A Walk in San Francisco: God, Bishop, Man, Church:
Diocese of California Celebration--July 17, 1999
(a meditation and report; some notes on a public spiritual walk with observations and side comments)

By Peter Menkin
(written July 17, 1999)


Starting in the Morning
Some months (now years) have passed since the walk occurred, and a moment of reflection on the event makes me want to continue in prayer. I believe that there can be a silence in our emptying of our mind, in a Zen fashion. Doing this allows the Triune God to enter in, and it allows the archetype to whisper, and the speaking of our past lives to bring new impressions of reality to bring in our day.

When we gather together as a Church, or a Diocese, and walk among the Shepard, and are ourselves the people who as children of light seek to let that light come in, there is a Springtime of Easter where we can be receptive and allow the promise of his presence to bring us to that beating heart of our body to be Christ.

The morning is a difficult time, for we await the light, we await the waking of the world, the birds to sing, the everyday working life to begin its struggle and toil, its very labor as Job would in his exceptional relationship enter into another waking oblation in complaint, love, and observation with the Lord. This commentary, no stranger to the children of Abraham, is a Biblical time and I recommend the reading of Acts, and at this time of year for our Easter Luke.

Wondering is good, but the quiet of the Sunday is really the joy of measure that brings us closer to ascend and discern, to be and to contemplate. May we find someone who is suffering and in need, who is a good soul, and a genuinely gifted person as the Tibetan Nun in China who suffers so greatly at the hands of her torturers. To be in prayer and solitude with her is the silence that is the Zen moment. There is to know another who is a great distance, and to walk with them in the spirit on a journey that is an immensity of the times and in the world. I ask your prayers. God grant us grace to walk among the creatures that we have been given, and to maintain our selves in stability, in the love of our Lord, as we come to know the inevitability of the mystery of the resurrection. This we do when we walk together as Church, as Christian, in seeking our God, and knowing God who is a great and wonderful thing as a force for entry the narrow way. Oh, light, bring us this morning. This is the day that the Lord has made, let us be glad in it.

What's Right In the World
There is a comfort in knowing the presence of God, and eventually one may find that this kind of willingness to travel with a restful attempt to remain in the presence of the almighty is refreshing. The most unusual thing about this Saturday walk with clergy and church members was it reminded me of the importance to be aware in preparation for Sunday. If it hadn't been for the others along the way, I would have had a very much difficult time climbing the hill to the Cathedral.

By our all climbing that hill together, like followers, like disciples, like strugglers, like penitents, like lovers, and as friends, my own journey was made easier. How glad I was along with the others for those who shepherded us on to worship. This Saturday morning of July 17, 1999 the entire group of people who attend the Episcopal Church in my area of San Francisco, started gathering in the morning for a walk up California Street. I arrived early from a sense of desire to participate in an early morning time in the City. One of the nearer towns to the Cathedral, where our journey in pilgrimage together was taking us, is in Mill Valley in Marin County.

Others came from Contra Costa County, and some from South of San Francisco like Christ's Church located near Stanford University. Our Saviour was the group I started looking for in the morning, and was happy to find a Reverend Gwen, a Deacon, who also arrived early to begin sheparding us along. She had a map showing the way up the California Street Hill, and our places to gather together for the walk. There was a woman Priest named Gloria who was on one corner of the congruent point of arrival.

Beginning at a Crossroads
We began at a crossroads. She was dressed in a long coat, since the morning was cool and the fog had lifted. The Reverend Gloria speaks Spanish. Across from her, to the West towards the Ocean side of the Bay, was another small gathering of Church members. They held the first lone banner, to be joined by others with banners to lead their small groups. Love called us. So it does as we listen when we walk for that bidding of love, the love that is offered to us in friends and others.

There is a treasure for us to be enjoyed in a walk, by ourselves in solitude or with others as I am describing to you here. By the time the morning had risen for us to greet the arrival of the leaders, we were pretty well organized and happy to continue up the walk. Later the St. Gregory's Church community waved us along, refreshing us, as we sent the way through the middle of the street. They are a joyous group.

They walk in a bunch. The diversity of the Diocesan Episcopal Church USA group was described in a dispatch from the Church as: " Let It Shine, the procession, which included Chinese dragons, bagpipers and a sea of church banners, numbered more than 2,500 and stretched nearly four blocks." So wrote Dennis Delman the Church magazine.

There were people of all nationalities and colors in our group, and there is no singleness in Christ, nor a barrier to him or in the walk I am describing here. San Francisco is a diverse group of families from many places in the world, as are the people who were gathered in friendship.

Presiding Bishop Led the Way
The Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church was accompanied by his wife, and The Honorable Frank T. Griswold had this to say about the occasion, that is true for us as a spiritual direction in taking a walk up the hill wherever we may be: "'Be thankful,'" our reading from the Letter to the Colossians urges us, 'and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.' A spirit of gratitude opens the way for what is given to appear as gift, as the poet Stephen Mitche observes with regard to prayer.

Gratitude helps us to release our grasp on life: to be grateful is an act of non possession; it is a yielding of control which delivers us from the harsh and unforgiving judgments we so often direct against ourselves and others." The way we journeyed along together, this large community gathering in its spiritual exercise of shepherding to a place of worship, was by approaching the excitement with an acceptance in faith for the coming entry to the Cathedral.

This preparation for a feast inside, continued us along in a companionship of desire to be together, and to join in saying the very words that we as a community believed would bring us closer in faith, and know in love the source of the being that is the Triune God. We can bring this into our body, incarnate this for the good of our soul.

Italicized Comments: Expectations
Sometimes in retrospect, looking back just those short few weeks ago from today, I consider that the amazing coincidence of fate that brought so many together in joy for the festivities of banners, excitement, and experience to live in a more liturgical and spiritual manner together was joyful.

The power of the living word, so aptly and well said as a love to the lips in breathing just the clean air itself in this morning climb was preparation for us enough. When taking a walk, remember as others and I do, that this is a preparation for worship in your own Church. That God would be with someone alone, though, later, is another matter. God is with us, and this is the message that I want to leave with you as I recount what it is to take a walk in the country or the city. Look for him. I tell you this because it is not only what we brought in joy and anticipation, but in the expectation that we would return to our homes, families, and later in worship to our own Churches of the communion that made us happily able to walk.

So we came, friends, carrying in and enjoyment of banners and yes crosses, willing to carry them together with the clergy among and before and behind us.

Walking with God and Man
When I returned home, and in the days following I practiced reflecting on the way that I walk. When one walks with God, does one wonder as one walks, does one look for beauty and think of the glory of God, does one examine the earth and know that it is a soil of forgiveness and charity?

How does one walk, in the breathing silence that is the living presence of the Almighty?

