A Language of Reverence

One of my New Year Resolutions is to post more often to this blog.  Requests were made after the service this morning for book references and poems.  I am responding quickly.

The book I referenced several times this morning is, A Language of Reverence, Edited by Dean Grodzins, Meadville Lombard Press, Chicago, IL.  Contributors include:  William Sinkford, David Bumbaugh, Laurel Hallman, Sharon Welsh and Thandeka.

You can order from the UUA Bookstore or purchase a copy from our UU Bookcart and the church will make some money.

Below are the two poems I used in the sermon.  Both are in the book mentioned above.

First Lessons, Philip BoothLie back, daughter, let your head
Be tipped back in the cup of my hand.Gently, and I will hold you.  SpreadYour arms wide, lie out on the streamAnd look high at the gulls.  A dead-
man’s float is face down.  You will diveand swim soon enough where this tidewaterebbs to the sea.  Daughter, believeme, when you tire on the long thrashto your island, lie up, and survive.As you float now, where I held youand let go, remember when fearcramps your heart what I told you:lie gently and wide to the light-year
stars, lie back, and the sea will hold you.

Sinkford called the next, “a bit of a poem that came to me in an email by Tom Barrett:”

If I say the word God, people run away.
They’ve been frightened—sat on till the spirit cried
“uncle.”
Now they play hide and seek with somebody they can’t
name.They know he’s out there looking for them, and theywant to be found,But there is all this stuff in the way.I can’t talk about God and make any sense,And I can’t not talk about God and make any sense.
So we talk about the weather, and we are talking about God.

A discussion group based on this book, A Language of Reverence is being formed.  If you are interested, please feel free to contact me.
rev joan