Medicinalmeadows

THE PLACE WITHIN

Category Archives: POETRY


by Leave a comment

Prayer Intentions

In my connections I am hearing a need for prayer. I am aware of the pull for spring, of dreaming and yearning for life from behind the walls of winter. This yearning I feel is an invitation to reflect on the root of our desires for seeding our intentions.

What is it we are all praying for? In recent weeks I have received messages asking for me to pray. This is a beautiful request and with it some perplexity, as I am a novice, not a fully formed anchoress in the orchestration of a prayer intention. Maybe it is the repeated practice of #sundaynightcandlelight on my social media @medicinalmeadows and Instagram @janice_bridginglight that sees me in the light of Abbess of this hashtag. This practice of contemplative prayer first began in the days of great need for prayer in 2020 and now continues into 2024.

My inquiry is, what is needed to formulate a prayer intention? The requests I have received in recent weeks are for prayers for loved ones, prayers for healing, prayers for times ahead. It seems our desire is to chiseling out a verse of prose, to write the prayer with poetic roots that soothe the deepest need to be aired into life. Seeds to root, to spring forth, require wording, the spelling is intentional.

So how do I create a prayer that has roots and strength of meaning for me? I have a need to be on point, truthful and reflective. This piece of artistic composition has a need to convey momentum that sends my request into the unseen, cosmology, in the fullness of Light.

The formulation came to me today as a sudden inspired idea that the scribing of the prayer lies with this, it comes from a need. The need for ease, for comfort, the need is the key. The same need for comfort, for ease, peace of mind also applies for a desire for a new car! You see this morning on this misty start, the light came through and it occurred to me that the intention for the prayer Is the need. The pure intention lies atthe root of the prayer, this is where the composition can begin. As we identify the need, the intention take on a matrix from our singular need to the collective needs, to make “our life, our will as one” (Lord’s Prayer, Rev Dale Allen Hofffman). As we pray for our earthly need whatever that need is, material or ethereal, the transcendence of the prayer translates from the core need for oneself into a collective need. We are starting wheels of prayer for All. Ease gives us Peace. Peace within us creates a ripple of Peace around us.

So my reflection for today on prayer and intention is rooted in the realisation that when we pray for our own intention we are also rippling that desired outcome to the All, to everyone. No matter what the prayer, it is rooted in a Need.

The words and the creation of this poetic intention are first seeded with a need. “I have a need for” are the words of the Ongo Practice and the Needs Wheel (Ongo book by Cadden and Wien) that can assist in finding the heart’s desire. The root of the prayer creates a blessing, first for me and for you and then the prayer carries the intention to the All of creation.

Take a took at the Needs Wheel and feel into the words that come to you as a blessing for your life, “I have a Need for….”

Here is my prayer for myself today,

“Dear God of the Universe, I pray for rest after times of challenge and grief. I have a need for ease, for nurturance and love right now. Please create a container of ease for me today, Amen.”

I pray that your needs become seeds

planted in fertile soil

that welcomes the rain, as well as the sun

that your seeds of desire

grow strong, rooted, full blossoming

created for One and for All

I


by Leave a comment

Earth at my feet, Sky in my mind….

I am She of sound

On this dust and bone of Earth

As the sound plays from nature

The world goes quiet and song plays on

As the world goes quiet

And the song plays on

When you listen …..

When you go beyond the tongue

When you look inward and

See the sound…. does play on

When you look deep into Heart

You hear it…….

Feel the dust and bone at your feet Dear One

Feel under your soles

The Sky above

Let the Earth respond

At your Heart, at your mind

Let the Mind go beyond

Let the Mind go quiet

 And you’ll feel where you belong

With the Earth at your feet

And the Sky at your mind

Let the Earth engulf you

So you know you belong

Within Her now

Let the song play on

Singing the song to you

And see you belong

With the Earth at your feet

The Sky in your mind

And the song in your Heart

Let Yourself be held,

You are right where you belong


by Leave a comment

Lines of Grandmothers

There is a sweet feeling, 
Pegging out the washing
Watching my hands age 
along the line.
This inner knowing
Of the right way to
hang the clothes.
Maybe my Grandmothers 
are talking through me 
as I peg the next to the next.
This pleasing practice, 
Embedded in my bones,
Of the women, the wind, the dazzling sun.
Did they have moments like this?
Early morning dew in Spring?
I imagine my lineage of women,peg to peg, listening to birdsong, looking at their own hands year after year.
My line of coastal dwellers, 
Salty air,
Swinging clothes in sunlight,
Clothes of colours to old worn comforts. 
Seagulls hovering for a bit of bread,
The dry lines and cold fingers,
Their hands,
My hands,
Now look the same.