Pondering these matters, I considered the Bible a source of the joy in which I might come to know a way that is Christ, and how I could remain more fruitful in a care for others. What is this manner that we or I can do with a friend in the expectation that God is in his willingness, and we are able in the necessity of our virtue to offer a simple prayer of pleasure in the living that he offers us. Ponder we did, I am sure, as the many who were there did, as a friend did who made the journey and was so specially blessed to be brought home refreshed, though drained. Another friend had been a singer in the Choir, and this for her was probably a remaining hymn for us as a living testament to the condition that this kind of prayerful or spiritual desire can offer by the experience we shared.

Peace was a theme of this celebration, and how aptly this message is given by the very nature of the worship. Even during the liturgy we offered to one another a time to say a peaceful word. This exercise in being a good neighbor, to be decent to another is worth reflecting on because that is the fruit of the spiritual walk.

I look towards a walk in the daytime, or at evening, in a way that is a journey towards friendship and in peace, despite my own travails and difficulties. This kind of desire can be difficult to maintain, since many people suffer seriously from unhappiness. Some say Christ brought the lame, the maimed, the halt, the forgiven, the sinner, and others to a satisfaction in the grace of living in this world.

Celebration & Love
God helps us we celebrate, and we remember in the story of a journey we take on a walk that we have homes and children with whom we can find a love and some ways to bring to one another a more cheerful and giving time in our lives. God helps us do these things. There are many who haven't these things in their lives, the less fortunate and the poor. By every step of the way, catching prayerful thoughts can be accomplished. This is one foot in front of another, and the whole body in quiet, in rhythm with the living God, and the light of others, along the way where there are buildings, or people, in streets, on a path in the woods or a garden, we see as we look to take our path that we are hastening towards our heavenly home.

Many of the parents who were with the clergy who shepherded us to this enjoyment were younger than I am, and this kind of presence of people who are so well prepared in their lives to offer us aid and support is a gratifying thing to know about.

That lesson of walking with others, or walking alone, helped me to continue my own path of spiritual awakening in the Church. This kind of journey that we find in an everyday event is refreshing. Thank God for the time we took in this joining together in assembly. Though we walk apart, we go forth in the harmony that the Lord is with us.

Conclusion
Say a prayer along the way. There are many subjects for prayer, and a prayer can be short like a brief moment in time as a still point. Like letting loose small pieces of folded paper into the air for others to know about, these prayers can be available to others as we offer them to God.

“…[F]or I was hungry and you gave me food…
(Matthew 25: 35)

Elizabeth of Hungary
Peter Menkin, Obl Cam OSB

Church of Our Saviour (Episcopal)
Mill Valley, CA USA
November 19, 2008

Tobit 12:6b-9
Matthew 25: 31-40


In the name of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

As one report of Elizabeth of Hungary’s good works, “During a famine she generously distributed all the grain from her stocks, cared for lepers in one of the hospitals she established, kissed their hands and feet. For the benefit of the indigent she provided suitable lodging.”

This Holy woman, whose Feast Day is today in the Episcopal Church, was a remarkable woman of religious faith, relationship to God in Christ, and someone who in her exemplary Christian life helped the poor, the widow, the misbegotten.

Our reading from Matthew in the Gospel this day accurately provides an insight into her character and Christ-like living. Note that this stalwart woman who had remarkable endurance in faith, lived in the 13th Century and died at the early age of 24.

Some words from Matthew, telling of Christ’s teachings:

“…[F]or I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.” That from Matthew 25: 35-36.

Married at 14 to royalty, husband dead at 20, Elizabeth had already begun her work with the poor and needy. Her husband, also venerated for his service to the poor, supported her in her religious work. As a widow, the work became the greater, and with three children she continued her devotion, becoming even more devout and holy. God was calling her; she responded. This we know. Elizabeth of Hungary said “yes” to the Lord.

As she gave most of what she had to the needs of the poor, and she had much as a royal person, her family became alarmed and threw her out. She was even left homeless with three children, and out in the cold, literally. At one point, as a story goes, Elizabeth was confronted by irate family members who said she was spending their money and giving away their food. Thinking she was carrying money to the poor, they demanded she open her arms and show what she was “hiding.” As the tale goes, she opened her arms, and pressed against her body was a bouquet of roses. So beautiful. The tale lives with her special service to God, and indicates her favor by Him and her goodness. A miracle is what people consider the story of the roses.

Sometimes it is necessary to select an entire Psalm for a homily. So I think.

I am doing so, because it neatly describes this Godly woman. Here it is, the alternate Psalm for reading today:

Psalm 112 is from the New Standard Revised Version of the Bible. I’ll comment on her life as I read the lines.

Praise the Lord!

(And she did so, in heart and deed.)

Happy are those who fear
The Lord.

(Did God not call her, and give her trials as well as rewards?)

Who greatly delight in his commandments.
Their descendants will be mighty
In the land;

(Elizabeth studied under a strict spiritual director, and later in her young life became a Third Order Franciscan. She was a patron of the Franciscan Order, and they are her spiritual descendants, in a way of exemplary--Christ centered living.)

the generation of the upright
will be blessed.
Wealth and riches are in their
Houses,
And their righteousness endures
Forever.

(We remember Elizabeth eight Centuries later. Surely she is an inspiration, and the Church memorializes her for she was a righteous person who helps us come to Christ, and know what God wants of us. In our own Church of Our Saviour we engage in acts of charity and mercy, helping the poor and needy. One indication of this is our outreach through cooperative, Ecumenical service by feeding the homeless once a month in concert with our neighbor Catholic Church, Mt. Carmel.)

They rise in the darkness as a light
For the upright;
They are gracious, merciful, and
Righteous.
It is well with those who deal
Generously and lend.

(This woman of trials, banished by family among others, driven from her home city, lived a life of joy and service. Somehow this mystery of God’s joy is difficult to fathom. But we find evidence of it time and time again.)

who conduct their affairs with
justice.
For the righteous will never
Be moved;
They will be remembered
Forever.
They are not afraid of evil tidings;
Their hearts are firm, secure
In the Lord.
Their hearts are steady, they will
Not be afraid.

(Elizabeth, young, unafraid, steady in her faith, gave succor to so many, and was a self-sacrificing woman who began living a life of Holy denial. Sometimes it is missed that this remarkable woman as widow raised three children as she did Holy works. Elizabeth was a mother.)

in the end they will look in
triumph on their foes.

(We do believe that good prevails and that our God is on the side of good, that Christ is merciful, generous, forgiving, and loves man and woman, all of creation. We as a Parish participate in our own acts of service and needs of our neighbor as a moral religious community, who believes that our fellow humankind are part of creation. Even the poor, the misbegotten, the widow and alone, or orphan more than deserve our help, but require it.)

They have distributed freely, they
Have given to the poor;
Their righteousness endures
Forever;
Their horn is exalted in honor.

