Today I wanted to share a poem titled “Sacrament” by Erin Coughlin Hollowell. It is a mystical poem inspired by nature.
How often have you felt the divine presence as you enter a forest and “will be witness to this endless sacrament.”?
Meaning of Sacrament: Possessing a sacred or mysterious significance.
I found this poem in the book “Earth Blessings” by June Cotner. The book is a collection of prayers, poems, and meditations honoring the Earth and humanity’s place in the world. I highly recommend June Cotner’s books to be used as a part of one’s daily inspiration and spiritual practices.
Here is the poem, “Sacrament”.
Take me to where cedars breathe fern
Into sun- spackled afternoon.
The portable church of my bones
will fill with prayer to what lives there.
to black bears leaving claw-scribed stumps,
to lush mud exhalation of worms
to liquid throated thrush turning over moss,
to spun-wonder of spiderwebs
that catch light and make it dance.
The small bell of my heart
will be witness to this endless sacrament;
bright salmon returning from the sea
to feed the stream that spawned them.
feed the bears, those grunting dark druids,
feed the trees with whose roots bed beside water,
feed the people whose hands can not be emptied,
feed everything they touch
with the silver and rose of their beautiful flesh.
To enter here, you must put down your wristwatch
and the chatter of your cell phone and pager.
You must be willing to be small
and to be silent, like grass.
To have only your connection to the world
be your skin stroked by the wind,
your eyes washed with a hundred greens,
your ears filled with bird and water song,
the scent of cedar returning to earth all around.
~ Erin Coughlin Hollowell
From her website: Erin Coughlin Hollowell is a poet, writer, teacher, editor, and nonprofit consultant living in Alaska at the end of the road. Her first book Pause, Traveler was published in 2013 by Boreal Books an imprint of Red Hen Press. Her second collection Every Atom was released in April 2018 from the same publisher.
