When In Overwhelm (WC)

 

(Wendy Cabell, feast day of (above) Our Lady Della Croce (of the Cross), of Saint David of Wales, Saint Domina the Younger of Syria, Blessed Aurelia of Wirberg, Blessed Giovanna Maria Bonomo. Image from here.

When In Overwhelm

Few people realize the immensity 

of vacancy in which the dust of the 

material universe swims–HG Wells

Shifting slowly, this Immensity

to where it should be -- to You, from me,  

the immeasurable list of yet-to-be’s

placed in the Hand of One who sees

all ways, straight through

to door opening. 

Amen.

*From prompt: Freewrite as inspired by the etymology of immensity/beyond measure. From Lisa Freedman’s BreatheReadWrite, March 1, 2022.

Mess-Bless (WC)

 

(Wendy Cabell, February 20, feast day of Our Lady of Bolougne, of (above) Blessed Julia Rodzinska, Saint Mildred of  Thanet, and Saint Amata of Assisi. Image from here.)

Mess-Bless

mess (n.)

…from Late Latin missus 'course at dinner'...

--etymonline

The opposite of holiness: messiness. Least that's what I'd learn, "Don't be so messy!", it would resound (does still). My preschool art supplies they'd wind their way all round our home. With mess being actually, originally: a placing, putting on the table. It's pumpkin soup today, a rose accompanies.

Rose Fairy brandishes her stop sign —

                                                   traffic slows...

turns corner to today's beautiful mess.

*From prompt: After listening to Rainier Maria Rilke's Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to Go, and quote from  Ilia Delio, in Franciscan Prayer (“Spiritual desire is the experience of God’s presence in us or it may be the absence of God as well, since a feeling of absence may stimulate a yearning for God. It is the experience of delightful love and fearful emptiness”), freewrite about a seeming opposite/polarity in yourself. From Jamie Deerings's Spiritual Writing as a Pathway to Presence (Priory of Saint Placid, WA), February 19, 2022.

Key-song (WC)

  

(Wendy Cabell, February 10, feast day of Our Lady of the Doves, of (above) Saint Scholastica, Saint Austrebertha of Pavilly, and Blessed Clare Agolanti of Romini. Image from here.)

Key-song

(adapted quote from The Prologue, Homily of January 26

Saint Nikolai Velimirovic; used here as a chant)

Behold, I besought thee, and thou wouldest not hear; 

I besought my God, and He hath heard me.

–from the life of Saint Scholastica, here

From the glance

      of the Holy One,

        chains

                   fall,

Yes even from 

        the thoughts

           of the Holy One,

              chains  

                

fall…

*From prompt: Create one’s own chant as inspired by a quote or verse that are drawn to. An exercise from Paulette Meier’s Chanting Together as a Spiritual Practice (through The Hive) , a course given the Tuesdays of January 18-Febuary 8. 2022.

Home Maintenance (WC)

 

(Wendy Cabell, February 1, 2022, Feast day of the (above) Weeping Icon of the Mother of God of Socola, Forefeast of the Meeting of Our Lord, Eve of Imbolc, Eve of World Day for Consecrated Life, Chinese New Year, Rosh Chodesh (new moon) of Adar, Saint Brigid’s Day, and feast day of  Saint Brigid of Fiesole, Saint Veridiana, Saint Perpetua,, and Blessed Anna Michelotti. Image from here.)

Home Maintenance

I’d make Heaven a cheerful spot

because the happy heart is true.

–Saint Brigid of Kildare, here

Behind the door, a cat.

Beside the cat, a bowl 

ever full yet ever giving–-

of sustenance, delight.

The cat mayhap the I.

The bowl mayhap the Heart.

*From prompt: Write as inspired by the life and miracles of Saint Brigid. From Kayleen Asbo’s Feasts of Light and Water, February 1, 2022. 