(This day we remember Elizabeth of Hungry, and we join in Eucharist together as part of our Feast Day in celebration. Thanks be to God.)

The wicked see it and are angry;
They gnash their teeth and melt
Away;
The desire of the wicked comes
To nothing.

Here ends the reading and lesson.



The Psalm is both beautiful and instructive. As I say, it does describe and illustrate the life and work of Elizabeth so well.

As you know from what we’ve been talking about, Elizabeth was a young widow. She is considered a patroness of widows. Here are two famous prayers in her name. I will say them for you.

Prayers to St. Elizabeth of Hungary
Patroness of Widows and widowers
feast day: November 17

Dear Saint Elizabeth, you were always poor in spirit, most generous toward the poor, faithful to your husband, and fully consecrated to your Divine Bridegroom. Grant your help to widows and widowers and keep them faithful to their heavenly Lord. Teach them how to cope with their loss and to make use of their time in the service of God. Amen.

Prayer of Widows and Widowers

Lord Jesus Christ, during your earthly life You showed compassion on those who had lost a loved one. Turn your compassionate eyes on me in my sorrow
over the loss of my life's partner. Take him/her into your heavenly kingdom as a reward for his/her earthly service.
Help me to cope with my loss by relying on You even more than before.
Teach me to adapt to the new conditions of my life and to continue doing
your will as I see it. Enable me to avoid withdrawing from life
and make me give myself to others more readily, so that I may continue to live in your grace and to do the tasks that You have laid out for me. Amen.

What to add about this exceptional woman. We praise her.

Thank you for being here on this Feast Day.

Amen.


--Peter Menkin, Pentecost 2008






(Appx. 1330 words)

Obama Leaves Church
an article
by Peter Menkin

Written for the website Religious Intelligence in London ( http://www.religiousintelligence.co.uk/ ), as assigned by their editor Mr. Colin Blakely, but never published, here is my article "Obama Leaves Church." This is as it was submitted to the editor:


Obama leaves his Church

By Peter Menkin

06/18/08

Considered a man of faith, Barack Obama, the American running for nomination for President of the United States, has left his Church. For reasons of political controversy due to its pastor, The Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Senator Obama left membership in Trinity United Church of Christ (TUCC), Chicago, Illinois after 20 years. (The church website proclaims: “We are a congregation which is unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian...”)

Trinity United Church of Christ occupies a tan brick building on West 95th Street across railroad tracks from a public housing project, reports The Christian Science Monitor.

The Senator said about leaving, “Too much press harassment, people couldn’t’ worship in peace.” That wasn’t his reason for leaving, but a complaint on the news media attention. The reason were politically controversial remarks by Trinity’s pastor, Reverend Wright.

Wright's comments contradicted one of Obama’s campaign's central messages -- that the candidate can transcend past divisions such as those involving race.

The impediment to the African-American’s campaign is highlighted by Wright’s widely reported sermon remark: “God Damn America” (for its racism}, and blaming the September 11 terrorist attacks on US foreign policy. He has also blamed the U.S. government for the spread of the AIDS virus. Mostly, Wright is seen as anti-white and a racist.

On Bill Moyers Journal, Wright says we are unashamedly Black. His philosophy embodies, “Use the culture of which we are a part.” He preaches there is hope, that life has meaning, and that God is still in control. “We can change. We can do better.” Black Liberation theology is Wright’s UCC message. It is a UCC message he offers, since he is a UCC minister who studied under Martin Marty. Martin E. Marty, distinguished Lutheran Pastor, teacher, and writer who has been on the University of Chicago faculty since 1963.

Grounded in the history of the African-American, Black theology is powerful stuff. He is little sorry about his comments, but in Bill Moyer’s interview, Reverend Wright does appear sorry he made the comment “God damn America” in the Pulpit—if only for a few moments. But it wasn’t one remark, but a string of them that caused the significant distancing between the candidate’s spiritual advisor and candidate.

The press in the United States spends a lot of time and space talking about Senator Obama’s faith, his church, and how he is a Christian—the Senator says he is Christian himself, and that is also news. Religion in the campaign makes news, despite separation of Church and State
. Time magazine says more voters see Senator Obama as a strongly religious person than they do every major presidential hopeful but Mitt Romney, the Republican former governor of Massachusetts. Romney’s Mormonism drew extensive news coverage.

U.S. Senator Obama was married in Trinity church. His children were baptized in the church, and also like the wedding, Reverend Wright performed the solemnizations. The Senator said on leaving the church, “Trinity was where I found Jesus Christ, where we were married, where our children were baptized. We have many friends among the 8,000 members…” It is a church where he was moved many times. When Wright preached one Sunday about the sustaining power of hope in the face of poverty and despair, Obama says he found himself in tears.

He says in one speech:


* “For one thing, I believed and still believe in the power of the African-American religious tradition to spur social change… Because of its past, the black church understands in an intimate way the Biblical call to feed the hungry and clothe the naked and challenge powers and principalities. And in its historical struggles for freedom and the rights of man, I was able to see faith as more than just a comfort to the weary or a hedge against death, but rather as an active, palpable agent in the world. As a source of hope.”


It is the claim of Reverend Jeremiah Wright that Trinity is a church of Black theology. The Reverend Doctor John Cone, the Harvard Professor and African-American theologian interviewed on American Public Broadcasting System (PBS) by commentator Bill Moyers says on the PBS website:


* “As we examine what contemporary theologians are saying, we find that they are silent about the enslaved condition of black people. Evidently they see no relationship between black slavery and the Christian gospel. Consequently there has been no sharp confrontation of the gospel with white racism. There is, then, a desperate need for a black theology, a theology whose sole purpose is to apply the freeing power of the gospel to black people under white oppression.”

Cone says:


* The Cross is the same as the lynching tree for the Black American in a Harvard Speech. The Christian Reverend Cone wants to start a conversation on this subject. He offers that lynching was terrorism that “worked to a certain degree.” This includes spectacle lynchings where 5,000 would gather to watch.

* Religion is one place where you have an imagination that no one can control.” Black Churches are a place of the spirit… (even though you are living under the shadow of the lynching tree).” … There were 246 years of slavery, and 100 years of segregation and lynching.

* America does not see itself as “not innocent,” according to Cone. “No human being is innocent.”


Reverend Cone is ordained in the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago. which is one of the city's largest black churches and not far from Obama's home in the South Side neighborhood of Hyde Park.

Apparently the Democratic candidate for his party’s nomination is not turning his back on Black theology, per se, since Sunday, June 15, 2008 he spoke from the pulpit at that same mega-church in Chicago, which has 20,000 members and is also considered a Black American church.

It is the history of the African American church in the United States that it is a center of Black community life speaking to the needs of the church and larger community in social and political ways. But not in so partisan a manner as was recently ascribed to the theology and preaching of the Reverend Wright. So the perception became. But he still associates himself with the African American church in general.

