Orchard Ridge United Church of Christ

by Winton Boyd

At a recent gathering of clergy and congregational leaders called “Courage to Lead,” facilitators shared several pieces of poetry in their effort to help clergy deepen their sense of call and leadership. They invited us to consider what poems had been important to us. I share two such poems (actually one is a song). Maybe you could share a poem that has sustained you as well?

The Wild Geese

Horseback on Sunday morning,
harvest over, we taste persimmon
and wild grape, share sweet
of summer’s end. In time’s maze
over the fall fields, we name names
that went west from here, names
that rest on graves. We open
a persimmon seed to find the tree
that stands in promise,
pale, in the seed’s marrow.
Geese appear high over us,
pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,
as in love or sleep, holds
them to their way, clear,
in the ancient faith; what we need
is here. And we pray, not
for a new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye
clear. What we need is here.

Wendell Berry
Collected Poems, 1957-1982
North Point Press, 1984

That’s What Makes You Strong

If you love somebody
Then that means you need somebody
And if you need somebody
That’s what makes you weak
But if you know you’re weak
And you know you need someone
O it’s a funny thing
That’s what makes you strong

That’s what makes you strong
That’s what gives you power
That’s what lets the meek come sit beside the king
That’s what lets us smile
In our final hour
That’s what moves our souls
And that’s what makes us sing

And to trust somebody
Is to be disappointed
It’s never what you wanted
And it happens every time
But if you’re the trusting kind
This don’t even cross your mind
O it’s a funny thing
That’s what makes you strong

That’s what makes you strong
That’s what gives you power…

by Jesse Winchester
©Musique Chanteclair Inc.