PEACE

My tears are flowing

Like a gentle stream

Over cheeks and lips

As I am touched by Your

Gracious Words, and You bid

The inner tumult to cease,

Teaching me, dear God, Your peace. 

I in gratitude to You,

O Beloved! I can see

There I was to be

In sadness, and a

Loss of tranquility—

Through a silent prayer

My heart was safe from enmity,

Rising up again to You,

Peace to all, and to him and me -- it sang

Of Your immediacy, and

Will not let me go astray

But fulfills in its silent way:

“Let no vacuum ever there be.”

Your dear love always reaches me

Like the fullness of a morning beam,

I am free of tears, and all shadows flee.

September 12, 2013

A poet reminisces:

“When one loves, 

the other repeats that love back, 

so one usually drinks of the love.”

As we bath in the heavy swell

of cool, large waves, and

in the brilliance of a morning light,

we are accepting our lot in a spirit

of an inner sight—O my Own! Then—

we fling that little self away,

new joys guard a bright increase

of a love divine so whole.

Let us follow that Bliss!

But what if touched by flames

as we walk over burning coals?

One just needs to know that blame,

a fear, i.e., is in the rear of a moving soul!

Then fear be merely a memory,

and we are wise to let dissolve

this ice edge all the way

around the heart, and see how

like snowflakes, it melts away in the

sunshine of a regenerating, spiritual law.

There is a width and depth in Love’s mercy,

like the width and depth of the blue sea . . .

and love appears as it emerges right now.

-eva-maria hogrefe

(July 13 @10:36am, 2013)

LOVE a golden chain that binds ….And he in LOVE his heaven finds --

Dear heart

We may be born far apart,

And then --

Nearer than the nearest stars,

What is distance when

Heart and soul are one?

None can keep 

Away from you and I 

That smile within

Revealing a bond

Stronger than

The golden thread

LOVE itself guards,

It is a hidden song!

Tell me

Whose tender image

Reflects these lines,

And is as penetrating as

The sound of the

Cathedral chimes?

My heart ascends . . .

As I discern

Your heart

In accord with the 

Ringing bells

As they start,

And heart its heaven tells.

(July 5, 2013)

May my song be Thy praise!

The strength of your thought lies,

as you’ll find,

in expressing gratitude, and to live by it, 

and to remember God's bounty throughout the year!

String the pearls of His love, 

string the garlands of His flowers,

stretch them out,

step into the sunshine

and leave behind the dark! 

Thanks to joy, to love, to peace of mind! 

After all, “thanks” is an action, 

 a “thanks” with just your lips
 would be flat,

because the true Thanksgiving


comes from the heart.


Be grateful at the start of a day

not just for that one day

but for each new morning

that brings light,
 rest and shelter,

food and health, and so much more.

Dear LOVE divine, Thy goodness provides,
and is universal, 

belonging to all ages and to all minds.

There is always a time for gratitude,

and a new beginning, 

you are alive in those moments

when your heart is aware of its treasure!  

Thanksgiving is the pleasure of peace,

the celebration of work and a simple life . . .

a mutual celebration that speaks the poetry

of the turn of the seasons, the beauty of seedtime

and harvest, and the deep, deep connection 

of all things true and good with God. 

If ever thankless and believing there is

nothing to be thankful for,

 he who sits at the table, morose and thankless

for the food thereupon,

is as if he had no food. 

Nothing is your own,

except that which you acknowledge

in deep appreciation,

of which thankfulness is the greatest part!  

A truly thankful heart

hath a continual celebration of goodness,

this is the eternal food!  

LOVE has more than one dwelling;

one in heaven, i.e., in harmony,

and the other in a gracious and thankful heart. 

It takes a pure love to praise God

for those unrealized blessings

than for those you once enjoyed,

or those you have now. 

And though I have no silver and gold,

I'll move in thanks, like an ever-flowing river!

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of a life, 

it turns what we have into enough, 

and adds more and more, 

it turns rejection into receptivity,

confusion yielding to order,

uncertainty to clarity.  Gratitude

makes sense of our life and loving,

brings peace for today and creates

a vision of unity for tomorrow. 

Even though we thank God for the grace

we ourselves have received, it should be as easy

to give thanks to God, and to give praise

for the blessings given to those who need it most. 

Our gratitude should never sleep!

Do we not have the sunshine in the morning,

and the moonbeam at night?

--eva-maria hogrefe--
compilation

On the day of the Marathon bombing in Boston, MA

Like a silent invisible stream

flowing beneath the bare soil,

the river of LIFE impels, and

floods the vast eternal land

as my vision of it slowly swells

through the sands of time

through the sands of experience

through the sands of space

filling that inner and outer expanse.

Life is Life –it has to make sense

as a continuing tangible presence

without pretense—

against wild powers and furies

of run-lose fear and emotional flurries.

Life nurtures each of us in our daily bower

in spite of a fear of death

as it brings down a defeatist’s tower, 

and the calm of a rising crest, the breath,

leads you and I, and all —if we let –

to an all-permeating peace,

and I humbly bow!

April 15, 2013

To a far-off Friend

Sweet friend, allow me to say, 

Share, share, share, your muse and

Your precious thoughts, because

We do not live for ourselves alone:

Everything you say with that

Characteristic integrity and humility

Of words, thus naturally flows,

Touches my heart like the

Spring-tide of the season and

Its gentle rain that has merged

With the warmth of the sunlight . . .

I know, as it's coming from you

It’s all so true from the perspective 

Of you, loving the Truth of truths

More than you would

Like to assume or show.

Our hearts see that which is 

Invisible to the naked eye, and

WHY? Because hearts speak

And need no reasons

To echo the truth 

Of what so splendidly unites!

(April 13, 2013)

The  Moonbeam -------

The moonbeam at night

gently shines on a searching mind

with sorrow filled, it's lost to be still;

the soft light of the moonbeam

keeps the vast landscape

of sadness hidden;

the forest moody and distant,

even though the light silently 
is spreading over the trees,

over all creatures sleeping;

ah the moonbeam at night

hides the romance of the heart

and its winsome wings

woven into the moonbeam

and over the horizon

up to the dim stars

in a distant sky

dark blue

in the beam of the light,

it is touching a restless mind

beyond stillness,

beyond the throbbing heart,

but you Dear in your spacious soul

feel the softness and the cool

of a moonbeam

and a calm,

as thought races over space

towards you,

to ask for the balm

of your gentle heart!

2012