The Divine Burden

The Divine Burden

In order to weep for the world,

You have to carry it on your back.

But only briefly,

Moments at a time,

Lest the weight crush your knees

While you are yet praying.

Hold upon your sloping shoulders

The striving rivers with mourning falls,

The veins of motherly earth,

Stretching eager fingers

Toward the vastness of binding oceans,

Shrinking not from the promise of storm.

Feel the trembling depths with your palms,

The molten anxieties surface to fears,

Changing forever the living landscape,

Scorching and covering all that breathes,

Seething with a coming darkness,

Fuming with a millennium of silent rage.

Put it back in God’s hands where all belongs.

You have seen and felt the divine burden.

You have felt and savored the divine heart.

You have savored and memorized Spirit hope.

A hope remembered, forgotten, reminded.

All is now held with compassionate gaze.