Bees Lead the Way
By
Jennifer Angelina Petro
It’s ok to shelter your heart.
Elegant safety, full of grace, full of heaven,
necessary shadows cradle the light,
bells ring softly, sound merging with forgiveness,
blending with the readying to let go,
bees lead the way to sweet sacristies,
wings thrumming with light,
lifting the sun from holy darkness.
Sitting with Sadness
By
Jennifer Angelina Petro
Time slows like it does on long summer afternoons,
You smell the scent of rain even though there is a cloudless sky,
You get up to go about your day and sadness follows you like a moveable river,
You resist impulses to drown out her sobbing with food, sex, spending—
You feel her rocking back and forth in your heart causing you to do the same in your chair,
Trees whisper windy syllables through the curtains and gently tousles your hair,
Bees hover around your house making sure you understand sadness brings gifts of honey,
Cicada song drones through the sky in waves and settles into the hollow places deep in your bones,
A terrible longing–timeless and holy, lives in her tears and touches yours,
And when she decides to leave, she assures you she will return,
And if you are able, you will sit with her again as she weeps around the roots of your being.
You and I Have Beauty to Share
A Poem in Words and Pictures
By
Radiance Angelina Petro
Come.
Come take me
One little piece of pollen at a time.
Come. I want you to.
***
Once I hid as a star,
Guarded by wisdom.
***
When I was ready
I unfolded wisdom’s spiral.
***
And allowed life’s dream
To draw me into the world.
***
For some, their wisdom will be fancy—
For there is such a thing as fancy wisdom.
***
Others bear wisdom that tightly guards–
Wanting to be absolutely sure before giving the word.
***
Regardless, when you are ready,
No matter where anyone else is in their stages of development
***
You
Will
Open.
Just like I did.
***
And you will say, come.
Come take me, one little grain of pollen at a time,
And you will share your gold
With the hive of the heart of another.
***
For that is why we have been planted here,
In the dark soil of the earth.
***
You and me–
We are meant to share the fragrance of the light we bring.
***
Until wisdom says, enough, go back
To being a star.
***
For now, go ahead, shout your trumpets of joy,
Spread your granules of sweetness—
You and I have beauty to share.
Dear Dark-Hearted-Star
By
Joseph Anthony Petro
Dear Dark-hearted star–
Shine your mystery
Into the daytime sky,
Shine your holy darkness
Onto the tongues of butterflies,
Shine your shadowed path
Into the eager eyes of bees,
And bloom a radiant midnight
Into my shrouded, keening heart,
And allow me, just once,
To travel your billowy, silken halls
And find myself in your light,
To reveal myself in your presence,
To partake of your nectar of astonishment
So that I may awaken to the bravery
To shine as freely as you.
