Sunday, October 27, 2019

Remembering a Visit to Yad Vashem

Rabbi Jonathan Cahn of Beth Israel Worship Center, Wayne, NJ, 
will lead another pilgrimage to Israel next week.
The poem I've selected to share with you today is a sobering remembrance
from our visit to the holocaust museum in Jerusalem,
during my last pilgrimage in 2006.

Janusz Korczak & the orphan children.
Photo credit: yadvashem.org


AT YAD VASHEM
Israel Pilgrimage--2006

We are given an hour, only an hour
to walk through on our own—

It’s quiet
Barely any talking
No smiling

People move slowly
observing, listening
some brush away tears
some shake their heads

We walk along the Path
of Righteous Gentiles
hesitate at trees
planted in honor
of Oscar Schindler
of Corrie TenBoom

We see shoes of the dead, eyeglasses
photographs, paintings
poems

The eternal flame shudders
as we swallow hard at the words:
Never Again

Outside, we pause at the bronze
of Janusz Korczak embracing
the orphan children—
the ones he accompanied
into a crematorium

At the Children’s Memorial
the darkness is assuaged
by so many mirrored reflections
of flickering candles
We read—
1,500,000 children

An hour, only an hour
is even too much
for us to bear

Maude Carolan Pych


Sunday, October 20, 2019

On Our 13th Wedding Anniversary...

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Thank you, Bob, for 13 loving years...

Maude & Bob at Breezy Point, 2017.
DODI LI
For Robert Pych on Our Wedding Day, October 21, 2006

"I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine."
Song of Songs 6:3

Shirley says
my heart is a thimble
and God's love is the ocean
and He wants to pour all that love
into my little heart

I have learned that the Lord
has made my heart
a little like His own

that the heart is limitless
in its capacity to love

that it may seem
the heart's chambers
are about to burst
…yet there's still room

that bodies grow older
…but not our hearts

I have learned
that God
is the Restorer of Hearts
the Master of mending
broken ones

that although sorrow
may visit us
the heart keeps its rhythm
…hope is not shattered
utterly

I grew tired of the Titanic song
weary of Celine's heart going on
and on and on

but now I understand
the heart does go on

I've also discovered
my heart is undivided
when it professes
Ani le dodi ve dodi li
and speaks of
two bridegrooms
One of my soul…Jesus
and one of my heart…Robert

and I believe
one of the best things there is
about knowing God
is that He is Love

…that we love
because He first
loved us

He just keeps on
filling our thimbles
with inexhaustible oceans

so we'll always
always, always
have Love
to give

Maude Carolan

Sunday, October 13, 2019

Getting to Know Him...

Image credit: Amazon.com 


MIST-ERY

I beheld You, not clearly...
In a fogged mirror Your mysterious Image
Materialized, then faded in diaphanous mist.

At the shining of re-birth, the fog thinned,
Evaporating like dew, droplet by droplet.
Learning day by day to know You,
The mist grows sheerer, more lucent...until finally

Upon entrance through the billowy veil
Into life forevermore,
Your Presence will emerge before me.
Squinting eyelids will flutter
As I awaken to brilliance
And the last layers of mystery
Dissolve into sparkles upon Your feet.

Maude Carolan



Get Ready:

It'll be here soon...

Release Date: November 20, 2019




Sunday, October 6, 2019

It's Time for a Walk in the Woods...

Photo credit: pinterest.com

SYMPHONY OF THE WOODS
I meander through woods
along a beaten pathway in North Jersey
and the music begins immediately

There’s chittering of crickets
and the cacophony of other insects
that are hanging on to life
until the frost, which will come soon
Leaves rustle in the trees
some whoosh past me
as they fall to the ground
and there’s a crunch
of dry ones beneath my feet

I hear an occasional snap of a twig
and the scamper of squirrels
or chipmunks, a raccoon
or field mice scurrying unseen
up and down tree trunks
or frolicking in the dense brush

There may be hidden deer or a bear
Some sounds I cannot identify

Birdsong completely fills the air
all kinds of birdsong—
chirps and coos
and warbles and squawks
I even hear the flutter
of wing flaps

Tying everything together
is the faintest whistling in the breeze
that feels something like tinnitus
ringing in my ears
but it’s not unpleasant

All the sounds blend together
into Nature’s symphony—
a serenade to my spirit
as I stroll

Maude Carolan Pych