A Grace of God...(revise)
by Peter Menkin
________________________________________

Inner life
aware of soothing Spirit.
Waiting.
Grace that underlines
living.
Ask for waters
that spring from abundance.
Quenches.

"Advent"

by Peter Menkin

Grace:

Yielding To God.

Quiet:

Waiting In the season.

Christ is coming,

Born this year.

"Talking to the Muse, Conversations with the Holy Spirit II" (Count Basie)

by Peter Menkin

My muse interrupted the reverie

this June day with the tune, "Pennies from Heaven"

awakening syncopating glee. Count Basie.

Decca Jazz.

We live on this food: along the path

I find myself fed by You.

It is a manna the Lord offers: a suitable meal --

traveling to liberty of soul in Triune God.

Manifold graces.

Piano plays, ratta-tat-honky-tonk swing,

refrain introduce jumpin' yes riddly-dit.

The horn blows responding,

like Priests out of 2 Chronicles. Swing it.

Dance music to Honeysuckle Rose

some hymn to intro "Everytime it rains it rains pennies from heaven...

you'll find your fortune

falling all over town."

Desire for God: a Poem with Passion

I attended a Bible study at an acquaintance's home, and there were about six of us there. I learned people come to Christ many ways. This seems a cliche, but my eyes were opened to the sincerity of my new friends. I found others who had a like mind in their desire for God. In this poem I write as a mainstream Christian of my passion. Call this need and desire.

Grace, Affection...

by Peter Menkin

This yearning need, by grace is affection

treasured, acceptance satisfying.

I am a man of faults.

You enlarge my heart by presence,

moving me to accept the other.

The other. You Almighty are other.

Each day prayers are offered, and study goes on:

reading books on spiritual matters.

It is the prayer that helps, mostly.

The books instruct, in so many ways.

The connection is living the life in the Way.

Struggle sometimes to be friend to neighbor;

love brings me strength and a wisdom,

offering a perfection. You are love,

known. I lift up my heart to You.

I open my heart to you. I wait.

Silence. You are love, unknown.

Now I must hush. I must hush.

The Contemplative prayer Experience

I have found the practice of contemplative prayer soothing, peaceful, and prayer that offers affection. Thomas Keating recommends two 20 minute sessions daily. I practice one in the afternoon. Is this a struggle, contemplative prayer? Is this a wrestling match? It is hospitality, acceptance, reception of Christ. It is surrender.

Two poems, one an introduction to the other.

Affection Treasured...

by Peter Menkin

This yearning need,

by grace is affection treasured,

acceptance satisfying. I am a man of faults.

You enlarge my heart by presence,

moving me to accept the other. The other.

You Almighty are other.

Each day prayers are offered,

and study goes on: reading books on spiritual matters.

It is the prayer that helps, mostly.

The books instruct, in so many ways.

The connection is living the life in the Way.

Struggle sometimes to be friend to neighbor;

love brings me strength and a wisdom,

offering a perfection. You are love, known.

I lift up my heart to You.

I open my heart to you. I wait.

Silence. You are love, unknown.

Now I must hush. I must hush.

The ongoing Conversation
By Peter Menkin

God's presence,
communicates silence, making
things seen and unseen:
prayerful notices. These conversations
continue reverently.

How soothing to listen: the Yes.

Be awake in spirit and mind
during the engagement with God.
The fiery envelopment
elicited within, enjoined
to others in a rising embrace
by unknowable vastness.

A moment to be aware
of God's presence.

Thank you for taking the time to read these new poems. The second is a revise of an older poem from 2000. The first is brand new, hot off the press.

God's presence is known to man, in quiet ways...a poem...

This is another of my poems written a few years ago, revised. It talks of that quiet voice of God. A voice we know.



Love mysterious ours...
by Peter Menkin

I read
the books of the Prophets,
Isaiah the most recent: searching
with him the presence
and love God
in faithfulness offers generation
by generation.
The reason to know,

He seeks and searches
the heart
of men and women, whom
His everlasting
love comes to in self giving;
a grace
unearned changing me and all of us
in a cosmos of ways of calming
comfort
love mysterious ours.

Is it a spirit that "quenches" or is it "quenching." Quenching is probably right...

The ending of this poem says, "Quenches." The grace of God quenches the spirit, bringing peace is the thought I wish to communicate. Yet I think the right word is "Quenching", according to those who have read the poem. The grace of God is quenching my spirit for its thirst and its jangle of thoughts and busyness. Here is the poem, some words about contemplation, and even at times, meditation.

Waiting on the Spirit
by Peter Menkin -- Jun 3, 2002

Inner life aware of soothing Spirit.
Waiting.
Grace that underlines
living.
Ask for waters
that spring from abundance.
Quenches.