You looked down
From Your Cross
To behold faithfulness.
There stood Your Mother.
You beheld her look of grief,
Her suffering Your pain.
You wed it
To Your Own,
Presenting all
Before Our Father’s holy throne.
© 2013 Joann Nelander
Archives
All posts for the month July, 2016
Death with Dignity?
There us no dignity in dying.
It is dissolution,
Libation poured out,
The empty glass.
Dignity rests with the soul,
Persists, despite soiled garments,
Perseveres, midst death’s indignities.
It clothes the soul in hope.
Despite the tale the mirror tells.
Dignity confronts our demons.
It rises as limbs refuse us,
To fly free of earthly chains,
And contemplate the Face of God.
Copyright 2016 Joann Nelander
I am such a mess.
The rain falls on my soil,
And for a while I am mud.
No hint of fertility.
No hint of growth.
No hint of flowers.
Mud is self-forgetful,
A confusion of gift,
A profusion of promise.
The day will seed to my substance,
Serendipity and surprise,
Plantings for the morrow.
I shall lie here,
Loving my mud,
Waiting for the Sun.
© 2016 Joann Nelander
I am because You are.
I will always be,
Because you create me for eternity.
Who can grasp the eternal soul?
Who but Man is spirit celestial,
Yet of this earth terrestrial ?
What does it matter that I am matter,
Made for this world and Time,
Yet envisioning a paradise more sublime?
Where will I spend my forever?
Is it for nought,
That I seek to do as I ought?
You whisper at sunset,
In the glory of the evening sky,
Telling of Mystery hidden from the eye.
You dream of me, eternally.
You fire my spirit and my stuff.
Knowing earth is not enough.
When earth can no longer
Hold my soul,
Sign me in Your celestial scroll.
Write my name in Yours,
Jesus, protector from death infernal,
Jesus, keeper of my soul eternal.
I do not see myself.
Though I long for holiness of heart,
Of this world I am a part.
I do not know myself.
Though I keep Your Image before my eyes,
The world appears in angelic disguise.
I do not trust myself.
Though I choose Your way,
I fear to be led astray.
I do not save myself,
Though I’m broken and and far from Heaven,
You live in me as heavenly leaven.
You, I see and know,
And You, I trust.
To You, my soul, I, mightily, entrust.
© 2016 Joann Nelander
Can there be the Child without the Mother?
Can heaven be grasped and pulled to earth?
Can heaven enter a heart without the heart’s consent?
Mystery of Love.
Ever present,
Ever growing.
Wholly Other,
Immanent and dear,
God made manifest
Fruit on the tree,
Following on winter’s death.
Sweet Mystery of Love.
© 2016 Joann Nelander
How precious this life!
Who but man gives thanks
Count your blessings and render thanks.
Who do you thank?
By whom are you blessed?
Do you thank your lucky stars,
Or render God a sacrifice of praise,
On the heals of swelling gratitude?
Copyright 2016 Joann Nelander
Clutching You to my heart,
My sins before me,
I make Your Death,
My dying,
And find my life.
You give Yourself to me.
You give Yourself for me.
I hold Your cold,
Your bruised and bloodless Body
As I pray.
Wiping the spittle from Your Face,
I behold the Man,
My sins before me always,
I cling to Your Words.
“Father forgive.”
All days have led to this day.
Yesterdays march up to the edge in Time,
But cannot enter upon my Now.
As precursors, they stand,
Peering onto this Today,
Blind as bats.
Their edges approach,
But halt at the Present.
Here, I reign with my will.
If all my mistakes
Shout for change,
Am I now the fool
Who fails to learn?
With the sun,
I am begun.
Eternity beckons me,
Where Time cannot go,
Invites, “Come.”
He, Who sails on Eternity’s Wing,
Would be my Mender,
Not in a breaking of the Past,
But a knitting of it,
A seamless clothe,
As His very own.
The morrow begins as a Way I choose;
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
Are gift to my being,
And beginning in this Now,
I am His.
Although, I have been resting in Your
Heart,
Safe in Your holy embrace
Throughout this night,
You has been waiting for this moment,
When my eyes open,
Hoping I would look at You,
And return Your loving glance.
Joann Nelander Studio 