A note from Meisaan: A brief interlude

Dear Friends,

I’m taking two weeks of an interlude from the regular poetry and sharing a bit of my wrestling with the religion of my birth, Christianity. These poems have been written over a series of years and are not necessarily where I am on my faith walk presently. Nor am I a theologian; if you have theological concerns about these poems, you are probably right. Instead of looking at the rightness or wrongness of the poems, I offer them to you as part of one’s spiritual search, as in a way we are all searching. Perhaps they might speak to you or someone you know; feel free to pass them on. And if you don’t like this changeup, stop back in about two weeks and we’ll pick up with the poetry you came here for.

To the journey, in all its twists and turns –

Meisaan

 

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The road of holy self-awareness

The road of holy self-awareness
can only lead to compassion

© Meisaan Chan

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Do not use me, Lord

Do not use me, Lord
– for how I have already been used! –
Instead, remember me
just remember me
and all shall come to pass

© Meisaan Chan

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You can try to hide your beauty

You can try to hide your beauty
but everything gives you away

© Meisaan Chan

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(Photo credit: National Geographic)

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The danger of expectations

Sometimes you come in smallness
and if I only look for you in the big
I will miss you, O God of the small

© Meisaan Chan

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The curious nature of courage

Courage can never be given;
it must be claimed

© Meisaan Chan

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Underestimations

Most people underestimate God
because infinity is insufficiently explored

© Meisaan Chan

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St. Paul’s Cathedral, London

Dark cavern, enormous womb
candles flickering before gold-flecked statues;
the casting of light and shadow
stirs the soul. Somewhere, a deep weeping
as the choir rings out, then silence
carries the silk-strung notes to the ceiling,
notes that caress the mosaic tiles, then penetrate it more, above:
Weep, O soul, not for sorrow but for beauty,
weep out your slow, steady despondency, toxic and heavy,
weep while the gold-candles flick, shadow and light
weep until you are also a cavern,
a glistening womb

© Meisaan Chan

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Not even I

It’s okay if you can’t make everyone happy, God says;
not even I can do that

© Meisaan Chan

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The messiness of healing

The faint of heart will never heal
for healing involves pus and discoloration and oozing:
pray for the courage to tend the wound

© Meisaan Chan

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