This month I am pleased to present the following poem by Sam Aureli. Originally published in Braided Way: Faces and Voices of Spiritual Practice on October 19, 2026, the poem is posted here with permission of the poet. –– BLR
The Plain-Spoken Heart
Jesus didn’t mumble about love—
no footnotes scratched in dirt,
no ledger of debts to square.
He said it flat,
like a stone dropped in a well:
love the ones who sour your bread,
who knot your days with thorns.
We’re good at hate, though,
a craft we’ve honed,
sharpening grudges,
grinding out blood and broken teeth.
But to stand there,
face slapped red,
and let grace leak out—
that’s the work.
Mercy’s a bent nail,
hard to drive straight.
Violence meets violence
like dogs in a ditch,
snarling over the same bone.
We could keep it up forever ––
a clock with no face,
ticking toward nothing.
Or we could stop,
stare at the mess,
and try loving
the bastard anyway.
Three of The Invisible Map readers responded to last month’s dispatch, “The Gift Must Always Move.”
Audrey Hackett writes: “I wanted to say that I love your piece on giving and receiving…. I am in the midst of my own deep experience of “giving and receiving” as a result being named in the will –– and designated a co-administrator of the estate –– of a former professor. This relationship was, I thought, left in the past of my youth, yet it has reached into my midlife present, calling me to make all sorts of decisions about whether and how to benefit –– and how to benefit others. Your reflection will be a companion on the way. [I am reminded of] Lewis Hyde’s The Gift? The book is wonderful –– subtle and idea-rich -–– and it dovetails with your thinking about how “gift energy” must move.
Beth Staggenborg writes: “You grabbed me with your reflection on the estate sale decisions about the bunk beds. Throughout my life I have been generous … to a fault. Only in my elder years have I understood how important reciprocity is to the exchange. Friends have cautioned me when receiving a gift, even a compliment, to “just say thank you” and not feel compelled to shift the balance [by] offering something in return or as you did discarding a well thought out sale price to offer the items for free. I like the idea that “the gift should always move.” I will try to internaize that!
Fiona Ball writes: “Your story on giving and receiving is a common theme for those of us brought up to give …. only to learn later in life the deeply satisfying gift of receiving. I recall realizing [that] constant giving disabled those who are given to [when] the pathway to give back is blocked. The analogy that comes to mind is something that occurred consistently during my teaching practice. Working with young children is like walking a fine line, giving too much disallows independent learning, giving too little is a missed opportunity to scaffold the child’s experience. Perhaps the secret is balance between the giving and receiving using intuition and experience to guide us?
Do you have your own words to share? I’d love to hear from you. Contact me via the Contact page. –– BLR
Top Image:Braided Way
Side bar image: Pixabay/Sabine van Erp
