Adapted from and inspired by the 23rd Psalm
Throughout these times of love and life and loss
Through the glorious, difficult and challenging passage ways of my life
I am continually led to calm restful waters and verdant pastures
My soul refreshed and my empty cup filled to overflowing.The promise of resurrection and rejuvenation fulfilled
as perpetually as the Spring bloom follows Winter.
I am forever thankful for this joyous and painful life
that has molded, etched and forged me into man that I amI pray that my God looks upon me as the Artist does his craft,
With humility, awe and pride, gratified by what He has created
and by what He now beholds
Himself in other formI rest in the hands of my Creator
at One and in Peace
Michael Gerard Mele
Resurgam
There is no death! The stars go down
To rise upon some other shore,
And bright in heaven's jeweled crown
They shine for evermore.
There is no death! The dust we tread
Shall change beneath the summer showers
To golden grain, or mellow fruit,
Or rainbow-tinted flowers.
And ever near us, though unseen,
The dear immortal spirits tread;
For all the boundless universe
Is life - there are no dead!
John Luckey McCreery, "There Is No Death"
Nurtured Tree
You found me on some muddied path
No true direction to or fro
Alone I stood
Broken limbs
Tattered leaves
Attacked by blight and pest.
Overshadowed by those healthier than I
No nourishment came my way
Forgotten by the rain and sun
In the shadows of the world.
Somehow your eye took hold of me
As if guided by a power.
You looked past bark and leaf and limb
Your gaze fixed deep within
Your vision peered between the rings
Deeper even than the marrow.
A glimpse you caught of me who was,
And more who I could be.
You saw past shame and wither and ill
You witnessed the lost me.
In days and weeks and years to come
You fed and trimmed and clipped
You pruned with love and fed with hope
Breathed life into my soul.
When rain grew scarce
And cold gripped tight
You bade me patience keep
Many years it took to tear me down
and time would take to reap.
As time has passed
My roots take hold
dig deep into the core
toward the source of all Earth's life
my foundation now secure.
My limbs reach up into the skies
Sheath green amidst the blue
Touch high the sun that warms my base
Your foresight proven true.
We visit now less frequently
My life it seems assured
I stand and pray and thank the days
When after trudge and weary
You sit and rest and take my shade
Which gives you peace from fury.
All that you've given
Time and toil
Patience, love and kindness
Expressed in each and every leaf
That canopies this forest.
One day will come and I will fall
Return to Earth that brought me
And on that day
I hope and pray
To stand with you and Maker
And once again
We'll be as one...
You...Me...
And Our Creator.
Michael Gerard Mele
Just as Freud’s theories “isolated and made analyzable things which had heretofore floated along unnoticed in the broad stream of perception,” the photographic apparatus focuses on “hidden details of familiar objects,” revealing “entirely new structural formations of the subject.”
Harper's Magazine, February 2007
A New Day
A New Path
Anew
Use your vision well and do not judge, self or others...
Clouded by fear and denial, craving love
we have walked down paths that were filled with barbs and briar.
We have been scraped and cut.
We have stumbled and fallen, tripped by roots and vines.
Our hands and knees display our scars.
Now arise and heal.
Use the salve of Understanding, Love and Compassion
to soothe the child who has strayed.
Allow yourself to walk the clear, wide, verdant path that winds and meanders.
Stroll and stride.
The way need not be dark and difficult.
Walk with Ease and Pleasure and Joy and Excitement.
No more fear and angst. Do not trudge.
Hold your head high and show your face to the Sun.
Allow the beams to warm and heal your despair, your shame, your fear.
A New Day
A New Path
Anew
Michael Gerard Mele
Mourning Lights, Grounded Giant
Facing due North, I stand under the sprawling branches of the Black Olive tree.
I witness the Full Moon set in the Northwest and the Sunrise to the Southeast.
My feet rest on the sturdy and expansive root system of this immovable giant,
Grounding me,
Supporting me,
Assuring me...
The wind blows from the South, comforting and refreshing.
Standing fixed between the rise and the set,
the Sun and the Moon.
Mourning Doves rustle and take flight.
Their rest ended by the light and stir of a new day.
A new day, a new time, Anew
Times anew,
Times I knew
Michael Gerard Mele
New Year's Meditation
A New Day
A New Year
Filled with hope and promise
A New Start
Foundation of Plenty
Confidence
Aptitude
Gratitude
In the flow of this moment,
All is well
All is provided
A New Day
A New Year
A New Life
Open this year to the love of self and others..
Michael Gerard Mele
A Rest
A time of rest
A respite
A time of peace and calm
clear and free of worry
No ripples in the sea of life
the eddy whirls calm
Rest and Renewal
A still place to look back and ponder
Successes of yesterday,
lavish in the attempts
The Glory of Victory
What once seemed a treacherous bend in the river,
an impasse
now viewed with Pride in the Accomplishment
Survival-Conquest
A moment to breathe and thrive
relish past sufferings
Ahead the waters will not remain forever steady
more rapids to maneuver
greater challenges, untold fears
unseen channels
We stand armed with Hope and Faith
nothing more to be presented than we’re able to face
No fear of future travels
Awareness is our code
Unveiled Strengths and Abilities
Emerge from Within
To discover and honor these our task
Awareness breeds security
Rest
Recover
Rejuvenate
Gifts of life lie ahead in still uncharted waters
Greater Glory is our Promise
Found through Acceptance of the Flow
The Journey bares its own Reward
Michael Gerard Mele
“In the depth of winter,
I finally learned
that within me there lay
an invincible summer.”
Albert Camus
“Slow Me Down
Ease the pounding of my heart by
quieting my mind.
Steady my hurried pace with a vision of
the eternal reach of time.
Give me, amid the confusion of the day, the
calmness of the everlasting hills.
Break the tensions of my nerves and
muscles with the soothing music of the
singing streams that live in my memory.
Help me to know the magical restoring
power of sleep.
Teach me the art of taking minute
vacations-of slowing down to look at a flower, to chat with a friend, to pat a dog,
to read a few lines from a good book.
Slow me down and inspire me to
send my roots deep into the soil of life’s enduring values
that I may grow toward the stars
of my greater destiny.”
Wilferd A. Peterson