Love
In Thanksgiving
And so this rose
Is offered thee at the behest of
The night’s mood.
It has arrived from a
Distant winter’s clime, where
Despite frost and tundra,
It has at the touch of
Truth bloomed.
So Cold
Click for meditationRegarding "So Cold"
These two poems are
Simply two instantaneous
Impressions of what an
Old, worn oak leaf lying on a
Winter ground manifested
To me. The oak leaf,
Lying atop snow crystals
And accompanied by a few
Sparse pine needles,
Could potentially convey an
Infinite number of
Possible meanings and
Associations. In theory,
I could write of this
One scene my remaining
Life and never lift the
Lid on all the aspects and
Interpretations.
Everything about us has
Countless takes and
Re-takes as if in a studio
During filming. This is because
Everything is part of
The unknowable mystery
Of Creation, and as the
Lord said in Isaiah,
“For My thoughts are not
Your thoughts, neither are
Your ways My ways.”
Creation’s faces are
Uncountable and ever-
Changing, but unfailingly
Have imprinted on
Them the divine features
Of Love and Beauty,
Together with those of life’s
Every day cares.
Just look into the eyes of
Whatever or whoever
Stares back at you, and you
Will see the light and
Shadows and hurt and
Happiness of the moment.
A January Dark
At not more than one
Hour before sunset, begin to
Gather in a circle to
Keep warm an oak leaf, a
Few pine needles, and
Some shivering snow and
Ice crystals, the last
Of the last to head to bed,
Already feeling the
Shadows of tree trunks
Overspreading them,
And knowing soon
Arrives another night
To close the door against
A January dark. Who’d
Have thought they’d be chosen
To spend the long night
Together – a desiccated
Leaf from a mighty
Oak, a few needles from
A towering pine,
And a collection of
Snow crystals by way of
Jacob’s Ladder, which
Had descended the rungs
Like sweet angels,
Couriers of God so the
Leaf and needles
Could softly recline.
Oak Leaf
So cold it could no
Longer hold by its fingertips
The last shivering branch
Of a nearby oak, down
It came – a twisted
Remnant of what it was,
The definitive end to
Autumn’s both anthem
And mayhem, and
With naught to do now
But to flit on frozen
Snow and ice, until again
This spring when the
Six creative days of Genesis
Would be reenacted
And re-begin.
Eucharistic Adoration
Click for meditationRegarding "Eucharistic Adoration"
There is the well known
Account described in the Gospels
Where Jesus is on His knees
In the Garden of Gethsemane,
Praying that if it’s in His Father’s
Will, to have the cup of His
Crucifixion removed from His lips.
According to the Gospels,
Jesus in His anguish sweat blood,
Such was the unfathomable
Distress He was feeling.
He asked His disciples who
Were with Him to stay awake
And to pray with Him. Try as
They might, however, none
Of his disciples were able to do
This, such was the over-
Whelming crush of emotion
Weighing upon them. And then
I think of all the times
That I, too, have not been
Able to keep Jesus company…
And I then slide under the
Waves of my life, wishing I had
Not judged so harsh…
Leo Carroll
December 23, 2021
In the Presence of You
My eyes want to close,
O Lord, but You already know that,
Having sadly seen my face and
Noticed nothing over the past
Two thousand years has
Really ever changed – it is still
Too difficult for me to kneel
And to accompany You in
This alter-Gethsemane of
A simple church’s pew.
So patient with me You are!
But after all these millennia, I still
Cannot keep my eyes open,
Such is the effect of Your yoke’s
Light weight upon my eyelids
Up-and-down motion.
Leo Carroll
December 14, 2021
St. Anne’s Church
Littleton, Massachusetts
Musing
Lord, are You really
Enclosed within that luna
Which safe-keeps and
Cradles the host
Inside its glass, does
Your unimaginable Lordship
Reign meekly within
The monstrance
As if the consecrated
Bread was a mustard seed
Onto good soil about
To be cast? O please help me
To remain prayerfully
In front of You,
Sweet Lord! I am so
Used to restlessly
Shifting and moving like
The wild man who
Ran out from the burial
Caves, his chains
Broken and dangling,
Of You terrorized, afraid.
Daisies
Click for meditationRegarding "Daisies"
Every fall, every late fall,
I always marvel how certain flowers can
Survive until the very last moment,
And still continue to show their beauty.
But unlike in the spring and
Summer, I have to search to locate
Their faces, and I invariably
Find them almost hidden
By the mushrooming debris
In a garden otherwise fastidiously
Manicured in spring, summer,
And early fall. But by late fall they are
Like a gem found in the middle
Of chaos (leaves of all sorts, twigs,
Branches, pine cones), or a
Lamp uncovered from the burden of
A dark shade, in short, a simple,
Loyal, floral planting saying
‘Thank you’ for all the months of
Cultivation – when their chance to
Repay comes with only days
Before they, too, go away.
Leo Carroll
November 27, 2021
Can two beating hearts
Make it through the coming winter?
Cuddled and close they are,
As if autumn would always linger…
But can they find safe refuge,
And can the surrounding
Oak leaves continue to protect?
Because what happens
When December comes, and
Their love is shivering —
Will they have any regret?
Rockweed Love
Click for meditationRegarding "Rockweed Love"
We were in Maine
Again this past summer, and
As customary, one of
Our daughters with her
Young family was with us.
We were at the beach
Almost every day, and
Our two granddaughters
Frolicked in the cold
Waters with no ill effects.
On the next to last day
There, as we were
Getting ready to leave
The beach and were washing
The sand off our feet,
A little voice standing
Beside me spoke
With the innocence and
Prescient wisdom of a
Child. It was one of my
Granddaughters, age
Eight. And out she was
Holding her palm,
Wanting to show what
She had miraculously found –
A piece of rockweed
Seaweed, a free-floating
Type of algae, its appendage
Drawn into the shape
Of a perfect heart!
It symbolized so much –
Her love for me, mine for her,
The Love of the Creator
For us all, and the love which
Flows from each of us
As the Second Commandment
Shouts out from the
Shores of Down-East Maine
And then echoes back
Out into Penobscot Bay…!
Leo Carroll
October 14, 2021
“Papa, look! A heart!” and
My granddaughter
Extends her wrinkled
And waterlogged palm to
Show me the mercy
And message come fresh
From the cold sea,
Her hand innocent, her
Face in awe and
Wonder, sensing that
Her Papa would see what she
Herself believes…