Season 3, Episode Four
Today’s guest is Fr. Teri Haroun. Her pronouns are she/her/hers, and she is a gluten-free, gummy-bear loving poet, parent, and priest. She serves as pastor at Light of Christ in Longmont, Colorado and enjoys reading, crocheting, walking, and moose-ology (all the things you learn about God when you get yourself caught between a mama moose and her babies). She is also in Marta’s Doctor of Ministry cohort at Iliff School of Theology. We talk about the joy of choosing your own name, about sacramental justice, and about how the pandemic has helped us to focus into our callings.
Resources!
Learn more about the Ecumenical Catholic Communion movement, and Teri’s church, Light of Christ in Longmont, CO
Check out Barbara Brown Taylor’s book, Learning to Walk in the Dark
Poetry by Teri Haroun
“daffodil, Incarnation, Christ”
the first daffodil is a prophet
in our midst
rising from dirt
and hollowed darkness
having broken seed and ground
responding to light
persistent like spring
shouting yellow like a megaphone
for cheerleaders
and lead cheerers alike
before butterflies and lady bugs
instead arriving with the worms and robins
from her earthen womb
a birth announcement
that there is more to come
more birthing
more yellowing
more lighting
more robins
and butterflies too
the prophetic cantor
singing
polkas for one
today
but tomorrow
a festival
of prophets and priests
and other party goers
dusting off dirt
in resurrection’s wake
©️ Teri Harroun, 2020
“not afraid of the dark”
no one taught the girl child to be
afraid
of the dark
so she wasn't,
the blueberry night sky
would beckon her from dreams;
she'd sit
like ancients
on magic carpet patches of grassy knolls
enveloped by the cavern beauty
night
one night she stood,
stretched
and found the flame in her pocket
stretched some more
to light the moon,
having not learned to be afraid of the dark
the night
she was ready to teach
all are welcome now
to partake of that full communion, moon
elevated over an earthen altar
her blood in the chalice called human body
priestess child
with more flame still in her pocket
©️ Teri Harroun, 2018
"Poetry 101"
in the poetry workshop
she learned
to write the poem
and then eliminate the last line
and they lived happily ever after,
is now eliminated
and it was all fine,
just fine,
until she started to wonder
where those last lines went;
to index cards
or a list in a notebook?
scratched out with pink pen
or smudged with a wet finger?
do they know each other?
those removed last lines.
index cards living in the same box?
or are they all individually fated,
a compost bin with the coffee grounds most likely
perhaps we each
were once the last line of a poem
removed from one poem
to begin another
she imagines taking all those last lines
the jagged edges and the misfits
and putting them altogether
to love in the same poem now
stitched together with
garden twine and simple sunshine
and a drop of dew on the rose petals
with a newly discovered basement out back
holding the stories
of women creating and waiting
for that last line
to be put into a poem
or a prayer
or even a runaway
©️Teri Harroun, 2020
“medicine”
we are like the rocks
our medicine is deep within
our holiness attracts the children
who keep us in their pockets as treasure if they can
or climb upon our sturdy bounty
perhaps the pebble that changes the lake
forever
and all the colors can be found in the rocks
and all the shapes
and all the sizes
and all are part of the sacred rock
earth
© Teri Harroun 2017
“it is not a sin to wear pants"
it is not a sin to wear pants
Mulan, St. Joan of Arc, Marinus, Pope Joan, Anne Bonny
it is not a sin to wear pants
to disguise yourself
as a man
to do the things
peculiarly
reserved for men,
it is not a sin to wear pants
to be pirate or priest
or military might
to study in university
to travel in safety
or farm on you own,
it is not a sin to wear pants
be subversive, oh, be subversive
claim what is yours
live what you dream
pave for the next generation
or mine,
it is not a sin to wear pants
one day little girls
will be inspired by you
your courage
your creativity
your persistence,
and they will wear pants
but not in disguise,
it is not a sin to wear pants
©️Teri Harroun, 2017
