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.