Religious and Not-So-Religious Poetry

[catzmeow]

I love words, they help make sense of the occasionally churning morass inside my soul.

When I was leaving Christianity, this poem was particularly meaningful to me:

I woke up to an empty room
No more angels watching over me.
No more demons to be held at bay
by the invocation of
an Anglicized version
of a Hellenized version
of a Hebrew name

I woke up to an empty room:

Just a room. Four walls, ceiling, floor.
Just a room. Nothing more.

I woke up to an empty room
and embraced the solid air.

I woke up to an empty room and knew myself

awake.

Copyright © 1999 Secular Pagan

There was a lot of fear about coming out of my particularly repressive version of fundamentalism. This poem helped me remember that there was nothing to fear.

I'd like to invite you to share your favorite spiritual (or non-spiritual) poems.

 

[Marie888]

The Psalms in the Bible are sometimes referred to as poems. I cannot thank the Lord enough for His help through them.

Psalm 51

1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me.

4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.

5 Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

6 Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

8 Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.

9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

 

[Sky Dancer]

The Guest House by Rumi

This human being is a guesthouse.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
Some momentary awareness comes
As an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they're a crowd of sorrows
Who violently sweep your house
Empty of it's furniture.
Still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice
Meet them at the door laughing
And invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes
Because each has been sent
As a guide from beyond.

 

[Sunni Man]

When I heard the learn’d astronomer;

When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;

When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and measure them;

When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much applause in the lecture-room,

How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;

Till rising and gliding out, I wander’d off by myself,

In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,

Look’d up in perfect silence at the stars.


Walt Whitman

 

[strollingbones]

days of dreams,
nights of quest,
and on sunday,
we go to church

 

[Sky Dancer]

I caught the happy virus last night

When I was out singing beneath the stars!

It is remarkably contagious

So kiss me.

Hafiz