Michael Bolerjack

Stanzas For Marinela

The One Hundred Stanzas

STANZAS FOR MARINELA

We perhaps will play Until our last breath, but we Did something for Him.

We learned how to give: How to Create: and how to Find: The Gift of Love.

God is good: and He Is the giver of good gifts: You are one for me.

MB

THE ONE HUNDRED STANZAS

Mysterious is The coming and going of Life in all its parts.

The most beautiful Part of my life was lived in My embrace by grace.

The gifts of God are All of them good as you are For me: but we sought

Something more than love Between a man and wife and Found our end in Him.

He suffered in His Waiting for us: We played like Children and fought like

Wild ones against our Calling: the vocation He Intended: Our peace.

Mysterious was The way God moved us in love: Attraction did not

Become distraction: The fate of many couples: Ever we will love.

But we love because Not despite virtue: because Our affair joined His.

Stay: linger with me: Tarry yet awhile: He calls Us to meditate.

We are still hungry For one another and for Him: the source: the first

Principle of love: We became a little less Full and more empty

As time went on in What we found to be the best Part of our marriage.

We: no longer young: And having loved in our great Decade look back on

A gradual light Ascending among us and Within us: the Call.

We have not fully Answered: yet we do not search For more than meaning:

Our response is: Yes Lord: simply that: Yes Lord: Whatever You say.

Cease all your searching: You have the secret in Him: He is here with us.

I have seen you in Desire: and with the eyes of Peace: it is better.

Yet: I still love you: Do not wish for freedom but To serve: to arrive.

I have seen the fire Rise and watched the incense burn Trailing smoke like gifts

Sent up to Him in Prayer: our love became more: Holy: as He said:

Be you therefore like Me for I am holy: if We would love we must.

It is Him we will Meet when we meet on our way: To vigil we come.

Our love alone could Not be sure if not for Him: In Spirit we love.

Grace and truth must be: Despite our bodies failing: He is now our health.

Oh: my Bride: my Love: Do not forget the path I Took to reach this place.

I am getting nearer: To you: to Him: completion Of the race draws close.

There is no telling What truth will take me away: Where I go from here.

But I trust in Him: It must be beautiful: for I have the Promise.

We await alone: Strip: strip: strip: meanings away: God is so much more.

Our love past telling: With each other: but for Him: Not for us alone.

Our love foretelling: If we could: how we reached this Place of no return.

Please Lord protect the Integrity of the work You Are working in us.

We: when we work: must: Work not for ourselves alone: But for Your glory.

You: I believe: Glory In our poverty and find Emptiness better

Than we imagine: Where we would desire more You Want us to have less.

But yet: no decrease: Not of love: but of desire: Which is all too rich.

You chose poverty In order to give us so Much more than mammon.

Let our striving cease And rest: we have enough: let Him decide our path.

All glory honor Praise power: to Him: Our King: Our religion is.

It is not the failed Romance: it is fulfillment: In Him we arrive

With each other: But More: we have become His: His Instruments of love.

Love is so much more: More than the mind or heart can Grasp: let Him hold us.

Cantos on chaos: The love stories of our time: We had something more.

To be poor in things: Strip: strip: strip: make us naked: Lovers in love.

No love outside Him: Without Him we never were: He brought us: as His.

I would not love you: No: I could not: if you were Not the one He sent.

The gift from God came: I saw you and recognized You: and His kindness.

Not without judgment: But more in mercy for my Weakness and my faults.

But God forgave me And sent me you so we found Life and lived: for Love.

Not just to survive But to create something more Than we could alone.

You are His not mine; And I am more His than I Know: Lord take me in.

Oh we little ones: We played and took ourselves so Seriously then.

In abandonment: In surrender: in peaceful Prayer we became.

We took on our lives And lived for holiness and For a kind of life

We had been too young To realize at the start: We looked to Heaven

And we found the saints: How happy and serene they Are after their lives.

They did not lose God To gain their lives but lost their Lives to gain the death

Of all desiring But the desire which is Him: He is theirs: deathless.

We have yet to die: But we can begin for Him: A small matter to

Choose life: but His life Means our deaths and to give our Lives in sacrifice.

You are like my God In that you my Love live for Others not yourself.

Lord protect my soul And lead me on: a little Further now: lead on.

The end of my life: It is not death but life: my End is my rebirth.

But to arrive there I must die to self and be Born anew today:

Not waiting for time To pass: not just passing time. All time is passing.

The past is all but Gone and the mystic sages They are telling us:

Get wisdom: seek her: Find the woman of your dreams: Her truth: fulfillment.

And You: You love her: You show and tell the secret: The moral beauty.

Beautiful lady! She is: she is in Him: love Of our God for us.

She led us to Him: Each by our own path: with her: But only for Him.

God is good. Never Alone. He gave His life but Death did not hold Him.

We will see Him then And then we will arrive: yet Life is eternal.

Is always in truth And knowing truth eternal: We have His life now.

The Teresas tell Us so: told us in words and Deeds: in a shower

Of roses: became You those roses: in loving We bloomed late: arrived.

We hope for so much: And great the promises: great The life together.

No: we did not let The scattering of our time Occur: we gathered.

Gathered together In our little church: became A church: but little.

Small sanctuary Of a life: place of repose: In the peace of Christ.

There was storm and stress: Enough: but passing the rocks: In harbor: we arrive.

I fought myself Not you: you helped me win: win The battle for love.

For love of Him is: Will always be truth: our truth In the church we made.

We made a little World within the world: for Him And for her wisdom.

Shower of roses You received in our little World: I prayed for you.

And you lived for me. Grateful I watch you in your Task of life: you hope:

You wait patiently: For Him: for her: for what will Come: hoped for heaven.

We were strangers when We kissed: not now: I lost my Strangeness out of love.

Love me still: little One: pour on me your shouting: Oh that I could hear!

There was no other: No other one: no other Way: but we for Him.

Follow then: follow: And listen to me: follow Him: where I may be.

Summer is over: Day declines: we are older: Yet we are still near:

Nearer to the one: And dearer to each other: Abiding awaiting

No greater love than What we knew in our decade: We lived and moved and

Had our being in A marriage made by Him: yes We were made by Him.

Believe all things: yes Believe in love: believe in Our arrival in Him.

Not for us alone Did we become a city On a hill: still love

Decides what we will Be: we will let go later: Loves say we remain:

And in remaining Days of our love: making one Perfect place for Him.