Thorncrown Chapel.

Peaceful in the Forest’s Serenity.

Interior of the Thorncrown Chapel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. Designed by E. Fay Jones in 1979, completed in July 1980. Chapel commissioned by Jim Reed, a retired schoolteacher, who envisioned a non-denominational pilgrimage chapel set apart for meditation. Photograph By EEJCC — Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=132537179. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

Thorncrown chapel
small and peaceful
non-denominational chapel,
Caught my imagination.

Past experiences
taught me,
Religion treads
fine line between
guidance and control,
My religious upbringing
unkind and unbending.

Over lifetime,
Seemed to me,
Many acquaintances
treated church as
“God in a box”,
Sunday services,
Enter church,
Praise the lord,
Dutiful offering,
Pious expression,
Disappear with
very respectful
saintly expression,
Life continues
’til next week.

My solace has
always been in
forest walks,
Peace and tranquility,
Time to ponder and
regenerate spirit.