The academics have much to teach us
when we incline our ears to their words.
The theologians have much to reveal,
when we open our minds in free fall.
The saints have much with which to inspire us,
when we imbue their remembered stories.
And the preachers have much to encourage us,
as we seek to follow their leadership.
But the simple among us,
the poets, and the music makers, and the artists
of spirit and matter;
we don’t know often what it is
that we’re saying.
We have certainly never learned it as rote.
Rather, whatever it is that the whales are singing,
or the earth when all is quiet,
that it is our theology,
and the breath that breathes new life into being,
our religion,
and the means with which we express ourselves
whatever that might be for each of us,
that is our link between earth and heaven.
Ana Lisa de Jong
Living Tree Poetry
January 2018
Living Tree Poetry 