a really large chunk of my last album is in the meditation, so be kind about distributing it. If you really, really love it, consider picking up a copy.
Sabbath Poem (anon)
April 4, 2007
My personal aphorism lately has been “count your blessings, cut your losses”… which a friend thought was a Bowie original, and I was convinced was pirated. So, I googled it! Of course, both phrases are oft used, although perhaps not always together (sort of like “we’ll jump off that bridge when we come to it”).
But, here’s an anonymous Christian poem that I found online with the same sentiment. It may be cheesy, but it feels like good advice for these last days of Lent… as we complete our fasting and prepare for the feast!
Count your blessings instead of your crosses;
Count your gains instead of your losses.
Count your joys instead of your woes;
Count your friends instead of your foes.
Count your smiles instead of your tears;
Count your courage instead of your fears.
Count your full years instead of your lean;
Count your kind deeds instead of your mean.
Count your health instead of your wealth;
Count on God instead of yourself.
Sabbath Poem (H.D. on Mary Magdalene)
March 23, 2007
The Flowering of the Rod
[21]
Anyhow, it is exactly written,
the house was filled with the odour of the ointment;
that was a little later and this was not such a small house
and was maybe already fragrant with boughs and wreaths,
for this was a banquet, a festival;
it was all very gay and there was laughter,
but Judas Iscariot turned down his mouth,
he muttered Extravagant under his breath,
for the nard though not potent,
had that subtle, indefinable essence
that lasts longer and costs more;
Judas whispered to his neighbour
and then they all began talking about the poor;
but Mary, seated on the floor,
like a child at a party, paid no attention;
she was busy; she was deftly un-weaving
the long, carefully-braided tresses
of her extraordinary hair.
LINKS
* The poem above is from Trilogy by H.D.
* It is based on the story of Mary (presumably, of Bethany, sister of Martha and Lazarus, rather than Mary Magdalene) anointing Jesus’ feet and wiping them with her hair from the Gospel of John 12:1
* Which is related to the story of an unnamed woman anointing Jesus’ head in the house of Simon the Leper in Mark 14:3-9 and Matthew 26:6-13
* The many artistic portrayals of Mary Magdalene holding a small jar of ointment come from the long tradition of identifying her with other Mary’s and unnamed women in the New Testament.
Sabbath Poem (Akhmatova)
March 16, 2007
Mary Magdalene beat her breast and sobbed,
The beloved disciple turned to stone,
But where the silent Mother stood, there
No one glanced and no one would have dared.
1943
Tashkent
From Requiem
By Anna Akhmatova
Translation by Judith Hemschemeyer
Sabbath Poem (Carey Wallace)
March 9, 2007
Canyon Clouds, originally uploaded by bowiesnodgrass.
The Sweet Desert
And sometimes, Lord
it must have been
good to go without
to leave the friends
and streets you knew
to lay your burdens down
and wander in the sweet desert
where nothing makes a sound
by Carey Wallace, 2.28.07 on Lenten Poems
* A friend sent me a link to this blog, whose author is posting a poem a day (minus Sundays) as her Lenten discipline.
* Do you know anyone else doing Lenten posts online? Please add their website below.
* Also check out, An Old Hasidic Poem this week at Faith House
Sabbath Poem (H.D.)
March 2, 2007
[20]
Now it appears very clear
that the Holy Ghost,
childhood’s mysterious enigma,
is the Dream;
that way of inspiration
is always open,
and open to everyone;
it acts as go-between, interpreter,
it explains symbols of the past
in to-day’s imagery,
it merges the distant future
with most distant antiquity,
states economically
in a simple dream-equation
the most profound philosophy,
discloses the alchemist’s secret
and follows the Mage
in the desert.
LINKS
Poem above from Trilogy by H.D.
Hilda Doolittle on wikipedia
“Don’t Surrender Your Loneliness So Quickly” by Hafiz (Faith House Sabbath Poem of the Week)
quitting smoking for lent
February 24, 2007
By Bowie Snodgrass
Dear God,
I’m gonna miss smoking
So much. Reaching in
The box. Pulling in air.
A last cigarette before bed
To gather my thoughts,
A break between rounds
Of work or play,
Often accompanied by company…
We smokers find each other.
And stick together,
Till someone quits.
I’m going to miss the little high
The little calm, the little heat,
The breaths of fresh air, stepping out,
To fill up my lungs with smoke.
It might sound quite gross,
And we all know it’s bad.
It stinks, it kills, it annoys,
And, by golly, shouldn’t we all
Want to live forever, if we can?
OK. I’m getting carried away.
It’s bad, I know, I know.
But, God,
I’m going to miss smoking.
So please send some other
Daily little pleasures my way.
* I wrote this in August 2005, the last time I quit smoking. Well, I’m quitting again. I started on Ash Wednesday. Now gotta get through Lent… and then the rest of my life. Pray for me.
* Many blessings for all of you and what ever you are giving up - or taking on - in your lenten journey. Please share what you are doing for Lent below…
* Also, check out the newest sabbath poem at FaithHouse, “I just laugh” by Kabir
Sabbath Poem (Anne Carson)
February 16, 2007
Literary sculpture, originally uploaded by davosmit
“A group of books in the moorland near the Bronte village of Haworth”
THOU
The question I am left with is the question of her loneliness.
And I prefer to put it off.
It is morning.
Astonished light is washing over the moor from north to east.
I am walking into the light.
One way to put off loneliness is to interpose God.
Emily had a relationship on this level with someone she calls Thou. She describes Thou as awake like herself all night
and full of strange power.
Thou woos Emily with a voice that comes out of the night wind.
Thou and Emily influence one another in the darkness,
playing near and far at once.
She talks about a sweetness that “proved us one.”
I am uneasy with the compensatory model of female religious experience and yet,
there is no question,
it would be sweet to have a friend to tell things to at night,
without the terrible sex price to pay.
This is a childish idea, I know.
by Anne Carson, from The Glass Essay
post inspired by…
* The Sabbath Poems on Samir Selmanovic’s Faith House blog (Samir is moving back to NYC this summer to start an interfaith emerging community)
* Our V-Day conversations about God blessings erotic love, but also being lover for many Christian celibates through the ages… (see posts below)
* My delight with Glass, Irony, and God (from whence this poem came)
Sunday’s dose of thoughts
January 29, 2007
by Bowie Snodgrass
reflections from today on Isaac’s post below:
We can not just ignore the id
we must bless our passions
G - d made us as animals
who can never know it all
You can’t control the wind
but you can set your sails
Jesus calmed the storm
he walked on the water
We need some original
thoughts about religion
More voices, more vistas,
vantage points and views
Good people with new ideas
calling in this fresh new reign