May 15, 2005

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  a poem by

  
  

  Adrian van Kaam

  
  

   

  
  

  

  
  

   

  
  

  The woman at the Well

  
  

   

  
  

  Make my heart less earthbound.

  
  

  My mind less drowned in small designs

  
  

  Let me run no longer after the seductive pipers

  
  

  Of this small and narrow land

  
  

  Of lust and arrogance.

  
  

  Shake me loose from my rusty moorings

  
  

  In worldly routines.

  
  

  Shame me by the shallowness

  
  

  Of a lost and empty life.

  
  

  A sad succession of pursuits

  
  

  Of earthly happiness.

  
  

   

  
  

  Anxiously I hunted for fulfillment,

  
  

  Evading me like a lark in flight.

  
  

  When I thought I captured it.

  
  

  The song had choked already

  
  

  In its little throat.

  
  

  Soon the grateful singer died.

  
  

  I clutched only a bunch of feathers

  
  

  In my grasping hand.

  
  

   

  
  

  Grant the grace of sweet upheaval

  
  

  To this dense and dreary life.

  
  

  Let me meet you at the well of daily happenings

  
  

  As once the woman did.

  
  

  Create a new heart in me

  
  

  That I may not return blindly

  
  

  To all that use to be.

  
  

   

  
  

  

  
  

   

  
  

   

  
  

   

  
  

  images by way of bodhitree:

  
  

  This poem was found by my daughter Alicia.

  
  

  Tucked away, yet booked marked in a very old book given to me by my aunt Rosemary.

  
  

   

  • 10:11 pm
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