OpenSpirit

Last night I went to OpenSpirit, a creative worship gathering in the Christian tradition. I have been meaning to check it out and decided last minute to head over. It is a great service filled with a vibrant creative energy. One professor at Andover Newton, Dr. Mark S. Burrows is a co-leader of the event. Remember the poetry class many of you have heard so much about last semester—he is my professor from this class.

Mark has graciously allowed me to post this poem which he shared with us at the OpenSpirit service last night. I felt the poem is very appropriate for my blog and for what many of us have been discussing as of late. Thanks Mark.

____________________________

The Occassion

What if beauty is a substance
in this world of accident and remorse,
finite and particular and dispersed
like the sound of larks singing

carelessly into the morning silences
regardless of audience or absence or
any other need? And what if our
sole purpose is to seek what falls

into the crevices of disregard,
gratefully reaching into the stream
with dry hands and parched lips?

And what if time is only the occasion
for gathering these shards of loveliness
into the heart’s hungry vestibule?

M. S. Burrows
31 March 2009

_