Senator Obama spoke of the role of Black fathers and their responsibilities, perhaps more a campaign speech than sermon from a “religious” man whose campaign motto is “Change That Works for You.” After all, he is running for President of the United States—or its Democratic Party nomination more accurately. He gave his talk from the pulpit of the “20,000-member Apostolic Church of God…a short walk from the Obamas’ home. The church’s pastor, Byron Brazier, is an Obama supporter,” reports The New York Times.

It is from the Black Church that Senator Obama learned many things about hope. Can he really take himself out of the African-American church ethos, as he has known it? Perhaps the Reverend Wright thinks not, though he is not saying. His official press release remark on Senator Obama and his family’s leaving was, “…We are saddened by the news …”

END IT

(Appx. 1100 words)

California at August Rain
by Peter Menkin

August rain -- summer
relieved --
cools the months.

Against the larger
sky, below walking
the path alone: common stranger afoot.

California scene,
vision existential, transitory.

Many roads cross the land,
hear the sound of the long highway
as the travelers go north: The light rain
waters with relief stark realities finite.

A mortal vision at the light
Of end of day, sighted
before the season changes.
This scene told anew, loneliness,

California climate norm.
Come the time of year
punctuated weather portents
Of the people going. Restless
And on the move.






Existential poem by the aspiring poet Peter Menkin, workshopped on Academy of American Poets site (Poets.org) in 2008, written around 2000. Read by the poet for Archive.org, the poet says of the poem on the workshop site:

"The work is part of a series of "painter" poems that paint a picture. This one made in the summer of a look down the highway where I saw about midpoint in the California daylight a man walking. I had this feeling of loneliness, of a shiftlessness with the cars traveling up the road and the time of day, the man small and alone. Existential is a very good description of the statement I intended."

At the Monastery on Sunday,
Big Sur, California USA
by Peter Menkin

In the now
of time,
many worshipers
come Sunday
to the Church.

The monks in choir,
chant,
singing to God,
and the people
listen, some
speaking the words
in song, too.

Communion comes
to this mountain
where people say God
is present.

I think so, for you
can feel the presence,
and know what years
of prayer and devotion
will do
to a place.

The Pilgrims here
are moved, and the
unusual is made
conscious, for we
are not always
of a mind
to be attentive.

The Spirit is strong
this Pentecost.
Wait to discover
what it means;
convincing Spirit,
Holy Spirit allowing
us to enter into
devotion.

Notes on photo: Rick White, Mill Valley, CA USA titled Wildflower # 13, "Mandala" taken in Arcata, California at his daughter's Wild Chick Farm, an organic chicken raising farm. This photo from one of the meadows.

Steel & Chrome Parade
a poem by Peter Menkin

The parade of town & county people
and painted cars with chrome
tailpipes was a glee on old Grant
street--miles long parade.

A testimony to American
history, 55 Chevy Station Wagon
with red back lights
like a jet plane nose.
Sculpted Shelby Cobra,
a coveted car from Hollywood
amidst the rolling thunder
patrolled by local police
in their late model fast pursuit
vehicles, complete with air scoops.

The girls sit close to the guys
on the bench seats, though
a Ford Mustang (worth $20,000)
has buckets--edge thigh to thigh,
hers against the stick shift.
A tuneful race of piston sounds,
clouds of dark exhaust after
sunset to crowds who stand, sit,
call out and gawk at industrial

promises and the freedom that
auto brings. Sex, steel, paint
is a hot combination on a June
evening, for county excitement.
Mating calls to drag and thump,
teenage postures, and adult
moments with some families attuned
to their social position in a
maroon 48 Plymouth coupe. What
now, a festive undertaking
like a community dance in thunder
and success. Glory, excitement!

Summertime summertime stars a
song of parade in car colors
brought out for show and bravado.
A cultural dance on wheels into
the night, and tomorrow, too
on the regular roads and driveways.

This is an endless parade
of favored and polished pets;
even the Chevrolet 409,
will ride around seeking
a Woody Wagon or something sleek.
We have met the 21st Century
and it is still us, again, on parade.

Audio reading of the poem is here, read by the writer, aspiring poet Peter Menkin:




This poem from 2000 recently posted on the Academy of American Poets writers workshop received few comments, I am sorry to say. But I like the work, and here it is from its almost original version eight years ago when the car parade took place in Novato, California (Marin County), north of San Francisco.

This note to a fellow poet was posted on the writers workshop by me:

I had an idea that not everyone knows about car parades. This one was held in Novato, California (about 45,000), and there people fix up older and even old cars. They are stunning! So many people line the street for this popular event, it is like a town fair.

Novato is in Marin County, north of San Francisco by about 30 or so miles. I believe they hold the parade yearly. That year I did go to the car parade, and I was impressed by it and remembered there is in America such a thing as "car culture." So the poem.

Notes on photograph: The Reverend Richard Helmer, Rector of Church of Our Saviour, Mill Valley, California USA took this snapshot and gave permission to use it on my blog. The blog is mainly spiritual and religious poetry, and though the poem posted today is about Chrome & Steel Parade, I thought Father Richard's snapshot a good choice since it shows flowers and has chrome. Readers of this blog will have noted that most photographs accompanying the poetry shows a flower or flowers.

So here is another flower shot, location of snapshot unknown.

As a P.S., Peter Menkin attends Church of Our Saviour, Mill Valley, California USA, located in Marin County, north of San Francisco. By the way, the man at the piano also illustrating the poem shows The Reverend Richard Helmer at work. The title is "Richard at Piano."

"Prokofiev: Sonata No. 3 in a, Op. 28
Liszt: La Campanella
Chopin: Etudes Op. 10, Nos. 1, 2, 4, and 5; Polonaise in A-flat, Op. 53, Prelude in G
Debussy: Estampes"

Book Review: The Book of Common Prayer, "My carry-with-me copy is this size, and I recommend it for traveling places..."
by Peter Menkin


Here I am daring to comment on this wonderful book, used by Episcopalians and one of the prayer and rubric publications that unite Anglicans worldwide. (There are about 77 million Anglicans in the world, and most have their own "version" of this wonderful and inspired book, though perhaps this specific size of which I write and this specific American version, may not be familiar to them all.)

My copy that is this size, and at a similar good price as this one (take advantage of a good offer, by the way), has been used by me for about ten or so years. It's been a durable book, though worn now and the leather cover warped, despite my treating it from time to time. But then I carry it in my car, and sometimes leave it on the seat where the sun hits it. Nonetheless, it has proved durable.