Beyond the Bright (WC)

 

(Wendy Cabell, February 1, 2022, Forefeast of the Meeting of Our Lord, Eve of Imbolc, Eve of World Day for Consecrated Life, Chinese New Year, Rosh Chodesh (new moon) of Adar, Saint Brigid’s Day, and feast day of  Saint Brigid of Fiesole, Saint Veridiana, Saint Perpetua,, and Blessed Anna Michelotti. Image from here.)

Beyond the Bright

(you know it hurts my eyes)

a softer light it is, ushers daily pilgrimage –-

trusty guide. Painting glow upon words unspoken

(you know the ears catch them anyway)

over what the hands love to brush against,

light touch. Over (or is it longing for?)

such empty, empty space, weaving vessel

for the filling on the morrow.

*From prompt: Freewrite as inspired by Mary Jo Bang's February Elegy. From Lisa Freedman's BreatheReadWrite, February 1, 2022.

At the Door (WC)

 

(Wendy Cabell, January 28, 2022, feast day of the Totemsk-Sumorin Icon of the Mother of God, and of (above) Blessed Olympia Bida (communist Eastern Europe), Saint Ephraim the Syrian, Saint Isaac the Syrian, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Saint Cannera of Inis Cathaig, Saint Constantly, Saint Julian of Cuenca, Blessed Maria Luisa Montesinos Orduna,  and Saint Radegonde of Celles. Image from here.)

At the Door

(for my great grandmother Elizabeth Otten, of blessed memory) 

A nudge, last minute instructions:

When you sense a door opening in you, enter

so she does. Props it open with the Rosary in her pocket.

Pocket reached for, Aves, in snatched moments.

Bustling feet in her restaurant, they're no hindrance

nor is the slackened step this night, 1935.

Click of “Closed” sign, bill of sale. Not to be,

back door ladling of soup (like Saint Elizabeth)

but a nudge to continue, be gradually different.

Become restaurant's manager.

Pass down recipes -- dumplings, winter stew.

Your descendants, Rosaries in pockets,

feel for the doorframe now--

their whispered wish

Open

*From combined prompts: Freewrite as inspired by Czeslaw Milosz’s Late Ripenes (whose “I felt a door opening in me and I entered” was quoted/adapted, above), and John Asbery’s Late Echo (whose “to continue and be gradually different”  is quoted, above). From Lisa Freedman's BreatheReadWrite, January 28, 2022.

Of Late (WC)

 

(Wendy Cabell, January 28, 2022, feast day of the Totemsk-Sumorin Icon of the Mother of God, and of (above) Saint Julian of Cuenca, Saint Ephraim the Syrian, Saint Isaac the Syrian, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Saint Cannera of Inis Cathaig, Saint Constantly, Blessed Maria Luisa Montesinos Orduna, Blessed Olympia Bida (communist Eastern Europe),  and Saint Radegonde of Celles. Image from here.)

Of Late

Late (adj.):.. from PIE *led- 'slow, weary,'

from root *‌‌lē- 'to let go, slacken.'

–-etymoline.com

the late self, the buried self the weary slow and slackened self the simply seeking life self the fallen trickle of stream self the sensing this is movement self the sensing death can rise self, the sensing all in its own time self the seed under blanket of snow self, the sap of amber pulse self the lullaby of sojourning self the lullay to you dear late self, lullay, lullay, lullay... 

                           

*From prompt: Freewrite as inspired by the etymology of “late”. From Lisa Freedman's BreatheReadWrite, January 28, 2022.

Biju (WC)

(Wendy Cabell, January 24, 2022, feast day of Our Lady of Damascus (modern miracle here, "Do not be frightened. I am with you. Open the doors..." ), of Our Lady of Tears, of Saint Francis de Sales, Saint Xenia ("stranger") of Rome, Saint Xenia of St. Petersburg, and Blessed Paula Gambara Costa. Tomorrow is the Conversion of Paul the Apostle. Jewish calendar today remembers Rebbetzin Chaya Mushkah Schneerson (1901-1988). Image from here.)

