The 60-Second Sabbath

Peace

  • The Door of Stillness

    I slam my fist.I slam my fist,I slam my fistagainst the door of stillness. Why deny me entrance? It finally occurs to meto sit in stillness,until stillness welcomes me. Text and image © 2012 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. Continue reading

  • Journey’s End

    When I finally made it to the kingdom,weary from travel,hungry and eager to bathe,they treated me like royalty. And the next to arrive,also worn, starving and smelly–she, too, was welcomedwith a crown, a scepter and a robe. When bedtime arrived,out… Continue reading

  • The Middle of Imagination

    In the middle of imaginationlies a field where clover growswhere I am free to wander,to lie down and inhalethe green, growing goodnessand know life unbound;my spirit swellswith the utter, unfettered joyof non-commitment. I observethe unconscious desire to breathe–in and out–in and… Continue reading

  • The Museum

    We visit a museum–an enormous, crammed collectionof paintings, furniture and glassware. There are employees here,but they display the same restfulnessas the items exhibited in the glass cases,as the furniture, unused, guarded by satin ropes. It's as if the entire place–contents… Continue reading

  • The Doors of the World

    The doors of the world–the ones between cultures,between peoples,between neighbors…who can open these?  Not the arrogant.Not those who enter uninvited.Not those with hands wet and slick with blood. To open the doors of the world,one first knocks,then listens,then serves,binds wounds,cradles… Continue reading

  • My Workplace

    In my workplacewe toil wielding tools of peace,    stories of reconciliation,    psalms of confidence and comfort,    women and men of courage and commitment. Why, then,when this has been my life's dream,do I feel so utterly mismatchedto the… Continue reading

  • Prayer at Bedtime

    Grant me a dreamless night,without image and emotion,a night of simple, vacant rest,a night of blessed blankness. Quiet my questioning, processing, remembering, striving mind. Tonight, let me sleep empty,like a desert calm beneath the waning moon.  Text and image ©… Continue reading

  • A Cat Warms My Feet

    Under the coversa cat stretches over my feet,warming them on a cold February nightwhile snow flies beyond the patio door beside the bed.  A cat warms my feet.A cat warms my feet. I want nothing more. Text and image © 2012… Continue reading

  • My Hope

    My hope? That death bringsa return to the Womb: quiet,darkness,warmth. Text and image © 2012 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. Continue reading

  • Gray

    A scene washed with January gray:gray squirrel lurchingfrom gray stone to gray stone;gray sparrow spading through gray mulch. Yes, there are spots of muted color–pale green winter-grass,the dulled red and yellowof the lodge-like building across the courtyard,but this is spare… Continue reading