[Golotop]

Dear All,

The purpose of this thread is so that Orthodox poets can share their work with one another. It is for anyone who wants to be learn about poetry written by Christian Orthodox, or who wants to present their own work to others.

[Aminkaoo]

Quick note from the moderators: To help keep this thread within the scope of the forum, please make sure any poems you post are in some way related to Orthodoxy (beyond just being written by an Orthodox poet). Also, if you've written a poem you want to share and have posted it elsewhere online, please copy it here rather than just linking to the other webpage.

[horaAppagob]

Ok, let me begin:

one

to have one's face turned towards God
and their heart raised on high
and their hands towards other people
is the only way for man to stand up strait.

- Thalia Zeniou -

and here is another:

I am in an ocean of sin


I have been false myself
Fake, unreliable


I took men’s hearts, I ate them, then I got up and ran without paying
Like as Italians do when they come to the Greek islands
And they laugh as they run down the pebbled streets, and they feel proud of pulling off this cheat and being cleverer than the restaurant people. But actually it isn’t funny.


My falseness was vast, like an ocean
My fakeness runs deep, like the sea.


Whom can I judge and whom can I accuse when my own wound is so big that the whole place stinks?
I don’t judge you people, I warn you
I tell you, I have noose around my neck
It is at the end of a chain
Every person I have yet hurt
Every time I was fake
Is a loop holding me down.
Every sin I have is like a rock in my stomach and I cannot digest it.
Every time I get too high, the hands of those I have cheated grasp at my clothes.
I cannot fly I am not free
Every one who has tasted my falseness is a voice in my ear.


You, and you, I see your face. Still. And always I will. You make me humble


Friend, if you can hear me, only the Good can set you free. Only rising to a standard beyond ones self can make man as he should be.
I am chained to the floor,
And as made of soil, I sink into the dust.
But look beyond that mountain,
There is a light!

[IteseFrusty]

Thalia, reading this poem I thought of myself. How very true your words are.

"My falseness was vast, like an ocean
My fakeness runs deep, like the sea.


Whom can I judge and whom can I accuse when my own wound is so big that the whole place stinks?
I don’t judge you people, I warn you
I tell you, I have noose around my neck
It is at the end of a chain
Every person I have yet hurt
Every time I was fake
Is a loop holding me down.
Every sin I have is like a rock in my stomach and I cannot digest it.
Every time I get too high, the hands of those I have cheated grasp at my clothes.
I cannot fly I am not free
Every one who has tasted my falseness is a voice in my ear."

Many, many times I find myself thinking about someone I have hurt in the past. Mostly people I love. Why do we act this way? I feel that our Lord is close to me and yet I do not heed his words and do not follow his example. In Greek we say : the tongue has no bones but it breaks bones. And you are right. Our sins do not allow us to fly. They keep us chained down.

Effie

[ebBPxIai]

This beautiful poem is by St.Symeon. the New Theologian :

By what boundless mercy, my Savior
by Symeon the New Theologian
(949 - 1032) Timeline

English version by
John Anthony McGuckin

Original Language
Greek
Christian : Eastern Orthodox

10th Century



By what boundless mercy, my Savior,
have you allowed me to become a member of your body?
Me, the unclean, the defiled, the prodigal.
How is it that you have clothed me
in the brilliant garment,
radiant with the splendor of immortality,
that turns all my members into light?
Your body, immaculate and divine,
is all radiant with the fire of your divinity,
with which it is ineffably joined and combined.
This is the gift you have given me, my God:
that this mortal and shabby frame
has become one with your immaculate body
and that my blood has mingled
with your blood.
I know, too,
that I have been made one with your divinity
and have become your own most pure body,
a brilliant member, transparently lucid,
luminous and holy.
I see the beauty of it all, I can gaze on the radiance.
I have become a reflection of the light of your grace.

[juliannamed]

Dear Effie,

Thank you for your comments and the poem. I have been thinking about this question, about why we hurt people for a while. it seems to me like this: that we want to love people and we don't want to hurt them, but despite our intentions we are not capable of this except through God. So, even if we mean well, it seems that the only way to love people is to follow the commandments. so everything we do that is not in line with the commandments fails us and then we suffer because we do not manage to love people the way we want to, and the way we need to. do you know what i mean?

Do you write any poetry yourself?

Here is another one from me:

(a)


I didn’t have sin, but I picked it up
And then I carried it with me and passed it on to others.
Anything you touch with dirty hands is dirtied.
Everything contaminated harms.
I need a good wash.
I need to burn up all sin with fire.
For who can go on hurting others and not become crazy?

- Thalia Zeniou -

[smifatv]

Dear Effie,

Thank you for your comments and the poem. I have been thinking about this question, about why we hurt people for a while. it seems to me like this: that we want to love people and we don't want to hurt them, but despite our intentions we are not capable of this except through God. So, even if we mean well, it seems that the only way to love people is to follow the commandments. so everything we do that is not in line with the commandments fails us and then we suffer because we do not manage to love people the way we want to, and the way we need to. do you know what i mean?