Biju

(for Our Lady of Damascus, on Her feast day)

Be (v.):..from Proto-Germanic *biju- 

"I am, I will be."--etymonline.com

I am spent–-I will be worried. So I am shifting to I am kind.  

I am kind, I will be hopeful. 

I am hopeful, I will be looking. 

I am looking, I will be surprised. 

I am surprised, I will hold gifts.

I hold gifts, I will unwrap.

I unwrap, I will ponder.

I ponder, I will understand a bit.

I understand a bit, I will have a tool.

I have a tool, my hands now they’ve something to hold-- with something to hold I will not be worried.

*Biju also means victory in Bengali, and jewel in French as bijou.

**From prompt: Freewrite as inspired by the etymology of “be”. From Lisa Freedman's BreatheReadWrite, January 24, 2022.

Mother-Speak (WC)

 

(Wendy Cabell, piece revisited January 20, 2025, but originally from same date (January 20), 2022. Feast day of Our Lady of the Miracle (connected with the Miraculous Medal, and the conversion of Alphonse Ratisbonne), Our Lady of the Tables (Montpellier, France), and of Saint Eustochia of Calafato, Saint Clement of Lyon ,Saint Sebastian, Saint Maria Cristina of the Immaculata, and Blessed Ursula Haider. In 2025 this date is also Theophany/last day of Christmas season (Orthodox, old calendar). Image from here.)

Mother-Speak

(for Our Lady of the Miracle's feast day, and in memory of my Mother Jackie on the day of her passing, 2025)

that one forgets the pain arms cradling life all aftermath and ache in slanted hue

each day after busy seeking such pastel -- now that it is you know just where you're you're to

*From prompt: Freewrite as inspired by etymology/concept of birth and related words (I was drawn to Old Welsh beryt "to flow"). From Lisa Freedman's BreatheReadWrite, January 20, 2022. Piece is the same as was originally written back in 2022, except for the original last word being "from", and the revised last word now being "to".  

Fairy Tree (WC)

 

(Wendy Cabell, January 10, 2021, fourth day of Afterfeast of the Theophany, feastday of the (above) Madonna of the Lament, and of Saint Thekla of Lentini. The Jewish calendar remebers the End of the Elders Era (1228 BC). Image from here.)

Fairy Tree

(at the crossroad of compassion and efficiency, 

 January 9, 2022)

              as bee cultivates honey

                                   and ladybug eliminates aphids--

                               rose flourishes

*From prompt: Challenge to freewrite daily/as much as possible this month, from Lisa Freedman's BreatheReadWrite.

Epiphany Morn, 2021 (WC)

 

(Wendy Cabell, January 6, 2021, Epiphany/Theophany, and feast day of Our Lady of Cana, Saint Wiltrudis (see), Saint Andre Bessett, Saint Edyrn, Saint Julian and Basillisa, and Blessed Gertrude van Oosten. Image from here.)

Epiphany Morn, 2021

Epiphany morn

loosening sky, felicitous mist –-

laugh-drops!

*From prompt: Challenge to freewrite daily/as much as possible this month, from Lisa Freedman's BreatheReadWrite.

Epiphany Eve, 2021 (WC)

 

(Wendy Cabell, Epiphany/Theophany Eve (see also), feast day of Saint Euprexia and Theogina of Mineo (connected with above Saint Agrippina of Mineo), Saint Emiliana of Rome, Saint Apollonaria of Egypt,  Blessed Marcelina of Doroskwa, Blessed Paula of Tuscany, Prophet Micah, Saint John Neumann, and Saint Genoveva Torres.  Morales. Image from here.)

Epiphany Eve, 2021

forest Christmas lights

soon unplugged. Sky dome, moon, stars–-

perpetual fete

*From prompt: Challenge to freewrite daily/as much as possible this month, from Lisa Freedman's BreatheReadWrite.