Inspiration Library

the opal eye

Let the vast sky/...fill you with/ opal blue illusion--"Witness" by Ellen Dionna

Life is our opal-blue illusion: seen

one way, sky blue,

another, threaded with amber,

or translucent egg white.

We only see what we can see from our angles,

we can't know or take them all in at once.

We must trust

that all the colors are knowable

and do the work

to shift our weight,

to make minor adjustments in our seeing,

and hold hope that what we discover there

dwells awe and delight.

broken with belief

Water my soul, God,
know my brokenness and fill it with your
fluid of transformation.
understand my fear of my rifts,
allow me to see these not as wounds
but as opportunities for tenderness,
for understanding.
When my heart wavers and I’m threatened
by the immensity of my process, lead me
to the next small step,
turn my head to see this step
to witness it,
believing in me and my single, universal journey.

Camden Bluffs

How is it that God creates these bluffs,

for us to examine, for science and mystics both

to witness the beauty?

If the world didn’t crush and collapse,

then rise again, and again,

we would be ignorant

of the passage of time,

of fossils,

of layers set down like pages on a book

for us: a gift to read.

My layers

are set down, one by one.

I attempt to be mindful of this

yet the pencil marks on the kitchen door frame

keep inching higher,

and higher,

and each day the coffeepot is filled

again, for the first time.

I’m left wondering

what my cliff will show,

when I’m long gone,

when my layers too have been chiseled away

by time and pressure.

Will I know what they are,

will I recognize myself,

understand my geology and its purpose for having been?