The Poetry of R.E. Slater: Jun 6, 2014

"Autobiographies of great nations are written in three manuscripts – a book of deeds, a book of words, and a book of art. Of the three, I would choose the latter as truest testimony." - Sir Kenneth Smith, Great Civilisations

"I must write each day without fail, not so much for the success of the work, as in order not to get out of my routine." - Leo Tolstoy

I have never believed that one should wait until one is inspired because I think the pleasures of not writing are so great that if you ever start indulging them you will never write again. - John Updike

"The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it." - J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan

Poetry is the shadow cast by our streetlight imaginations." - Lawrence Ferlinghetti

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Friday, June 6, 2014

R.E. Slater - Kindred Fellowships (a poem)

Filming Heaven

The Mountain from TSO Photography on Vimeo.
Music by Ludovico Einaudi, "Nuvole Bianche"

Sunrise

Kindred Fellowships
by R.E. Slater

Have you ever watched a rising morning sun

stalking knee-high clovered fields wet in dew?

Or felt the deepening rumble of a storm cloud's approach

shrouding breathless airs soaked in fresh ozone?

Or witnessed a cold fog envelop a murky beach

against a restless sea moving in endless rhythm?

Or listened the wandering night sky's starry silence
upon a far hillside from setting dusk to waking dawn?

In all these things God's handiwork abounds,

written across the laden heavens,

across this good earth we live and breathe,

filling our hearts with wondrous mystery.

Whose very lives are held so dear,

so adorned by redeeming love,

so cherished by mercy's grace,

so lost in a world so complex and feared.

We, the living temples of God's first Words,

who wouldst tread the mounts of His holy creation,

or delve into our Redeemer's inmost sanctuaries,

impassioned by all that inspires and devotes.

We, who keep the night watches and morning suns,

who inhale evening's early mists in lingering whispers,

who are blessed and wouldst give blessing,

who seek, and grasp, and fall, and fail.

Let us praise our heavenly Sovereign for His wisdom,

our mighty Creator for all that is good and strong.

Let us sing our Savior's wonders and mercies,

met new everyday upon the souls of men.

Let us seek harmony's peace amidst its grander fellowships,

giving thanksgiving for heaven's abiding love and devotion.

And for this good earth whose good fellowship we tread,

scribing a poet's inspiration to a Redeemer's heart filled with tears.

- R.E. Slater

Calla Lilies along the Big Sur, Garrapata State Park, California