There are so many personal uses for the prayer book, and touching on some of them, it is important for me to note in this recitation, that the primary purpose of this issue of The Book of Common Prayer for me is taking it to nursing, hospital, and similar places (including home visits), to administer home Communion. It is an excellent size for traveling, and as I may not have mentioned, also offers the complete book with all the prayers and this includes, "Communion under Special Circumstances," used in the Episcopal Church for bringing home communion.

As a licensed lay Minister in my Church, and as an Oblate, I am always moved and informed by the same words from that shared, intimate service. To give you reader, an idea of the character of the book, here is a quote from the beginning prayer of the section "Communion under Special Circumstances."

"Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrement of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who lives and reigns for ever and ever. Amen."

There is flexibility in the prayers, and the rubrics allow the lay minister or clergy administering the Eucharist to do the following: "After the reading [found before the opening prayer quoted above], the Celebrant may comment on it briefly." Also, "Suitable prayers may be offered, concluding with the following or some other Collect."

My opinion is the book, both a religious, spiritually literary, and inspired work, encourages spiritual discussion of a religious nature after or before the words of the service. In this way, the Eucharist is a community or communion activity, where the idea of sharing the Church experience is enlarged in the presence of God and man.

When I visit the elderly, especially the frail elderly in my visits, I sometimes share Psalms. The book contains all 150 Psalms, its own translation, of course. This one is a favorite of mine, not only because of its familiarity, but as well because it is a kind of statement about the journey and ministry with which I am engaged in this pastoral relationship:

Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd
I shall not be in want.

He makes me lie down in green pastures
and leads me beside still waters.

He revives my soul
and guides me along right pathways for his Name's sake.

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I shall fear no evil;
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff, they comfort me.

You spread a table before me in the presence of those who trouble me;
you have anointed my head with oil,
and my cup is running over.

Surely your goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.


This is a good place to end the review.

(This review appeared originally on Amazon.com.)




Notes on review: A friend tells me via email the review is "Too long and too much about your personal ministry. You might try reading other reviews (if any) or looking at what Church Publishing says about it."

I am happy for the critique and suggestions. Here is my response, in part, "As you can tell from the review, my intent was not to take on the book itself for review, but a part of it relevant to me and specific to that particular 'version' (inexpensive, small, portable, and useful for a specific purpose and kind of ministry).

"I also wanted to speak to Episcopalians themselves, as well as Christians, mostly, in a way that would engage them in the review based on experience, rather than expertise. To do that, I thought I needed to use my own personal (though personable might be a better term), than expert opinion.

"For me, dealing with so awesome and holy a work has more validity and genuineness by the stance used. Certainly, there is a kind of authority in this kind of review by testimony (granted that is an important focus of the review, by intention).

"There you have an explanation of why I wrote it as I did, and part of the rationale for the conception of the approach."

I add as of the posting of the review here: I do hope readers will find the review both interesting and able to inform them of some merits of the holy prayer book for Episcopalians in America, The Book of Common Prayer.

It is many things, and contains instructions for worship services including Eucharist, Daily Prayer, Burial, and other rites and sacraments of the Church. As a literary work, it is a marvel and famous as well as admired in that regard. I cannot say how much I have found in this book, and others have found, too.

It does bring one closer to God in Christ and reveals a central part of worship for Episcopalians. An indispensable book for so many Christians of that denomination, and good reading for others who may be interested.

I hope my added notes help the review satisfy some of my friend's objections.

Photo notes: "Exotic Bali 10" is a photograph by amateur photographer Terry Peck. Terry lives North of San Francisco, California USA.

Prose Poem: All the gods
on the front lawn
by Peter Menkin

The blue truck is discernible now as part of the front yard garden. An old Ford with simple carburetor called a farm vehicle from 1965, the all steel monster filling the end of the driveway against the sidewalk and white picket fence is adorned with gods, figures, wicked and mean creatures of plaster and perhaps sculpted elves.

Mixed among the flowers by the walk, and towards the west where the mountains stand before the ocean begins is a line-up of gods like headstones for memory of previous tenants in this rooming house among the redwood trees. Are these the past lives, the left behind religious artifacts and special spirits and saints of residents gone sometime during the 30 years this house has been hospitable to people on a journey? Tiki is in stone, (white, black and white about three feet high). St. Francis and Cross is near the gate, about two thirds down the walk way (he looks just fine and there is more than one saint in beige like marble with or without cross).

No Benedict. Mary and maybe another Mary and a Martha and unknown but probably carried with them women of deep conviction seem planted like additional memories of gods and past lives adorning the local flowers as remembrances, and left behind items similar to forgetting a suitcase (these with hands in prayer and pink or light pink in color).

Inside the front porch is the last supper, a scene from the Upper Room (festive and in muted respectful blues and gold with grey).Right outside the front door, within the sun porch, sits a crucifix, like a real cross one would find in a small chapel somewhere stowed in a cabinet and left there with its presence reminding a past owner that the relic is a testimony of faith embattled, still giving hope and reminder of genuine faith (nearly brown with white, like wood, but made of some cast mix).

Are these the grateful dead monuments, leavings of discarded distractions worn away and dropped from site, waiting like patient reminders that somewhere in the grape vine bush growing along the side of the blue Ford truck is a God I recognize familiar and known. Along the side about four feet up is a shelf holding on it like a boy’s room holds favorite objects of sport and adventure for growing up with future promise sits aside other magical creatures a brown frog (ugly mud of clay) with bow tie, series of overlarge pine cones still complete side by side, and some places plastic flowers from like an Easter the culmination of reminder that something passed this way before and went on elsewhere.

Forever with Easter. Simple rooming house resident gods and things of faith, maybe like an angel.
Unlike a grove of Redwoods, gathered together in a field or among a series of trees in a setting that the eye can discern as park like and ancient with resting spirits and reclining peace, these are remnants of the Saints and gods, spirits of the woods, and adornments of virgin games on large lawns and private fields, in small houses, escaped private disasters, desperate moments, hurt times, terrible love affairs despaired, last dollar in the pocket, place to rest and save money, just a good room with security and some peace, injured and aged or disabled in pain, come to rest and be dropped behind as collections that really make no rock garden and portend little of a gold fish pond with exotic fish.

An amalgum of spirits, an amalgum of some powerful presence, these adornements and sacred objects to someone also held in disrepute and disgust, stand with the knowledge that a jaundice of doubt has come upon some who are here with a strong hand. Maybe not so, for they seem to live as planted stones.

Are these the grateful dead of the past lives, question. I wonder, and I approach, and I recognize every now and then the quiet of the graveyard and the heart of memory that is a small thing of collections that makes the rooming house a home for the man who keeps the rooms available through the years.

There is a sundial against the big front room window, elegantly classic. And overgrown near the always open in the summer screen door to the sun porch patio is a series of dolphin sculptures like found in expensive tourist gallery shops in Sausalito for visitors to spend much money on and take as a statement of the male and female neptune , living gods within the pods of the ocean near the edge of this western area.

