Xapa to the World

Category: Nature Related

This is my Father’s world, I rest me in the thought of rocks and trees, of skies and seas, His hand the wonders wrought.

  • Poem: The Oak and the Cardinal

    I was sitting in my car at a park and I was watching a cardinal fly from the branches of a bunch of the trees in front of me.  It made me think of a poem, and here it is.  I was just about to head off for my big trip in a month or so, therefore a message was on my mind, Missions.  The seed of the Gospel, those who stay, those who go…the necessity of both.  Enjoy.

    May 25, 2004

    A rush of wind
    Urges the trees to move forward
    The stubborn branches grasp their leaves with resolve
    The roots go deep
    Settled from long ago
    Dare to move the great oak.

    “How I long to be a bird,”
    Says the lowest branch.
    “To fly so freely,
    To be swept away, carried by the wind.”

    The cardinal lights on the branch,
    Plucks some seed from its clutch.
    One falls to the ground where the tall oak stands.
    The rest flit off with the cardinal,
    Finding a new home
    And new soil.

    Sarah ><>

  • Poem: Kansas

    March 25th, 2004

    Kansas, Kansas
    There’s nothin’ to do
    ‘Cept pick at yur shoe
    After you walk thru
    A field with cow dooh

    Kansas, Kansas
    Yur so far away
    I wish I could stay
    N maybe git to play
    In a pile of hay

    Sarah ><>

  • Poem: Crystal Tears

    March 1st, 2004

    Crystal from the clouds – 
    Mirrors of a truth mostly ignored.
    The mud, left from the snow
    So willingly smeared on our faces, arms, and legs,
    Sometimes forming pictures of the past.
    We bare them like trophies,
    Longing for some sympathy.
    Bathing in the glory of the filth,
    Blinded by the murky water – 
    Blinded to the possibility of cleanliness.
    The clear rain falls, as Your tears cover us.
    One clings to my hand, smudges and erases the stain.
    Hope of a coming glory pours into the heart as Your tears of joy fall – 
    Realization of imminent perfection.
    Made clean by Your tears.

     – Sarah ><>

  • Poem: Muktinath, Nepal

    This poem was written for a little town that I discovered in researching the country of Nepal.  It is a very strange town.  For one, it’s very high in the Himalayan Mountains.  You cannot fly into it or drive into it.  You have to be taken to a nearby city and then trek the rest of the way.  This adds to the profound religious nature of the city.  Three different religions make pilgrimages to this town:  The Hindus, Buddhists, and those practicing animism (tribal religions).  Here’s a link to the website promoting the town: http://www.muktinath.org/  When you browse through the pictures, you can see hundreds of thin flags hanging from lines all through the town, around the special sites.  It is a city where earth, wind, fire, and water all meet – which adds to the perceived holiness.  In one section, there are natural gases emitted from the ground which burn continually.  In another section, there are 100 streams of water, coming from stone boar’s heads (which are one of the avatars of Vishnu).  It is such a strange place, where so many people go to seek perdition and to maintain holiness.  My heart has been with this town for a long time and here is my poem to it and the people who live and visit there.

    Muktinath, Nepal

    December 30, 2003

    Why are your eyes so red and tired?
    Is the wheel not granting you peace?
    Do the flames that surround you
    Cause you grief and fear?

    The girls come and dance at the temple
    They wave their scarves
    Full of color and devotion.
    The women come to learn and serve
    Giving their lives to the spirits of stone.
    The boys come to pray.
    The men come with red dripping from their faces and hands
    Hopes of cleanliness and enlightenment.

    You are searching, my love.
    You are reaching for the One
    But you grasp at these scarves, hanging in the breeze.
    How I long to bring the Message.
    Will someone share with you?

    Who would take it up the mountain?
    Climb into the crevasses so worn and dark with worship.
    Stand on the ridge with your back to the wind.
    You have become a scarf floating in the air.
    An offering to the earth that you would join.

    Dream of a God who loves you.
    Dream of a God who died for you.
    He will come and love you.
    Come inside from the cold
    from the harsh north wind.
    Take shelter in the arms of the One who holds you.

     – Sarah ><>

  • Poem: Nighttime

    I love the night, the feel of it…being outside…I love dusk.  I love the stars and lightning bugs.  So here’s a poem that brings all of those elements together.  It was published by the National Poet’s Society…but, please, don’t let that impress you…they’d publish the result of a child pounding their fists on a keyboard…honestly…someone tried it.  It worked.  🙂

    Nighttime

    2003

    Have you ever tried to chase the moon?
    As its soft yellow crescent rocks down to the horizon?

    While the stars dance around it
    and drip light through the seas that darken its surface.

    Have you seen it grow as it dips beneath the skyline and peeks through the trees
    that toss it back and forth,
    and forth and back?

    What wonderful magic the dark sky plays on the watchful eyes of a child,
    sitting and connecting the stars into heroes and villains and damsels.

    While grass collects the dew between his fingers and
    sticks to the toes of a girl
    as she chases the lightning bugs that bring the stars so much closer to us.

     – Sarah ><>