who visited the infant child, whom the angels in Luke’s Christmas story announced as “a Savior, Christ the Lord.” They came bearing precious gifts. They were guided by a star to a divine manifestation, an awe-inspiring spiritual experience, the moment of aha\u2014at last I see!<\/i>
\nThis poem arrived today. \u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n
EPIPHANY: A COLLABORATIVE\u00a0POEM
\nFOR THE SIXTH OF JANUARY<\/p>\n
Beloved one
\nthe Divine wills
\nthrough you
\nto be born
\nhere<\/p>\n
now
\never
\nanew
\nno matter
\nhow shabby your stable.<\/p>\n
by Almut Furchert with Tracy Rittmueller 1\/6\/2018<\/i><\/p>\n
The poem came at the end of a twelve day journey I walked with Almut Furchert and her husband Chuck Huff, as they posted daily reflections on the twelve days from Christmas to Epiphany. It is the result of communal collaboration. Shape\u00a0\u2014\u00a0as I played around with lines, I saw that I could arrange the poem\u2019s words so that the white space to the right of the poem appears to be an infant\u2019s head about to crown in the birth canal. Epiphany commemorates the visit of the Magi, or wise men who visited the infant child, whom the angels in Luke’s Christmas story announced as “a Savior, Christ the Lord.” They came bearing precious gifts. They were guided by a star to a divine manifestation, an awe-inspiring spiritual experience, the moment of aha\u2014at last I see! …<\/p>\n
\nI\u2019ll write more in a future post about communal collaborative poetry. Today, I want to simply give you the poem that was given to us, and share Almut\u2019s beautiful reflection and her blessing,<\/a> which nurtured this poem into being.
\nHere is a metaphor that describes what our collaboration felt like for me (in terms of bringing this poem into the world):
\nShe is the mother; I am the midwife.
\nAlmut is not a poet and doesn\u2019t write poetry. She holds a graduate degree in Psychology and another in Philosophy, both from German universities. Words flow from her in the form of spiritual reflections on truths found in psychology and philosophy. Her reflections often end in a blessing bestowed on the reader.
\nToday while reading, I found her writing to be pregnant with an unbirthed poem.
\nIf you want to see how the poem was born, I encourage you to click over to the blog cloisterseminars.org<\/a> and read that reflection now: (click here)<\/a><\/p>\nAbout choices I made while revising (tips for improving a poem<\/em>):<\/h3>\n
\nSound\u00a0\u2014\u00a0I looked for words that would echo off of one another with a soft wind (Ruach<\/i> is the Hebrew word for both spirit and breath). I chose one, wills, now (ww); through you, anew (oo); here, ever, matter (rr),
\nThen I chose one word lines for the middle of the poem because they remind me of panting.
\nThe last two lines of the poems are Almut’s, verbatim. I broke her long line after\u00a0\u201cno matter\u201d\u00a0because those words remind me of a woman accepting the inevitable, then inhaling to prepare for the pain of hard work.
\nThe final line embodies the sibilant, hissing sound of a birthing push.
\n*****
\nHappy Epiphany, dear ones. In Almut\u2019s words,
\nMay you find\u2026 some comfort in the thought that you are God\u2019s beloved child.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\nIs there a pain, a trial, a burden in your life, that if you accepted, inhaled, and pushed through it, would assist you to birth something beautiful this year?<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"