Lent Poetry 1

Today is Ash Wednesday and the first day of Lent. During seminary, I started doing Lenten workings, working with the concept of sacrifice, which is the whole premise of Easter in my personal theology. It is usually something that I end up doing every day until Easter that takes the sacrifice of my time, emotions, or spirit. Some years, I did, indeed give something up. Most of the time, though, I give up my time and art.

The last few years I have made poetry for the Spirits, as it is time out of my day where I must reflect on what I am doing and why. This year I am also writing poetry, but this year I was given the instructions from my Deities to make the poems public. So, today is the first poem. Not all will have titles, and the picture of the handwritten poem might be different from the transcript as I may edit the poem as I type it. Comments on the poems are welcome, but I will not give explainations. While a poem means something to me when I write it, I firmly believe that once I publish it, it is up to each person to determine what it means for them.

I'm not sure how the next 40 days will pan out with this, and really, I have no expectations except that I will just have a collection of poems from this year's Lenten journey.

I start incognito,
shrinking myself as much as I can
to appease others.
Dressing to meet
the needs of society-
But then
I see something else in me
Something that has been
there
all along.
Doubt defines the edges-
but the soul knows.