CONVIVIUM

This will bring out the poet in you. Only poets can do “one-liners” that somehow do not seem so reductionist as to be ludicrous. Lawrence Ferlinghetti,* remember him (?), once did an essay entitled “What is Poetry.” It was simply a series of one-liners beginning “Poetry is...”

Most of them sounded like definitions of Faith to me. With apologies to Ferlinghetti I have substituted “Faith is...” for “Poetry is...” Which one do you like the best. What is your one-liner about what faith is?

I know, I know, piety makes you want to say that you can’t beat “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1) But see what poetry old Ferlinghetti brings out in you. First, which of the following do you like best? Now be adventurous and try your hand at it. Please send me those comments. I will add some of Ferlinghetti’s from time to time for awhile to continually “prime the poetic pump.”  Scroll all the way to the bottom, to "Comments," to share your favorite and add your thought to "Faith is..." or click on "Guest Comments" under Navigation.  Thanks

[Faith is] the Unknown Guest in the house.

[Faith is] the Great Memory, every word a live metaphor.

[Faith is] the eye of the heart, the heart of the mind.

[Faith is] an e-mail from the unknown beyond cyberspace.

[Faith is] the ultimate inner refuge.

[Faith is] the anchor in your life, only as good as the depths it can reach.

[Faith is] like a moth pressing against the window, trying to reach the flame.

[Faith is] the cry of the heart that awakens angels and kills devils.

[Faith is] news from the growing edge on the far frontiers of consciousness.

[Faith is] the light at the end of the tunnel and the darkness within.

[Faith is] what holds death at bay.

[Faith is] what fulfills longings and puts life back together again.

Additions from Ferlinghetti, 4/21/09

[Faith is] the shortest distance between two humans.

[Faith is] an exaggeration understated.

[Faith is] the primary conductor of emotion.

[Faith is] a lightening rod transmitting epiphanies.

[Faith is] a dragonfly catching fire.

[Faith is] what the early spring is saying about the deaths of winter.

[Faith is] a black kid dancing around a banana tree at night in a patio on Toulouse Street.

[Faith is] eternal graffiti in the heart of everyone.

[Faith is] what arises to ecstasy somewhere between speech and song.

[Faith is] a quiver on the skin of eternity.

[Faith is] a lifesaver when your boat capsizes.

[Faith is] what exists between the lines.

final installment from ferlinghetti, june 30, 2009

[Faith is] made with the syllables of dreams.

[Faith is] a lighthouse movings its megaphone over the sea.

[Faith is] an Arab carrying colored rugs and birdcages through the streets of Baghdad.

[Faith is] a pulsing fragment of the inner life, an untethered music.

[Faith is] a rope to tie around you in a sounding sea without shores.

[Faith is] a book of light at night, dispersing clouds of unknowing.

[Faith is] a dinghy setting out to sea from the listing ship of society.

[Faith is] a piercing look into the very heart of things.

[Faith is] more beautiful if it is veiled in mystery.

[Faith is] a radical presence constantly goading us.

[Faith is] what can still save the world by transforming consciousness.

[Faith is] a window through which everything that passes can be seen anew.

[Faith is] at its highest saying we might die without it.

[Faith is] what can salvage deeply tragic lives.

[Faith is] the last lighthouse in rising seas.

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*Just a word about Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Did you know he earned a doctoral degree in poetry at the Sorbonne in Paris? He was at the center of the “Beat Generation” of the 50s and 60s in San Francisco, where he owns a bookstore, City Lights. His own wartime experiences made a pacifist of him, after having been sent to Nagasaki, Japan six weeks after the atomic bomb destroyed the city. You preachers among us should google his,“Christ Came Down,” and you will have enough inspiration for all of Advent and Christmas the next time around. He puts a lot of faith in poetry.

[originally posted, Epiphany, 2009]

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the hungry i

there is a part of me 

the location of which i do not know

the shape of which i have no idea

a part of me that is somewhere deep within

that is the seat of all that i am

that part of me gets hungry

when all other parts of me seem

comfortable

secure

and fulfilled

that part of me can be

yearning

uneasy

and empty

in a difficult situation when the events of my life

or those close to me become crucial

and I have to make a statement

about what I am going to be

the first word of that statement

"I"

comes from that part of me that is way down deep inside

is there a person who exists who could not talk in this way

i doubt it

this is the way God has made us

all of us have a hungry i

and like all of our appetites this one can become the all

demanding

consuming

appetite of life

it can become a hungry i that devours its neighbor

yet

to be real

to be human

everyone must have an "I"

or end up a zero

this is the way we are made

just as God does not hold our physical hunger against us

nor does God hold this hunger against us

what God does hold against us is

when we pretend that this is not the truth about ourselves

when we pretend that there are not significant times when

we do not care about anyone or anything else just so

the hungry i

gets filled

it is the pretense

not the truth about ourselves

that convicts us

only when we are able to say

yes lord that is me

i cannot throw the first stone here either

only then will we be capable of receiving

the food that overcomes all hunger

the food that is the bread of life

+john winn

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