Do you write any poetry yourself?

Here is another one from me:

(a)


I didn’t have sin, but I picked it up
And then I carried it with me and passed it on to others.
Anything you touch with dirty hands is dirtied.
Everything contaminated harms.
I need a good wash.
I need to burn up all sin with fire.
For who can go on hurting others and not become crazy?

- Thalia Zeniou -

Thalia, your explanation of why we hurt people, especially those we love, makes sense to me.

I love poetry, especially about nature, but I have never tried to write anything myself. I think, perhaps, I am too confused inside myself. Probably by the time I'm 100, God willing, I might be able to sort myself out..................

Thalia, something that I read often is "The Akathist of Thanksgiving". It is so beautiful. And it rests my soul each time I read it or listen to the recording I made of it.

http://www.orthodox.net/akathists/ak...nksgiving.html

Have a wonderful week.

Effie

[feseEscaple]

Effie, thanks for the link to the "Akathist of Thanksgiving". I was not aware of it. My only problem when reading it was that I wanted to stop at each new thought and mediate on my experience with that thought. An example being "Talking with Thee is better than oil and sweeter than honey." I have read it many times it wasn't until I came to it in the Akathist did I grab hold of it and start remembering (and giving thanks for) all the times that I have actually experienced it. (Of course, maybe my weight issues have to do with consuming too much honey and foods prepared in oil, you think?)

Or after reading "When swift lightning illumines the night, how pitiful and miserable our earthly candles seem. So also, deceitful earthly joys become colorless and dark when Thy light shines forth in the soul" I see my earthly joys (passions) as mere shadows when exposed to the illumination of His light(ning).

Having a wonderful week already.

I can see I'll spend quite some time with this.

[Cajlwdvx]

Effie, thanks for the link to the "Akathist of Thanksgiving". I was not aware of it.

I enjoy the recording of this Akathist available from St. Ignatius Church. Here is an mp3 sample.

[johnuioyer]

I enjoy the recording of this Akathist available from St. Ignatius Church. Here is an mp3 sample.

Matt, this is really beautiful. Do you have a link to the entire Akathist sung by this choir? I'll try and find it through the Rocket programme.

I have printed this Akathist but I have also recorded my reading of it, nowhere near as beautiful as the above, of course. I sometimes listen to it and sometimes read it. I recorded it on our front verandah and you can hear a lot of birdsong and my wind chimes, which I like.

As Kyrill says, you need to stop and meditate on what you read. Something that is of great benefit to us all.

Effie

[assohillA]

The Akathist of Thanksgiving is, in fact, in the Monachos Liturgics section. I must admit that I don't use our resources at the home page as often as I should.

[regfortruegoo]

Matt, this is really beautiful. Do you have a link to the entire Akathist sung by this choir? I'll try and find it through the Rocket programme.

I'm not aware of it being available to download.

[Gromiaaborn]

two poems for today

I want to answer you, but every time I try, I stop and I cry.



Vid,
I have sinned against love
I have been unfaithful to a true kind heart
I can never repent enough.
How can I ever deserve the peace of being sorry?
How can I dare to apologize to you lover, whilst I still sin?
Vid,
What can I say?
I am lost in my shame
In my fakeness.
My heart is cold and dead
My life is a pile of dirt.
For I have sinned against love
My sorrow is endless, my vileness is evident, my prison is small.



and,




a letter from a missing soldier





19.09.2010



there is love in my heart
there is peace and joy
how can I leave that behind and join the world?


But how can I lock myself in myself and leave the world behind
And reality with it?
Is there love in that?


I cannot.
I need to keep the seeds in my heart alive
I need to keep it open so that the sun’s light can shine on them
And the summer rain relieve the soil.


And I must walk through this world and keep looking
Until I find a place
Until I reach a place
When the joy and the peace in my heart will be like unto the life, and the joy and the peace that sings outside, all around me
Until my soul finds its home
And my heart finds her brother and lover
And my mind finds friends


In that land that I don’t know how to find


Brothers, are you looking for me as I am looking for you?
I am here. I am still alive. Look for me. Don’t forget me.

[Leaters]

In Search of Progress


Looking up I saw
the moon visible by
reflected light was
its craters and scars

Pummeled by celestial
debris over the years
its dusty surface
became marred

For so long have I
orbited the Son whose
light illumines all
my dusty parts

And there is revealed
the darkness and wounds
as witnessed by the
healing scars

With he vision of this
present temple
redeeming truth was
seldom recognized

In the guise of the lowly
and commonplace
nor the present help
towards the dying cries

Oh the pain of deceptive wounds
a purpose realized
so much later
than soon

Charting my pathway
to godliness
in my mirror
I saw the moon

J. 01/17/12

[Yfclciak]

Liturgical doors
opening reveal heaven
priests at the altar
J. 6-30-12

having plumed the depths of childhood memories for haiku, it occurred to me that; the least I could do, was to do the same with my Orthodox journey.

the sinful and unworthy servant,