Magic, gods, saints, crosses, religious statements, funny creatures, many wicked, and a large mannequin with a hard hat reading across the front peace, wearing work gloves and a slinky evening dress, short like a sexy dancer about to rave or do the twist is another of the gods of a venus who was resident, or worshiper of same.

This is an unusual entryway of front yard within the confines of the neighborhood block, patiently alive and awake, sometimes asleep and reminding one that the angels cheribum white with copper dragons above the front door intend to say the god of the Old Testament is here, too. Who could know the zen of followers of Jerry Brown, or a guru, or a struggling Catholic with a lot of love, or other mysterious statements about our only security is peace. One needn't subscribe to all these manifestations, elements, and quiet waiting memories that engage the passerby with the character of the rooming house since the front yard is always watered well and the statues of gods and saints seem well cared for in a distracted way of attentions.

This is the array of many protections invoked for privacy and retreat to the benefits of the roomers, who receive these gifts without additional charges to the usual rent and utilities.

Notes on photographs: "Pictures of Poppies" taken by Linda Shirado as a snapshot during a neighborhood walk in Mill Valley, California USA. Others below first "Pictures" snippets cropped from the same photograph. "Religious Candles" by Henry Worthy of London, England (Harry is a Benedictine Oblate of New Camaldoli).

Audio reading: Prose Poem: All the gods on the front lawn read by Peter Menkin

Conversation on Religious Poetry:
Two Statements made by Peter Menkin
on Eratosphere...

The discussion in full from 2006 can be found here:

http://www.ablemuse.com/erato/showthread.php?t=724

("Religious Poetry, How does it work?") My interest here is to again provide artistic and spiritual statement about my work as an aspiring poet. I say again, do go to Eratosphere and look under the link provided above to find remarks by many very good and knowledgeable poets on the subject. These are of course by their group of participants, and I do not post on that workshop anymore, and only for a short time. But I did find the discussion part helpful, and some of the other.

My side of the text only, provided here since I haven't permission to reprint the discussion in its entirety.

For a few years now I have been interested in both writing and reading religious poetry. Some I've written better than others, and some I've written I like more than others.

Some critics say the work needs a more personal voice and modern statement (as T.S.). So I read religious poetry both for devotion and to learn about it.

I've enjoyed a wider range of religious poetry (Christian in faith), much of it modern. An example, the poet named Ephrem:

"Lord, let Your day be like You for us.
Let it be a means a pledge of peace.
It is Your day that reconciled heaven and earth,
for on it the Heavenly One descends to the earthly ones."

Perhaps his more passionate, and Marian oriented are more interesting to readers, and religious Christians.

I have not come to the popular notion that religious poetry must evoke and reveal the personal experience and passions of the writer. Or that it needs to show some doubt or metamorphisis in belief. I have practiced praise and Thanksgiving, as I am able. My intent is to stay with the Anglican tradition, as I am an Episcopalian. So much for a statement of intent.

I think my attitude is fair game, criticism has improved my own efforts. Some religious poets show something of their attitude and interest.

William Blake is a popular religious poet, and I think he represents how such poets represent their time:

"And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?"

Unlike Blake, who was a spiritual man not so beholding to the views of the Church, though certainly an asset, his interest are more "free-thinking." There is a very nice (as in fitting series of poems) from which I took the quote in the book, "The Poetry of Piety: An Annotated Anthology of Christian Poetry."

In some important way, I have read the poems published by Immaculate Heart Hermitage in Big Sur, California (where I am received). I have enjoyed the monastic tradition that the Camaldolese offer. Because of this, I've tried my hand at the same kind of ethos.

I have a few examples of responses to quiet days at a monastery in Berkeley, California (being an Oblate, I do such things, visit a study house for instruction and education). One I have posted is a lengthy series on contemplation, and a statement by a monk put into "poetry). Taking great liberties with what is a poem, I made this verbatim(?) and copied poetic statement rather than an oral report. The monks liked it, as did some others. They posted it. One time I posted it for comment and suggestion, and gladly it was received as a centering prayer. Probably useful that way. If you'd like to check out some of my poetry, visit my blog: http://www.petermenkin.blogspot.com http://www.petermenkin.com

The first URL is the blog, the second my web site.

I find I have improved with time, even had a a few poems published in religious (Christian) magazines. This satisfies my ambition. Here is a very good poem by a favorite poet of mine, also a religious poet.

By Denise Levertov ("The Showings: Lady Julian of Norwich, 1342-1416):

"And you ask us to turn our gaze
inside out, and see
a little thing, the size of a hazelnut, and believe
it is our world? Ask us to see it lying
in God's pierced palm? That it encompasses
every awareness our minds contain? All Time?
All limitless space given form in this
medieval enigma?"

("Upholding Mystery: An Anthology of Contemporary Christian Poetry."

Forgive me my excesses in this post.



Katy:
About the monks of the Order of St. Benedict in Big Sur, California (USA), they express their interest in various poetic statements. One slim book I bought at their bookstore at the monastery is by Patrick W. Flanigan, M.D., a local of the region. ("Surviving the Storm" by Pacific Grove Publishing, Pacific Grove, California.)

A quote from "Fog."

"Fog obscures color and detail,
muffles sounds,
keeps birds in their nests,
whispers, 'Stay in bed.'"

On the face, not a religious poem. But as those who follow The Rule of St. Benedict, this poem speaks of place (stability), creation (Biblical), and of quiet (contemplation). I think this implies a mystery about life.

Another, "The Basin":

"A metal basin
full of water,
smooth surfaced
and quiet,
sits on the rocky bank
of dancing,
babbling stream."

This poem says later, "just be" and that statement is like the Biblical quote, "Be silent and know that I am God."

There is another poetry book, even slimmer, that they sell and I suspect endorse. A visitor to their monastery (silent retreat only) writes of place with reference to its natural setting, making a statement of hallowed and holy ground. She is not a Christian, and finds the monastery a deeply spiritual place of holiness for herself and others. I haven't a sample, otherwise I would post it as an example of religious poetry. For though she herself doesn't interpret her statement as Christian or religious, but rather spiritual, I think that others do.

Peter

Notes on pictures used in this post: "Christmas Star" was taken by the Hubble Telescope. "Radiant Light" is a painting by Camaldoli Monk Father Arthur. "San Francisco Fog" is by Rick White, you can see tips of the Golden Gate Bridge. "Easter Flower" may be by my brother Michael Menkin of Bellevue, Washington. But I can't remember.

Conversation with Aged
by Peter Menkin

I recite a long Psalm,
119,
beginning as a confession
but lending my thoughts
and opening my heart.

Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes,
And I shall keep it to the end

Give me understanding, and I shall keep your law;
I shall keep it with all my heart.

