Summer Poem for Reflection

Below is a poem read during the current cohort’s July retreat:

FLOWER COMMUNION

By Lynn Ungar

From Blessing the Bread: Meditations

What a gathering – the purple

tongues of iris licking out

at spikes of lupine, the orange

crepe skirts of poppies lifting

over buttercup and daisy.

Who can be grim

in the face of such abundance?

There is nothing to compare,

no need for beauty to compete.

The voluptuous rhododendron

and the plain grass

are equally filled with themselves,

equally declare the miracles

of color and form.

This is what community looks like –

this vibrant jostle, stem by stem

declaring the marvelous joining.

This is the face of communion,

the incarnation once more

gracefully resurrected from winter.

Hold these things together

in your sight – purple, crimson,

magenta, blue. You will

be feasting on this long after

the flowers are gone.