Joann Nelander Studio

art, photography, and the poetry of prayers and dreams

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Courts of Praise

Posted by Be Holy on July 28, 2016
Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: Christian, debt, gratitude., praise. Leave a comment

Thank you, dear Lord, for my life long,

for beloved family and friends,

and all dear hearts touching mine.

My treasure trove of souls

spills far beyond my time

to number as my own

those who have gone before,

your saints of ages past,

the cloud of witnesses on high

and pure angelic beings

in realms veiled from the eye.

There never was a day in which I was alone,

nor forgotten before Your throne.

There, at Your feet,

all heaven sweet anthems raise

to set celestial hearts ablaze.

My heart with choruses

swell my love,

grown great in gratitude.

I make a small return of love beside Your All Love.

You count my debt as paid

and bid me enter courts of praise.

By Joann Nelander

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Keep Praying

Posted by Be Holy on July 27, 2016
Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: Catholic, Christian, Church, faith, God, humility, poetry, prayer, Religion, Spiritual. Leave a comment

Here I am,
Your poor one,
Your lowly one,
Your empty one,
Kneeling in adoration..

You spread out Space and Time,
Knowing You would call me forth.
And then You did.

You called to me,
Forming me from the Earth,
You Who played among the Pleides,
Stooped to play with me.

You kissed me,
With the Breath of Your Mouth,
You filled me,
Shaping me,
Empowering me,
Placing in me a formless hope.

Hope grew with the babe,
And sought with fingers of my senses.
Peeling back the covering of Mystery,
Revealing treasures hidden in the earth,
And dancing in the heavens,

Witnessed with wonder in the Night,
The Universe invited me to You,
To join You in the dance,
For which all Time and Space,
All days and all nights,
All mystery had poured forth,
With Your Cry for Light.

Your Heartbeat created the rhythms of the constellations,
The ebb and flow of cosmic seas.
Your Heart beat for Your dream of Man,
Your dream of me.

You, given as gift,
Hidden from blind eyes,
Hidden among the stars,
Spreading across Your Time,
Filling all Your Majestic Space,
Slowly whispering Your secrets,
And revealing truths,
Revealed Ultimate Truth.
You in Your Way spoke to me.

There was more than matter wrapped in my being.
Secreted without shape,
Without form,
Without stuff,
With only the power to will,
And, thereby, to Love,
To know,
And, thereby, to seek and search,
That, in living, I might come to discover You,
With me, beside me and all around me,
Waiting for me to love You.

You, Who always knew me,
And loved me,
In my ignorance,
In my blindness
And in my very being,
Even while Sin entered in to obscure Your work,
And the wonder of me,
Graced me with a soul.

I didn’t know You.
I couldn’t see You.
I didn’t know to seek after You.
Until I saw You hanging there,
Crossing the abyss,
Above the world,
Suspended and told throughout Time,

Now, at long last, I pray,
And gasp for You, my Breath.
You are the shape of me,
Saved for an eternity
Beyond gaseous matter,
And starry night,
A Day created by the One Uncreated,
And lived in the Wedding
Of Love, of soul and Spirit-being.
For this I will,
With my indomitable will,
Keep praying.

Copyright 2015 Joann Nelander

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Moments before Dawn

Posted by Be Holy on July 26, 2016
Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: atholic, Christian, faith, God, meditation, poetry, prayer, religion and spirituality. Leave a comment

In these precious moments before dawn
Prepare my waking body and soul
to serve You,
As You served our heavenly Father,
In Your Incarnation.

Dawning in the Virgin’s
Womb,
Hidden Divinity,
Secret, sacred, Savior,
Announced and served by Angels,
Alive in hallowed Love,
Glorifying Man in Your Mortal Garb,
You are hidden now in me.

Manifest Your glory,
In all humility,
As, yet again,
You dawn anew,
In this heart that longs for You.

copyright 2015 Joann Nelander

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You Are the Music

Posted by Be Holy on July 24, 2016
Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: Catholic, Christian, God, poetry, prayer, religion and spirituality. Leave a comment

Jesus,  write the symphony of my life.

In Your Mystery of becoming,

Blend every note,

And sing the harmony

That embraces the sinner

To create the saint.

You are here

With the Father and Holy Spirit,

Supping and residing,

I receive You in Holy Communion,

Grant that I might never neglect You,

My Holy Guests.

I place You on the music stand of my life.

You are the Score,

And Conductor.

All I receive, I give

On the wind of the Spirit,

To be rightly arranged.

You be the music playing in my soul.

In chorus, Seraphim and Saints intercede,

And I and all creation dance with Miriam

As Jesus mediates the Victory

In His Song of Salvation.

© 2015 Joann Nelander

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Lifting the Veil

Posted by Be Holy on July 23, 2016
Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: Catholic, Christian, Culture, faith, God, poem, poetry, prayer, religion and spirituality. Leave a comment

Lift the veil in this morass of Sin,
That faith may blossom and hope enter in.
Let the Sun of Justice shine
Upon a people in decline,
That looking up from the tyranny of power and things
Your face may captivate and solace bring.

Pour down torrents of Thy Grace
To cleanse this dry and brutal place ,
Uproot to plant anew
A Day of peace like settled dew,
That minds be bright and intellects sublime
And our only glory may be Thine.

© 2016 Joann Nelander

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Accountable

Posted by Be Holy on July 20, 2016
Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: Catholic, Christ, Christian, law, poetryaccountable, prayer, religion and spirituality, responsible. Leave a comment

O Man,awake!
On Earth, you are held accountable,
Are you not?

You sing for your supper.
You dance to life’s tune.
Only the air is free.
All else is taxed.
The first fruit is owed another.

You fear to run from the law.
You are held to a measure.!
If it be such for a man of earth,
Mortal, yet accountable,
Where will a soul, immortal,
Flee upon a coming demise?

Without the stuff of Earth,
Naked and stripped of pomp and circumstance,
Revealed as soul and spirit,
Answering not to man,
But to God,
Are we not all the more accountable?

Copyright 2015 Joann Nelander

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You Looked Down

Posted by Be Holy on July 19, 2016
Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: Catholic, Christ, Christian, Crucificion, Jesus, Joann Nelander, Mama Mary, Mary, Our Father, pain, passion, poetry, Queen Mother, suffering.poem. Leave a comment

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

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You Looked Down

Posted by Be Holy on July 19, 2016
Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: Catholic, Christ, Christian, Crucificion, Jesus, Joann Nelander, Mama Mary, Mary, Our Father, pain, passion, poetry, Queen Mother, suffering.poem. Leave a comment

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

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Death with Dignity

Posted by Be Holy on July 18, 2016
Posted in: Uncategorized. Leave a comment

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

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I am Mud

Posted by Be Holy on July 17, 2016
Posted in: Uncategorized. Tagged: Catholic, Christian, christianity, meditation, poem, poetry, prayer, Religion & Spirituality, religion & spiritualiy. Leave a comment

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

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