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Tich na han
Earth Prayer
Earth visualization
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Earth Prayer

Farewell to the Earth

 

Mother, your earth no longer lives

beneath my feet

to walk upon with dignity.

 

Bless your poppies, roses,

morning glories

Velvet flower petals nestling

Birds with singing wings

And tree roots drinking from your

deep brown breast.

 

From new heights I am on my way

And my soul sings along the wake

of a new and glorious dawn.

 

     __Joan Englander ©2024

 

 

Fire Prayer 

Farewell to the Flames

 

I give to you

Beloved Mystery

All that I have been

And sing for joy

As you heal now

every shadow, dissolve

every dark cloud

separating me from you

 

I say farewell to wildness 

the flames of creativity 

falling in love, dancing

Still I continue to savor

eternal longing

to unite with your Love

 

O my Beloved remove

The veil

if only for a moment

That I may see

your luminous Face

the Love I long to fully know

 

Pour into me once more

That very love you gave me

Before I was born.

 

The fire is surely dying.

Holy ashes of my

former self, buried

 

Out of this life I go

With fresh new beginnings.

 

_Joan Englander ©2024

 

 

 

Water Prayer

Farewell to Sacred Waters

 

Back to the sea

Grace follow me

Back to the source

These holy waters flee.

Back to the person

Who once was me

Now safe, now free

In the arms of our

Mother sea.

 

Back to moving waters

Lullabies of wavelets 

flowing all around

quiet rhythms

lift me slow

upon this ocean’s calm

 

Floating on our Mother Sea

her heart washes clean

all fears, doubts, regrets.

 

I cling to no thing

Except

her breast of Love.

 

_Joan Englander ©2024

 

​

 

Air Prayer

 Dying into Mystery 

​

Part 1

O beloved air so soft

Sweetly perfuming

My entire being

One last time.

 

During my lifespan

 your crisp clean air

embraced all of me

 

I forgot to give you

My thanksgiving.

You were always there

In storms at sea

In a breathing sky

In calm symphonies of stars

 

And now I leave  

While I know you

never leave me

You cause my ashes

To breathe a new song.

You anoint my comings

goings with blessing.

 

 

Part 2

Faint is my breath

I will not fear

this slow quiet silence 

like the sun setting

into the sea, into me

Peace abiding between

one breath and the next.

 

I know what I know.

Soft as a cloud

Breath beyond whisper

No thought dwells.

I am dying into mystery

Flying on wingless breath

into the Beyond

 

Beloved near and nearer still

into the great immensity

this life is ending.

 

 

Part 3

Who can see where this life goes?

Who can know its wordless travel?

What can be its life tomorrow?

I will not fear.

 

My breath goes and I become

An unknown spark

in the air of space

 

Let the sacred whisper

carry me.

 

_Joan Englander ©2024

​

 

Space Prayer

Eternal Belonging

 

I am married to vastness.

Drifting freely in space

I belong.

Whatever moves through

centuries

whatever shall come to be

I am part of this life-giving

stream

A spark of light moving

through space

 

Basking in wide expanses

bathed in blue and gold

I have shed my body

my thoughts

what I was

or might have become.

 

Steeped in quietude

no me, no you

no obligations

nothing left to attain

gain or lose

 

Without form I am free

To unite in spirit

with all the sparks

of strangers and friends 

continents and cultures

In this vast blue eternity

I am what I cannot see

I am what I cannot hear

I am what I cannot know or taste

 

I am married to infinite space

Floating through the cosmos

Newly awakened

 

For now I truly belong.         

 

Joan Englander ©2024

​

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