Great Barrier
Mark Bohrer's Green Journal
Overwhelmed by how you feel about the climate crisis? Well, to paraphrase the Talmud: "It is not on you to complete the task of repairing the world, neither are you free to desist from it."
Mark Bohrer is the current Poet Laureate of North Andover, Mass.
Check out our local North Andover poetry connection on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/northandoverpoets/
Monday, May 1, 2023
Great Barrier By Barbara Kingsolver
Thursday, August 11, 2022
The Beloved Circle (poem)
The Beloved Circle
(A Poem In 2 Parts)
For Jenn
Part 1: Food For The
People
Breathe in – Breathe out
–
A warm wind blows –
A warm wind breathes through
us all –
A warm wind carries us out
into the world –
The wind of the world
carries far over deep waters –
The wind of the world gathers
the waters from deep, bottomless seas –
It calls forth faith.
The breath of earth’s
creation flows over the earth –
The breath of earths’
creation carries hidden seeds as it spreads over the lands –
The breath of earth’s creation carries the sweetness of the flower within –
so ready to bloom in its
path –
It summons hope.
The breath of the lands
and the wind of the waters seek one another as they travel and do their work –
The breath of the lands and
the wind of the waters greet and join hands – they dance –
They show how to love.
The breath and the wind move
together over the lands –
The breath and the wind spread
a dew that covers the lands –
They show their joy.
The breath and the wind bring forth the grasses and trees and flowers,
alive, springing forth in fullness
–
The breath and the wind greet and join making the shape of all peoples –
the people step onto the land
–
The breath and the wind finish
their work and rise into the calm of the sky –
The dew lifts and
transforms its fullness into manna –
Manna for the people.
From the people, someone
– just one of many – is there walking on the grass –
From the people, someone
– just one of many – sees the manna, bends and gathers it for the people –
Someone – just one of
many – is named Jenn.
She turns to the people with
what she has found and speaks, clear for all to hear –
“Hey! Manna! Cool. I
think it’s pretty deep. Pretty sure on that. Hey beloved, want some?”
The people are
nourished.
The people laugh and are glad.
Saturday, February 12, 2022
After Dickinson (poem)
The Word from the Corner
Shared on North Andover Poets Corner on FB
We are watching the show Dickinson. Very recommended! Watching this show as a poet or as anyone who loves the power of words, you will be transported. It's really well done - a lot to like about it - as it bends history in artful ways to open up Emily Dickinson, her life, her times and her words. I won't say more about it, other than it inspired this poem today. Here it is.
_____________________________________Poetry is best
done in private
out of the light
done in a dark room
then destroyed
but remembered
like the echo of light
when an eclipse burns
permanent on the eye
After I wrote this, I found this one by Emily Dickinson:
Sunday, February 6, 2022
My Broadway Song: Shouldn't it? A Manifesto in Song
My Broadway Song
Shared on Rockport Poetry on Facebook
How did I find myself up at midnight...with the thought: "What is poetry? What should it do?" Well, if you ask this question, the first thing you know is "Yes, you're a poet!"
But here's how I found myself facing this question at midnight, and how I answered it:
You never know where inspiration is going to come from, or where it's going to take you. Bob Whelan invited me to feature at this week's Rockport Poetry event, this coming Wednesday. I wanted to write something new for that evening. Well, I did, but not based on the original idea I had in mind.
Saturday, February 5, 2022
The real thing we call God (poem)
The Word from the Corner
Shared on North Andover Poets Corner on Facebook
Sunday, January 2, 2022
Unequal Or Equal (poem)
Sunday, November 21, 2021
The Power of Poetry - Holy Inspiration - South Church Faith Forum
The Power of Poetry: Holy Inspiration
Today I was invited to speak at South Church Andover’s Faith Forum.
Faith Forum is a discussion group
held before church most Sundays. The discussion topics may focus on readings and stories from the Bible, or books on spiritual and religious themes. Other times people
bring topics of social or climate justice to discuss. South Church Andover is
an open and affirming, progressive and non-dogmatic Christian church. My wife Debbie and I are members of South Church, and have been for a long time.
This week I was asked to talk about the power of poetry, and how it speaks to the spirit.
I opened with my poem "Church Hour". This poem was written on a church bulletin while sitting in South Church before the Sunday service started, listening to the choir and organist rehearse, the indistinct background talk of friends greeting one another, the swirl of people gathering in faith. If you ever see me scribbling notes while sitting in church, it's usually because something has inspired me! I shared this poem with Pastor Dana, and then had the privilege and joy of reading it a few months later in front of the church as part of service!
Where does
great poetry come from?