Be gentle to memory: of failure
to seek God, and desire good
creates a long list of weakness
and mindless concerns that ignore
God for so many years.

Let your loving-kindness come to me, O Lord,
And your salvation, according to your promise.

Old ones I talk with as I read, speak
of their youth, and I think
"Is this what is on their minds?"
So I soothe and open my heart
to let in healing to younger times
in my life. Even to childhood.

Happy are they whose way is blameless,
Who walk in the law of the Lord!

Happy are they who observe his decrees
And seek him with all their hearts!

I say words for them, these old people, and
for others:
in thought before words,
in mind before thought,
present in the heart, and I listen,
always desiring to hear.
This talk with old people
leads me to gentleness with myself.
This is their message.

They say to me, "I am living
so long. I hardly think about it."

I continue my reading
Psalm 119.

I am a stranger here on earth;
Do not hide your commandments from me.

Let my cry come before you, O Lord,
Give me understanding, according to your word.

These notes about poetry I write were originally made for The Academy of American Poets writers workshop. As artistic statements, they are more that than they are apology. Thank you in advance for reading them. One reason for posting them with this particular poem, which is new, is that the poem uses quotations from the Psalms. The poem about the presence of Christ, in the previous post, also references the Bible. As well, just recently, this last Sunday, yesterday, I talked with Deacon Betsy Rosen on some of my reasons for writing religious and spiritual poetry. In a way, these artistic notes and statements touch on my intention to write poetry of praise and gratitude.

Artistic notes, a series of statements (referencing "Christ's Presence"):
A Biblical set of words enlarges the meaning of the poem by providing a larger sense of "generation to generation," at least to me, and has a kind of finality. I do hope it does these things, and I am working on that still. As in the Psalms, used in this poem posted here, and the "Dust to dust" reference in the posting just before this one, they have resonance.

It is as a statement, for me as someone familiar with some of the Bible, a resonance of God, and emphasizes that this poem is religious and spiritual with a given discipline and basis of concern and point of view, expressing as well some of the insight of Christian living, and an aspect of the visitor's reason for visiting, implied as a visit to the sick, or the aged, or the dying.

This charitable act indicates a certain kind of stance, specific to practitioners of Christianity, and certainly of my denomination, and demonstrates a kind of compassion and mercy with which the writer believes we live in the light and life of a God of goodness.

This is a Christian poem, and a poem of religious and spiritual dimension, as much as it may need some help and may be lacking. That is the effort. To avoid the Bible would be to deny some of the authority, purpose, and strength of the statement. At least for this writer. I am not making apology in the work. The work may lack, but the intention of the writer is hopeful for the work.

There you have my rant on the subject, and I could go on with a statement of my own personal intentions in poetry of this kind, but I wanted to stick with this specific piece and the use of the Bible in it. Though I do use various words or phrases, ideas of Biblical kind, including the Psalms in my poetry. At least I try. You'll see in my poem about an aged person, also posted on the site at the same time, I quote hymns. I think that works, hopefully, and is appropriate to the work.

But I am grateful to you for commenting. For you are not the first to raise the issue, not only of the use of the Bible in a poem, but also the need and correctness of form of a poem containing a Biblical sense, or religious and spiritual one that makes a statement. Hopefully, I'm in the realm of the okay with this kind of work.

Another artistic statement (referencing "Christ's Presence"):
You've hit a nerve with that one, how a reader may pass over the words, "Dust to dust," (in the poem posted previous to this one with its references to Psalms, also Biblical), because they have little in them to catch their imagination. I am looking for a way in my response to say that may be a problem for me, and I would like to think in context of the poem a reader's problem. For "Dust to dust" brings up thoughts of death and burial, at least for me. Age is certainly a thought, but in the context of the poem the certainty of mortality. In other words, I hope that the context of the poem brings out some kind of unpacking of the few Biblical words.

I think what I am trying to prove in my comments, or at least convince myself of if no one else, is that "Dust to dust," and in this poem posted here with quotations from Psalm 119, are good in the context of the poem. I did not think it would be a larger issue, but because we enter what is for me a realm of Biblical and religious concern, the vision as it were, of the poem, I am willing to focus more on Biblical resonance.

In the event you are interested in the Bible, and I hope I am not turning you off, I've discovered a wonderful paper by a British Bishop named Tom Wright. The link to his sermon, really an address before the Anglican Lambeth Conference 2008, is below:

http://www.fulcrum-anglican.org.uk/page.cfm?ID=334

I can't but help to advertise these wonderful remarks, which I find instructive, since my own work in Poetry is part of my relationship with God. I like to think, and do think, my motivation for writing religious and spiritual poetry is as praise for God, and in my wild imagination I think that others who write similar works are similarly inclined in their way to engage their spiritual relationship more fully.

Again, an artistic statement (referencing "Conversation with Aged"):
I did go with a number of other quotations than the one you suggested (from the dialogue on the poem), and they aren't in a particular sequence, as in sequence from Psalm 119. I chose to explore the text of the poetic statement, and maybe in its way, explore the texts I chose from Psalm 119.

I considered a number of translations: King James Version, Grail version, Vulgate, RSV, even the NSRV (because it is so modern). I decided to go with the Psalms as they are printed in "The Book of Common Prayer," the prayer book of the American Episcopal Church (Anglican), mostly because I use it when visiting the elderly. But also because the language seems more suited in its way of manner to the poem. I do use other sources when reading the Psalms, most often the second choice is King James, since the elderly I visit are more familiar with it. I think that is a good thing.

More artistic statement on the poem, "Conversation with Aged:"
This brief note is a response to my friend Jan Robitscher's comment that the poem seems to be two poems in one. Jan Robitscher was a teacher of mine when I attended The Episcopal School for Deacons. The School for Deacons is located in the buildings of Church Divinity School of the Pacific (CDSP), an Episcopal seminary in Berkeley, California USA. Jan has been on the faculty there since 1991. She holds a B. Music (DePauw University), an M.A. in Liturgy (Notre Dame) and an M.Div. (Nashotah House Episcopal Seminary). She is my friend.

The response to her comment, sent to her home in Berkeley near the seminary, and UC Berkeley's North Gate area, by email today, Tuesday:

Hi Jan:
I am so glad you like this poem ["Conversation with Aged"]. Just recently, with this current poem just sent you, and the one previous ("Christ's Presence") I've been making more extensive artist's notes, in particular a statement on Biblical reference in the two poems. I did this as a result of discussion prompted on the Academy of American Poets writers workshop.

Your thought that I've two poems does strike a chord with me, and I thank you for taking the time to comment. It is helpful. In my same day response, not considering it longer (though I will consider your suggestion some more in days to come), I intend the poem to be a dialogue of sorts, as a statement of the relationship with the elderly, as well as a poetic dialogue of their own.

