After last Sunday (Pentecost) worship, a number of people asked me for a copy of the poem I recited at the end of the message. Here it is, below, for anyone interested. The original inspiration for the poem, entitled Ruach, came from me reflecting on Ezekiel chapter 37 which describes Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones. In that passage, the same Hebrew word – ruach – is used in three different ways, and with three different meanings: wind, breath, spirit. I wrote the poem to reflect this linkage between wind, breath and spirit.

RUACH – A Meditation on Wind, Breath, Spirit

The wind – it blows where it will

We feel its touch, for good or ill

Cyclonic force or gentle breeze

Should we now be ill at ease?

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Then your touch upon our skin

Gives us pause deep within

As we mark them down as kin:

The wind without; the breath within

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For the winds do bring

The breath by which we sing

The melody now that we begin

As we breathe out, and in

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Nature’s gift – we all share

As we live, love and care

Wind meets breath; nought can hide

And breath, the spirit, deep inside

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For the Spirit blows where it will

It rests not, nor tarries, not until

It finds in us a resting place

Grateful channels of God’s grace

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Yet the Spirit calls us from our rest

Into the world, at its behest

To ride the winds of love and share

The breath of God as, in love, we care

 

Michael Dowling