Devotional Poetry

My Sacred Place: Three Poems

Finding My Sacred Place

"God the All-Glorious!"
Chanted in the silence of morning,
I intone praise to the Glorious Lord,

Tranquil solitude:
Meditation on God's Most Great Name.

Verdant oasis:
A string of 95 translucent green prayer beads,
A burgundy prayer book,
And a white prayer box.

Obligatory:
Prayer is a fire
That consumes the veils of insistent self,
A light that leads to the presence of God,
And a fountain of living water
That nurtures the soul.

"O Thou Glory of Glories!"
Chanted in the silence of evening,
I intone praise to the Almighty.

In My Sacred Place:
Version 1

In my sacred place
a mountain rises out of the dark abyss,
with a granite staircase set into its verdant slope;
the staircase ascends through nine garden terraces
to the crest
where a marble temple shines with the light of hope.

The terraces
call me from the wild land below,
they beckon me
with the music of harp,
sugar pipe,
and drum
to climb to the temple far above,
and enter through one of its nine doors
into the sanctuary of
divine unity.

In My Sacred Place:
Version 2

In my sacred place,
a temple crest Eden's verdant peak;
a marble edifice--
raised from the mountain's volcanic loins--
beckons me
out of a wild and untamed land;
out of an old growth forest
overrun by weeds and brambles,
unmanicured and unkept,
and stalked by--
the terror of my lower self--
the wolf transformed into
human flesh and bone,
who waits to become a wolf again.

In my sacred place
the aromas of roses and honeysuckles are wafted
across the thresholds of nine doors
and circulated through
the forays, anterooms, and corridors
leading to the garden in the tabernacles heart.

Lit from within
stained glass symbols glow
above each door:
the sacred fire,
a nine pointed star,
a cross and fish,
a crescent moon and star,
yin and yang,
and the star of David.

Poet's Note: ▼

I wrote all three of these poems sometime in 158 B.E. in response to the prompts: (1) "Finding My Sacred Place" and (2) "In My Sacred Place".