In short, the experience is two way, and I believe the relationship described in the poem, "Conversation with Aged" opens the way towards the generational experience. It also demonstrates that the visitor is also undergoing thought and expression, even if in a different way because of age, and yet in a similar way because both are human and engaged in what some call the "God experience." Christ is relational, one could say.

Is this a good answer to your comment, and it is intended as my considering what you've said rather than a conclusion? Thanks for the opportunity to make a return comment.

Yours in faith,
Peter

Poem about JO,
who passed away

The Redwoods is a retirement community located in Mill Valley, California USA and the result of efforts for the elderly by the local United Church of Christ (Community Church). For more than 6 years I've visited the elderly in their Health Care Unit, and I've been fulfilled numerous times in my volunteer work. This poem is really about a particular resident in her later years, about JO, who spoke with difficulty. Because her hearing was good, she let me do almost all the talking. Many times I read her the Psalms. I visited her from the time before this poem was drafted in 2004. She died before the poem was "completed" in 2008.

Christ's Presence
by Peter Menkin

A vision of creation.
And a moment of God's
need to have man. His ways
appeared to me when an old
woman ate soup.

She eats slowly this one time
again,
and her arm brought the spoon
to her mouth with meek vigor.
So I saw that we pass away,
for she was many years old
and her arm proved she was
a creature of God. Dust to dust.

There is the breath of life,
that is in us like this woman.
An inner dwelling, spirit of the Lord.



Artist's note and comment on the poem "Presence of Christ" as it appeared on the Academy of American Poets writers workshop ( www.poets.org ):
During the comments and suggestions made 2008 on the poem, this statement on the use of "Dust to dust" was made by me, Peter Menkin to another poet called "Gould."

Gould:
Many thanks for your remarks on my newly posted and recently revised poem, originally drafted 2004. I am concerned with the issue of what is cliche, and something like the statement "Dust to dust," appears so familiar to us, its use Biblical and religious as so many know. But I believe that much of the Bible, both Old and New Testament is familiar and sometimes a cliche or considered tired.

In one manner, we seek a new way to communicate the religious and spiritual sensibilities and understandings of faith, especially when one is in the "business" of writing poetry that is considered "faith poetry."

I think what speaks to one in the Bible, or in the religious and spiritual language of ones tradition and history as it is practiced, is fair and reasonable game for poetry, regardless of how familiar it may be to readers, or in its contemporary reading cliche like in its evocative imagery. I say this, with the understanding that in the religious life as it is reflected, and especially in the Biblical reflection of spiritual reality as it speaks to us as the word of God, that each of us needs to find our way. Selections and parts of the Biblical words do engage us as individual people and groups, denominations, more than others. I find this so. And so I reflect in my poetry this sensibility and searching for relationship with God as a living experience, in the Christ.

Recently, I've been watching YouTube talks by a Camaldoli, Benedictine Monk who is deceased, a holy man who spent his life in India, and a fulfilled man who reflects the way the Bible spoke to him. His name is Bede Griffiths, and perhaps you have heard of him. It is apparent in his talks caught and posted now on YouTube that he is a genuine man of God. In my poetry, I look to this genuine sense of what has meaning in the poem. Hopefully, in time, or even taken in my intended way, even a cliche like "Dust to dust" will be illuminated in a similar way of the genuine. This is a truth, I believe, or definition of one in the poetic way.

Here is a link to one of the Bede Griffiths' talks, that last about 11 minutes each. Father Bede is a Christian, one must keep that in mind. He is also a Catholic Priest. So he speaks from that perspective.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=3BNQhWsPIZ0&feature=related

With thanks for raising the issue concerning "Dust to dust."
Yours truly,
Peter

Notes on the photograph: The photo accompanying this poem is again by my 78 year old neighbor Rick White, who has 9 children and 20 grandchildren. Rick took the photograph on the grounds of the apartment house we both live in, and so we are neighbors. Rick is a professional photographer who in his working life took many travel photographs, and when he lived in Chicago was an advertising agency art director. He lives in Marin County, North of San Francisco USA. He calls the photograph, "Ladies in the Shade." It was taken August, 2008 (Summer).

Christmas poem in July

Here it is summer, and I've revised a Christmas poem started prior to the Millenium 2000. Experimental still, the poem is yet to be completed. Note there is no Christmas tree in this poem. My apologies to friends who've requested a Christmas poem with a Christmas tree.

Christmas as poem
By Peter Menkin

I hope you like poems about babies,
new, and birth and stars that bend their voices.
My answer to your perplexity is this:
Fall/Winter gratitude. Thankfulness for the blessing of a healthy birth,
and in this recitation of a lesson (which is what this poem represents)
also a merry carol
a series of phrases from two hymns for Christmas.
"...let every heart prepare him room, and heaven and nature sing..."
"and every stone shall cry.---- And every stone shall cry;"
"To pave his kingdom come.----"
"By whose descent among us the worlds are reconciled."

Oh, but you are mine and
I ask to be in you and you in me.
What gifts you bear so that we may bear
gifts to you, my soul is thankful. With praise.

I offer this poem much with an apology
for I did, too,
want to construct part of the mystery of the event
that is so moving and in its truth ancient and
worthy to be brought to this Millennium of 2000 for a New Year.

So it is here as I constructed it more than three years ago,
with thanks for your attention and forebearance
to see these words that are a love of affection in the entry of
justice that is given by God in Triune splendor
-- of a love that is desire and the beat of a heart in man and woman.

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One of "older" poems,
On Contemplation and about my Apartment in Mill Valley, California USA

this tells of contemplative prayer, the experience of rising like a hawk, or soaring, as does the hawk. God comes closer to humankind, humankind comes closer to God. That seems an unusual statement in our times, nonetheless, the Lord is here whether we know it or not.

I moved from the apartment on the third floor as place of viewing the hawks and place of prayer, to an apartment on the third floor at the other end of the building, place of viewing the hawks and place of prayer. I don't seem to see hawks so much anymore, yet I believe there is a soaring sense of beauty in prayer. God is near, often.

It is almost summertime here in Northern California. We have a heat wave. 92 today.




Apartment on the Third Floor
by Peter Menkin

This apartment, top, third floor
one among hawks who build
nests
has sun. This

room gets afternoon light;
morning, too, streams
in creating simplicity.

The hawks sit in the
trees, communing.
The world goes on, in steel
complexity.

Warm, here just roof above,
and
among the trees in
company of hawks

who nest. One hawk
sits
on a branch, lit by engaging
moments of
sun; spring newness amid
the gray manmade
world that impedes yet connects
the eternal life.

Thank you morning through
daylight to night,
bright stars for a promise
of goodness.
God.

Witnessing the light.
I remark to you of
divine moments.

We enter mansions heavenly, just flesh
and spirit.
Ascending.