Poems

Every Voice

A Hymn by Audrey Woodhams

Every voice reaching out in searching faith or certain doubt,

Will be heard among us here, will not be silenced or disappear.

Every voice.  Every voice.

Every heart beating loud for truth and love, for justice now,

Will be safe among us here, a space for rest, a shield from fear,

For every heart.  Every heart.

Every mind building up and tearing down to reconstruct,

Will be free among us here, to journey on ‘til all comes clear.

Every mind.  Every mind.

Every heart.  Every voice.  Every voice.

A Blessing for the Brokenhearted

by Jan Richardson

Let us agree
for now
that we will not say
the breaking
makes us stronger
or that it is better
to have this pain
than to have done
without this love.

Let us promise
we will not
tell ourselves
time will heal
the wound,
when every day
our waking
opens it anew.

 Perhaps for now
it can be enough
to simply marvel
at the mystery
of how a heart
so broken
can go on beating,
as if it were made
for precisely this—

as if it knows
the only cure for love
is more of it,

as if it sees
the heart’s sole remedy
for breaking
is to love still,

as if it trusts
that its own
persistent pulse
is the rhythm
of a blessing
we cannot
begin to fathom
but will save us
nonetheless.