Many poems are now here and many more may be on their way. This website is in the process of becoming a "cathedral" of poetry, I like to think. The poems reflect what I have perceived to be of the divine and eternal.
I have worked on most of the poems that are here over many years. I have also included others of very recent vintage. They are all subject to change. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy them as they are.
My email address is jpdem@sover.net. You are welcome to write me regarding the poems.
What's new?
As of November 6, 2009, I've included a new sonnet titled "Logic & Poetry." It's in the Recent Poems section. It comes from my recent attention to argumentation theory.
As of December 9, 2009, I've included excerpts from a play I wrote when I was in my late twenties about Shakespeare dying, a play in which the playwright makes peace with his characters before passing into final peace. The section devoted to the excerpts takes its title from the title of the play, The Heart of Master Shakespeare.
December 16, 2009, I've included a new sonnet in the Recent Poems section entitled, "A Tree of Life Poem." It developed out of my recent close reading of the Book of Genesis.
January 11, 2010: I've included two new sonnets, also in the Recent Poems section, entitled, "With a Word"
and "In Our Lonely Ways." The first one arose when I was thinking about a poet I know who had a book of poetry published. I'm not sure about the second one -- other than it may also have arisen out of my continued close reading of the Book of Genesis.
January 26, 2010: I've included a poem on Abraham. It's in the Recent Poems section, entitled, "Of Abraham." I wrote this poem as I was struck by the passage in Genesis that describes Abraham looking at the cities of the plain after they were destroyed -- with smoke "rising like fumes from a furnace." I wrote the poem in my wonder as to what he could have been thinking or feeling.
February 25, 2010: I changed the first line of "The Sound of Water" in the Water Poems section. I am very, very pleased with this change since I always felt uncomfortable with the opening line.
February 26, 2010: I've included a poem I wrote during my visit last week to the Sacred Valley of Peru. I was visiting my daughter who is working in Peru. I marveled at the ruins of the Inca culture, destroyed by the Spanish who did not discern the reflection of the Holy Trinity in the Inca's religious symbols. Nor did the Spanish appreciate the harmony the Incas had with nature or the reverence they had for it. I sensed while I was there that an eternal Incan culture exists but one that is only accessible through death and in eternity. After all, what is ever brought to perfection in this earthly plane of existence? In this frame of mind I wrote the poem "The Sacred Valley," which I've included in the Recent Poems section. This poem's influences also include courses I've been listening to on quantum physics and sub-atomic particles. One of these courses discussed how man's awareness of the existence of both time and matter depends on light (light is the conversion factor between the two).
April 30, 2010:
The Gospel reading for Mass on the second Sunday in April was about the first appearance of Jesus to the disciples. As reported in the Gospel of John, Jesus came into a locked room where the disciples were hiding out for fear of the Jewish authorities and said to them, “‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven, and whose sins you retain are retained.” John 20:22-23.
The Catholic Church considers this passage as the basis for the authority of priests to
forgive sins via the sacrament of penance and confession. Well and good. This week listening to the Gospel, however, I realized that Jesus was
telling all humanity a truth that exists
for everyone at all times. For when we don’t forgive others then we
retain others “sins” in the expectation of some sort of future judgment or karma,
which expectation is a false hope — because who can truly judge the actions of others or
determine the appropriate karmic future event without having an omniscient
point of view, in other words, without being God? By forgiving others, one truly is able to be free to follow Christ — in
each day, every day — in
all one's relations. By following He who is the Lord of forgiveness,
(evident by his crucifixion when he asked his Father to forgive those
crucifying him “for they know not what they do”) we begin to experience His
love and compassion in our own selves and for others. It is
crystal clear for me that Jesus would, after so recently suffering an unjust death for which he
forgave the perpetrators, that he, as the risen Christ, would proclaim the freedom that
forgiveness brings. If he had not completely forgiven those who crucified
him, do you think he could have risen? And what essentially did he then
tell his loyal followers when he returned to them but, "Bless yourselves, my friends, free
yourselves from others’ sins — forgive them -- and follow me!"
May 14, 2010:
I've included a poem I wrote on May 14th, "Of Silence" in the Recent Poems section. I have been thinking more and more about silence ever since my inspiration regarding silence that I describe below. Also, I read last year the two books by Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now and The New Heaven and the New Earth whose good news about silence I have continually been appreciating. I have also been participating in an intensive reading group practicing "Lectio Divina" in which we read a poem or very short writing amid meditative silences.
You might have noticed the new adage in the footer below, "Silence is the Mother of Us All." I became aware of the truth of this in a dream this past February 2010 in which I was very aware of agreeing to include it in this website. What is important, I think, about this adage is that it reveals a truth important for day to day living: we all need mothering now and then and we can turn to the comfort of our mother through silence -- silence mothers us. This adage is in accord with the conception of Mary as the Mother of God. Mary's silence pervades the gospel stories. And if Silence could speak and bore the Word in its womb, so to speak, would it not proclaim something akin to the Magnificat? Find the answer -- in silence.