And why does
great poetry often have a spiritual dimension?
Here is
something I’ve heard from a number of poets – and I hear this from people who I
think are among the best –
In answer to
the question, where does a great poem come from?
The poet’s
answer: “I have no idea where it comes from. I just write it down.”
That’s the
way it often feels for me. It feels like some of my poems come from out in the
world somewhere, or from another world, another voice speaking through me as the
poet. Sometimes I have this feeling of “being written onto”. A few times for me it has even been an almost overwhelming physical sensation. It is a loss of
self – a loss of self and a connection to the transcendent. It is sometimes a
feeling of connection to God, which for me is the spirit in the world.
I’m not saying it always feels like this when writing poetry. Sometimes writing poetry is like building a piece of fine furniture – it takes some inspiration, careful craft, the right tools, time to work, and voila, hopefully a beautiful and useful thing. But there are those rare times that, as a poet, I can say I’ve had the feeling of being spoken to, pressed upon by mysterious energy and forces. And all I can do is write it down. (From there, it takes some some work to finish it, as even the most inspired poem is usually not born fully realized!)
This is the kind
of poetry where the poet's job is to listen – to be attuned – to be like an
antenna picking up a distant signal that suddenly comes through loud and clear.
Sometimes so loud and clear that it hurts and must be written down, captured,
to make sense of what just happened.
I think this
feeling, this occurrence, is the foundation for poetry of the spirit. I thought
I would share some of my poems that touch on God and spirituality. Here are two.
Waiting In The Colonial Churchyard (poem) link
I also invited my friend and poet Bob Whelan to speak and read a few of his poems, which he did, wonderfully.
Drawing from other poets, I read the
poem God's
Grandeur (link) by Gerard Manley Hopkins, and talked a little about his life as a poet.
My closing words were this poem:
Prayer Of The Rivers And The Land (poem)
Prayer Of The Rivers And The Land
Twin rivers of love and justice
flow from the source mountain.
They nourish the parched land.
They bring life to where it had given up hope.
Waters of life they are,
surely as the water we drink.
Twin rivers of love and justice
travel over common ground.
They give shape to the ground between us.
They make the land.
This land is a good place to stand together,
in fair difference and shared purpose.
Twin rivers of love and justice
travel arm in arm, courses entwined.
They entwine in the valley below the source mountain,
as they carry us to the pacific sea.
Twin rivers of love and justice –
May you bring life to our dry hearts.
May we be ready to receive your waters,
and not turn away from your courses.
May we be ready to drink deep from your waters of life.
Twin rivers of love and justice
bring us strength and resolve,
carry us in your ease.
Amen.
January 2016 North Andover, Mass.
Copyright by Mark Bohrer
Surprised (poem)
Surprised
by what takes place.
Aren’t you?
The next turn of events,
God knows not.
He wants to find out.
Don’t you?
Otherwise, She might say,
what would be the point?
If there was no choice about it,
God would not want that world –
if it were all pre-ordained, pre-cast.
So instead –
God is surprised.
It’s so much more fun
to know not
how the dice will finish their roll.
Will good come out on top?
Or will it need another try?
God wants to find out.
Don’t you?
That’s the reason
All was started.
God wanted to find out
what this world might be –
if given the chance.
What we might be –
if given the choice.
Isn’t it surprising that God –
All Knowing, All Powerful,
All Omniscient, All Omnipotent –
Yah, yah, we’ve heard all of that, all of that –
so isn’t it surprising
that what happens next,
God knows not.
Think about it –
when we say that God
has infinite knowledge and power –
it’s like saying that the ocean
is infinitely wet
just because it holds all the water.
Surprise.
God is still surprised.
Even with all of this all-ness,
God needs to let it play out –
wants to see what happens.
And hopes someday
to be pleasantly surprised
when good comes out on top.
September 2014 North Andover, Mass.
Copyright by Mark Bohrer
Waiting In The Colonial Churchyard (poem)
Waiting In The Colonial Churchyard
For something to save me
Waiting in the churchyard
Stillness comes to me
Here is the quiet steady God of Franklin and Jefferson
Persistent as the field grass
Good unbidden, though not undeserved
Mine to have, yours as well
God in the world
To be gathered like wild wheat
Nature’s honey or free grown grapes
Like the colonist’s self-reliance
I am better saved if I save myself
But isn’t that gift of salvation
Still freely provided, wildly sown for me?
To be saved from myself, by myself
God still rightly gets the kudos
God in the world
God of the world
God for the world
God in us
God of us
God for us
Stillness in the churchyard is what I see
Quiet goodness is what I feel
I am glad
June 2014 North Andover, Mass.