Cultural drift has relegated generosity to giving a slight smile when one’s heart may be a bit unwilling. I have found living generously to be far harder than this. Turning the will to freely give “the benefit of the doubt” in the face of painful assumptions and expectations is like turning a battleship … and finding love I did not expect.
Generosity
That which the oboe plays
The tender act of washing your face
Words inscribed in mother’s milk
Chipped loose from frozen earth
roots push into drinking position
Childish gazing at clouds
Night warms in the starlight of the preposterous
The charm of mirth Scorned ones lean into light
Grit so fine we call it beach
A place close to shore A broken wave peaks
and breaks again
The sea cannot be quiet it is always coming back
Being held feels good right up to the moment of pain
Call it elegance learning to diminish
I’m sure my father kissed me but I do not remember it
Poverty knows the sound of a whole note
A note to the reader: In Susan Cowger’s poetry, extra spaces between words serve as the pauses that punctuation normally provides. Capital letters denote the beginning of a new sentence.
The featured image is courtesy of Julie Jablonski and is used with her kind permission for Cultivating.
Poet and visual artist, Susan attends to image: water, sky, faces, flowers, and birds, oh the birds,
even rocks and pebbles, wherever beauty heals and anoints. Beauty ever provides when life feels
bereft. Susan has traveled to marvelous places worldwide and worked in Kenya with Spring of
Hope International. Now Susan and husband Dana live in Spokane WA. Married 47 years, they
have four children and 22 grandchildren (and yes, she finds that number rather shocking too).
“Poverty knows the sound of a whole note.” Wow, that last line….
Whatever lack we experience(d) that leaves a God-sized whole is clearly overshadowed when the God who is with us offer us His generous gifts.
This inventory of offerings is a beauty.