WESTMINSTER ART FESTIVAL
2021 Poetry
FIRST PRIZE
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The Air We Breathe by Marirose Rehagen
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The air we breathe, the ins and outs of it all
The cool air that embraces me, enters me,
Refreshing me
I welcome you in me.
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Maybe there is One God that rests above, beyond all the names for God
we create
Even above and beyond the names for the God I deeply Love
Father, Son and Holy Spirit
Love.
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The air we breathe, the trees breathe, in and out, up and down
The same air I breathe the trees breathe
The birds, the bees, the plants and animals that inhabit our whole Earth,
Breathe.
We all breathe together, mostly not knowing from where it comes
or where it goes.
Who lived with it for a precious moment
Who released it for all to share
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We breathe. We live.
The wildest of animals breathe, the closest of animals we hold and love
Breathe.
Everything, everyone breathes....somehow, some way
we breathe in the BREATH OF LIFE.
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Whose life?
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Children starving, breathe. Wounded warriors, breathe.
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Tibetan monks, construction workers, flowers, snakes, and creepy
crawling things breathe.
Our Whole Creation Breathes ALL the TIME
In and out, up and down
in darkness and in light
WE, CREATION, BREATHE
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The air we breathe has been inside the folks we know and those we never heard of....
some breathing still, some long gone
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Scientists, Authors, Doctors, Saints, Popes, Inventors, Artists, Hungers,
Healers, ALL
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Our whole Earth Breathes
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Each in and out of air I live in embraces our whole Earth Mother and
every
thing we know or have yet to discover breathes.
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Even the oceans and mountains, fields and plains
We all share the breath of Life
We live in and through and by the BREATH of LIFE
Until we ARE the BREATH OF LIFE
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Until finally we exhale and give All of it Back
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Each moment, each year, each age we receive and we give back
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We ARE One Body .... more fully when we know it.
More fully when we consciously share it.
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BREATHE.
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SECOND PRIZE
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Cloud Of Unknowing by Karin Larsen
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A walking meditation
High above the Hudson River
On the holy grounds
Of the Cloisters -
A gathering of medieval monasteries
Candle lit and quarried stone
As the Unicorn records its story -
My heart responds
To the rhythm of prayer
Walking among the borage,
Coriander and hemlock
Lifting their fragrances
As prayer.
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THIRD PRIZE
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A Storm of Blondes by Renee Szostek
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My beige raincoat sets
off my dark hair: protection
against the blonde reign.
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