Deliverance

For a long while – for decades – it was Home.
Not only in the reverent routine of Sunday mornings.
Also in the musical camaraderie
  of Tuesday evening jam sessions,
the Wednesday ladies’ earnest search for wisdom
  over strong coffee and butter tarts,
the youthful commotion of Friday nights.
 
It became a refuge especially in
  the quiet solitude of a random weekday.
Just me, the piano, and Peace –
  a sanctuary that stood in stark contrast
    to the inner tension of my performance as
      “good Christian woman”.
It was when I discovered Home there
-- and in the arms of a pine --
that I first started  
leaving it.
 
***
 
Today we voted to close the doors.
At last, I can lay down my fruitless
  striving to show them
    what I see beyond their box,
      my efforts to bring them along.
Let them cling to their life rafts of tradition –
I’m off to find the Spirit that is
  singing in the streets;
that unruly, wild Love that I feel
  moving in the forsaken,
    breathing in the boughs --
the god among the godless.