by Leave a comment

Heart Resonance

Hear within my heart the whispers of becoming

Sweet Beloved guide the path upon that which you know for me is true

May the rains fall in the dark hours to fill up the rivers

So I can then follow you at the banks of the living waters

When the Light returns once more

Allow me to witness

The seasons of the leaf

That seems to die only to begin upon the richness of the path

That lays beneath my naked feet

Every tread upon your ground then leads me on

With ancient whispering asking me to flow along

Let me see Light as the dawn of opportunities

Like the flowers that open their heart’s fully in your coming strength

Let me feel the inner blossoming of your warmth upon my chest

And when the day is done

May I feel tenderness with the remembrance

Of your embrace

As the river runs, I will be

Gently embedded into my heart once more

As rest comes within your flowing breath


by Leave a comment

Burning Times

When you burned, I burned with you

When you buried, I burned for you

In passion in flame in Holy name

I am Forest Father

The nature’s Pater

I burned for you

From ground to up above

Our essence of vapour and resin through the sky

To all sea, bird, creature and pebble nearby

As you changed to spirit on air

With wind and rain

I held our our branches to hold you again

On the arm of Grandfather Oak

Passed down to Mother Doe

To pine to ground

Gathered your spirit around

By branch and heather

In ash and soil in Gods own power to mycelium medicine

Within those resting hours

We hold you in woodland, nature’s roots

We carried you there to earth’s repair

We carried you over through the mighty air

Now sheltered with a canopy

Embedded to sacred ground

To oak, ash, yew and birch

Of Kin and Kith

Dwelling in arms of bark, heart of trunk

Of deer foot and bird above

Held by ivy

Entwined

With earth beneath you

Water to greet you

Wind to change you

Light to recreate you

Ancestors of root of seed and bud

Growing earthly

Living on

Forest of my blood, evergreen

Forest of Fatherhood


by Leave a comment

She of a thousand stars

I am She of a thousand stars above

and smooth wind upon the brow

I am She who adores you with kisses upon that brow

I am She who rushes like the waves to meet your feet

upon the shores of your dearest tidings

I am within the night of the dream weaver

and in the days of sadness upon your tear soaked cheeks

I am in your thoughts as you tend to your loving cares

I am in your remembrance of friendships that feel joy to you

I am that bridge of the Heart from you to another

I am within and outside of your Heart

I am the connection from your eyes, your thoughts, your touch of hand

and hand on Heart

I go with you into the darkest places you may be sent

I walk by your hand brushing upon mine

Just grasp my soft fingers when you are needing steadying

I will carry you wholly across that threshold

into the door of it surrounded by my Love for you

I am She of a thousand stars

I am here for You


by Leave a comment

Dirt, Decay and the Dream

When dirt and decay become a master piece of my hands

when the ending of a cycle is just a resting into the not yet started

like the night is not yet a dawn

and the dream has finished and the waking state is not begun

the in between, the vision and the arising……

when dirt is just dirt and the seeds are not yet sprung

when dirt is the life within my hands

and the dream in one


by Leave a comment

Everyday Pilgrimage

Everyday is a pilgrimage

Every moment is a different space of Belonging

Standing in your world is changing

Over time Love is felt and Love is missing

Within the Heart it remains

To be Held

Beyond this lifetime it is a knowing, a beholding

Pull your feet into the space

Of where you are Now

She speaks Channeled by Janice Turner Salmon


by Leave a comment

Love

I am the Love that never dies
I am She who calls to you from whispers, sound, vibrations of the Heart.
I come in Dark and Light
In Strength and Fear
Do not fade at what comes before you
Do not bluster or storm
You are always in my Love
I am carrying your torch of Light
To guide a way for you to be open
Be present
Be in Teaching
Of the moment
Nothing evades you
Nothing withheld from you
As all love can be received
All thanks to Love
In openness
Of Divine Love
Be open
Be gracious
Of the Love that never dies


by Leave a comment

Open Hearted

I Am SHE of Sound
Like waves upon your shore
I am Here caressing you to awaken
To seek Within
As You Love You Open
As You Open You Love

The Song of Peace
Like gentle waves of Love
To Open your door
To find your own Sound,
Your Song, Your Way

On the Shore of your Emptiness
There in the Oneness
You will find Sanctuary
And it will hold you still

As You surrender
To the waves of your Being
Transcending all that burdens you
Listen
I am always found within
Your Heart