This poem is about the prevailing stoicism of my decades of church experience — in my case, among United Methodists. I am not a big crier, but I openly wept in front of the congregation a number of times over the years. It took many years for me to truly realize how odd this was. I can’t actually remember another congregant openly weeping in front of the congregation. Now, some of this may be my poor memory. Plus, I grew up in an emotionally staid family — though this might actually bolster me making note of emotional displays when they do occur. What strikes me now is how, in a place where people come to relate to their deepest concerns, deep and open emotional displays so rarely manifest. I suspect that the high intellectualism of United Methodists and the prevailing value of “control” in American culture account for much of it. It has been years since I left the institutional church, though, as a tip of the hat to deep stoicism, I don’t find myself crying about it…
Soul Expressions
In church
Of awe places
How men he
Poignant moments
Must one be down with
To well
Up
Too cry in sanctuary
Affront of a congregation staid
It was decades form me
Those few times
Without
Even a model
Too fallow
Soully too learn
Engendering stoicism
Is more than mirrorly a guise thing
Awash in spirited a weigh
Razing quest in
Of what
The matter
With such soul expressions
Running lapse
Round such squares
“We can no more win a war than we can win an earthquake.”
