Forgiveness seems simple for minor offenses. The more damage, the more justice nips at your heels demanding, if not retribution, then at least a hearing, some sense of being heard. Yet to be forgiven I must forgive … find a way to wash and be washed.
DEAD-MAN FLOAT
—fear and forgiveness meet
Talk to me God
as I wade into the tide Must I
hold it right here
Lean into the drench Spread myself
over the surface face the water Is that it face-down
and stay put
allow briny swells into my ears while eyes burn staring
into foggy deeps The mind nowhere else to go
can it calm
every single cell with that one big breath
Prone and limply flat I hover as chaos unwinds
Must I allow
water to have its way with long
loose curls It’s not how I want to look
tossed by waves
not moving a muscle riding the chop & swell facing
undertow unstoppable Ugh is this
giving in to all that remains
beyond me the place where lungs grasp what is
most alive the heart screaming for air Hush hush
you say I must
suspend unbelief for glass-like wonder Allow
my will to lip the surface No gurgling prayers
No words
for being done Am I almost done letting go of no
rescue In the end I’m left standing you with me
free
together we link elbows
walk in shallows as one
unafraid forgiven Amen
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, “Cattails by the Pond,” 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).
Add a comment
0 Comments