John O'Donohue: A Morning Offering

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A Morning Offering

John O'Donohue, John O'Donohue poetry, Christian, Christian poetry, Catholic poetry, [TRADITION SUB2] poetry, Secular or Eclectic poetry

by John O'Donohue
(1956 - 2008) Timeline

Original Language
English

I bless the night that nourished my heart
To set the ghosts of longing free
Into the flow and figure of dream
That went to harvest from the dark
Bread for the hunger no one sees.

All that is eternal in me
Welcome the wonder of this day,
The field of brightness it creates
Offering time for each thing
To arise and illuminate.

I place on the altar of dawn:
The quiet loyalty of breath,
The tent of thought where I shelter,
Wave of desire I am shore to
And all beauty drawn to the eye.

May my mind come alive today
To the invisible geography
That invites me to new frontiers,
To break the dead shell of yesterdays,
To risk being disturbed and changed.

May I have the courage today
To live the life that I would love,
To postpone my dream no longer
But do at last what I came here for
And waste my heart on fear no more.

-- from To Bless the Space Between Us: A Book of Blessings, by John O'Donohue

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/ Photo by kretyen /

Themes

Awakening

Bread

Dawn

Death

Dream

Recommended Books

	Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom, by John O'Donohue
	Beauty: The Invisible Embrace, by John O'Donohue
	Conamara Blues, by John O'Donohue
	Divine Beauty: The Invisible Embrace, by John O'Donohue
	Echoes of Memory, by John O'Donohue

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It's poems like this that remind us of the real power of poetry -- to heal, to inspire, to incite, to awaken. Though poetry itself may feel insubstantial, the result within us and the world we continuously create is very real. This is the ancient power of enchantment, formulating a mind-state and passing it along to others through word and rhythm.

Contemplate the implications of this for a moment. Everything within the human world, every building and machine, every nation and neighborhood, is born of the human mind-state. Poets and sages have the same calling, to skillfully feed sparks of new awareness into the collective mind and, thus, remake the world. That's real power.

All that is eternal in me
Welcome the wonder of this day...

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