Finding touch of the divine in poetry

Spa City Universalists use power of words as inspirational force

A Black Lives Matter banner and a rainbow LGBTQ pride flag fly from the modest Unitarian Universalist church in Saratoga Springs.

The congregation’s diversity extends to how it embraces faith. Church minister the Rev. Joe Cleveland, for example, teaches tao te ching workshops. And on the last Sunday of each year since 2009, the sermon is swapped for a poetry slam. Congregants can share poems they wrote or connected with powerfully. Co-organizer Lauren Singer said that Unitarians find spiritual wisdom in many religions, as well as science and art.

“Ours is a religion of covenant rather than creed,” Singer said.

For 2020’s final Sunday, choices were eclectic, including the witty (Ogden Nash’s “Common Cold”), and pop cultural hits (“And the People Stayed Home,” a pandemic poem Oprah Winfrey praised in her magazine).

A dark, combative tone threaded through many selections.

Congregant Judith Thomas heard Kwame Alexander on the car radio reading poems about George Floyd, Barack Obama and Colin Kaepernick, including “The Undefeated.” Thomas said Alexander’s poem “compelled me to pull over! His words were meaty, succinct, rhythmical, direct. He spoke truth in a way that pulled you into his world and echoed. … I had to share

with the UUS.”

Pastor Cleveland’s 2020 lodestar is a poem by James Weldon Johnson, who’s famous for cowriting the song “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” known as the Black national anthem, sung by 1920s anti-lynching activists—and by Troy Black Lives Matter protesters last summer.

Another worshipper chose Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Sonnet 171, which urges justice warriors to fight even when the battle can’t be won. Another congregant shared “How to Watch Your Brother Die,” written by Michael Lassell at the dawn of the AIDS epidemic decades ago. The poem daringly

explores how a grieving brother copes with hatred, bigotry, bravery and the silence of God bombarded by desperate prayers. It resonates powerfully in today’s pandemic and explosive political landscape.

They seem like valuable poems for a 2021 spiritual toolbox.

Here are excerpts:

“How to Watch Your Brother Die” By Michael Lassell

When the call comes, be calm. Say to your wife, “My brother is dying. I have to fly to California.” Try not to be shocked that he already looks likea cadaver. Say to the young man sitting by your brother’s side, “I’m his brother.” Try not to be shocked when the young man says, “I’m his lover. Thanks for coming.” Listen to the doctor with a steel face on. Sign the necessary forms…drive to Mexico for unproven drugs that might help him live longer. Explain what they are to the border guard. Fill with rage when he informs you, “You can’t bring those across.” Begin to grow loud. Feel the lover’s hand on your arm restraining you. See in the guard’s eye how much a man can hate another man. Say to the lover, “How can you stand it?” Hear him say, “You get used to it.” Think of one of your children getting used to another man’s hatred…offer God anything to bring your brother back. Know you have nothing God could possibly want. Curse God, but do not abandon Him…stand beside a casket covered in white flowers.

Say, “Thank you for coming,” to each of 700 men who file past in tears, some of them holding hands…overhear two mourners say, “I wonder who’ll be

next?” and “I don’t care anymore,as long as it isn’t you”…take an early flight home. Fly first class and drink Scotch…think of your brother alive. Smile at the memory and think how your children will feel in your arms warm and friendly and without challenge.

“Sonnet 171” By Edna St. Vincent Millay

Read history, thus learn how small a space You may inhabit, nor inhabit long ... Work boldly; build your flimsy barriers strong; ... among the other hunting beasts, keep heart and face — ... trouble comes to all of us: the rat Has courage, in adversity, to fight; But what a shining animal is man, who knows, when pain subsides ... worse than that must follow — yet can write Music; can laugh; play tennis; even plan.

“The Undefeated” By Kwame Alexander

This is for the unforgettable, the swift and sweet ones Who hurdled history and opened a world of possible . ... This is for the unflappable, the sophisticated ones, Who box adversity and tackle vision, who shine their light For the world to see . ... This is for the unafraid, the audacious ones Who carried the red, white and Weary Blues. … The righteous marching ones who sang “we shall not be moved” because Black Lives Matter . ... This is for… the We Real Cool ones . ... This is for the Unbending . ... This is for the Underdogs and the uncertain . ... This is for The Undefeated. This is for you.

“The Quilt” by congregant Tena Bunnell

Sometimes the road was treacherous. The changes extreme The pain unbearable Until the pieces started coming together to form a patchwork of beauty and strength ... so have the changes created me. Now I know the more varied the pattern the more beautiful The Quilt.

"How to Watch Your Brother Die" was written decades ago at the dawn of the HIV epidemic but it resonates powerfully today in the midst of a fatal pandemic and explosive political divisions. The poem boldly explores how a man confronts bigoted lies, hatred, death and the silence of God to grieving prayers. As in other dark and compelling poems shared by at the last Sunday of 2020 service, the poet achieves clarity, purpose and understanding but not a traditional happy ending.

Alex Wong / Getty Kwame Alexander’s most recent poems focus on George Floyd and Colin Kaepernick. His poem, “The Undefeated,” hurtles through Black history’s iconic heroes including the cool, the sophisticated artists and the fearless, resolute marchers — Martin Luther King, Jr. and his supporters — who Alexander hails as the precursors of Black Lives Matter.

Provided photos The Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Saratoga Springs welcomes diversity in its congregation and its worship services, too. On the last Sunday of every year, worshippers share poems in lieu of a sermon.