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THE CHRIST POEMS:
Communiques from the Inner Life

What does it actually feel like to be growing, struggling, and learning on a mystical path? In this remarkable collection of new poetry from D. Patrick Miller, a leading writer on A Course in Miracles, the reader is taken into some of the deeper feelings and subtler thoughts of the mystical journey.

"Although students can certainly get lost in the intellectual complexities of A Course in Miracles," says the author, "I have always experienced ACIM as a highly emotional path, in which shifts of thoughts and feelings are nearly always simultaneous. So I believe these poems have arisen within me as expressions of what it feels like to be on a mystical path in which I am increasingly informed and inspired by what I call 'my Christ,' my personal experience of an inner, active wisdom....

"My hope in sharing these poems is that other Course students, and indeed any seeker on a mystical path, will recognize echoes of their own experience and thus be enriched by a greater understanding of what’s going on in their spiritual life. An inner voice of instinctive and loving wisdom is accessible to anyone, regardless of how you name it. May this little book help it be heard more clearly." Read some sample poems below.

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•  S A M P L E   P O E M S  •

 

The Secret of Our Suffering

Here is the secret of our suffering:
What seems to oppose us most is really
the strongest part of us. We have split our minds
into warring camps and see half of ourselves
out there in the world, never wishing us well.
Yet the world we created longs to come home
and be reunited within the love of God.
We have to accept our opposition as ourselves
and understand how we've refused joy.
No one likes to accept that they have done this;
no one likes to see their own face on their suffering.
Yet in this responsibility is our salvation —
and salvation means only that we can learn
to see that happiness is so close; so close!


Accepting My Absurdity

The friend I have in Christ is not saving me,
exalting me, or raising me up to the holy hosts
so that we can all go out and have a drink.
This friend is laughing at my absurdity and
heartily suggesting that I get in on the joke.
Years of fears, all my vain imaginings,
the whole fabric of my heavily embroidered past
and the flimsy, gossamer veils of various elusive futures….

All told, they add up to an unreality with my name on it,
with no more documentation than some business cards
and these poems, which I'm not sure I authored anyway.

"Come on," laughs Christ the friend, "I'll let you cash in
all this weird stuff for happiness." He takes my assortment
of existential junk and stashes it under the counter, grinning
beatifically, knowing none of it has any resale value.
We walk out the door into the warm sunlight and the
kindest of breezes, and I am astonished at the peace
that arises from accepting my absurdity.


Gratitude


Thank you, my Christ, for the great, still power
of your attention. Thank you for the same answer
to every question: a reminder of undying, perfect love
that brings clarity to madness, calm to desperation,
and belonging to bitter loneliness. Thank you for
timelessness: the freedom from death
that stills panic and quiets despair.


Every silly, dangerous game we play in our dreams
you witness without judgment, and when we are done
with all our lunatic diversions you are still there, the referee
for peace, judging us with an infinite reservoir of compassion.
For too long I ignored your magnificent presence
within me, disbelieving any greater resource than my own
bright ideas. Thank you, my Christ, for being there
nonetheless. Thank you for being my real life
while I was fooling around with dying.

 

Author D. Patrick Miller has been widely published as a poet in periodicals and anthologies. He is the author of one previous poetry collection, Instructions of the Spirit, and the free e-book "How to Write a Good Poem: Three Essential Elements."

COPYRIGHT 2014 D. PATRICK MILLER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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