Hello!

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Yesterday marked the beginning of the November Poem a Day Challenge #NovPAD and The Poetry Pub has offered a set of prompts for the event, #PoPubPAD. Day 1’s prompt to start us off was: Hello.

Here’s my attempt.

“Hello,” from halouen, “to shout in chase”
Or  hala “to fetch” in old high-German
A cry from one bank over the water
To get the crossed ferryman’s attention.

And though it was Mr. Bell’s invention,
Thomas thought, “Hello” was better to greet
The other in conversation, to tell
The receiver, I’m here, ready to speak.

“Hello,” is now a word of greeting
And in that way it may bring one to
the end of waiting, an invitation 
To say I am here and glad to see you.

Hello! I see you there. Do you hear me?
Can you help me across this divide,
Rivers of experience, years made wide,
By the current of circumstance and trial?

Hello! I call to get your attention
To catch your eye, to fetch your ear
Possibility calls with connection
What shall we say? Where go from here?

(c) Randall Edwards 2022

All Saints Day

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Here’s this week’s #twentywordtuesday poem which is a re-working of C.S. Lewis’ last sentence from his sermon, “The Weigh of Glory.”

The Water Who Thirsted

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Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 
John 4:6-7 

You may listen to me read the poem via the player below.

Thirsty, the Water asked of the woman
Who came to the well in the day’s heat,
“A drink, please,” though she, a Samaritan,
Not caring if it seemed indiscreet.

“But you have nothing by which I may draw
Water for you. Though it’s clean, still it’s deep.”
He pulled me with questions as if to call
Me out of the depths, rouse me from sleep.

Yet thirsty I was and to Water spoke:
My heart leaked with words, confession poured out;
Faith ebbed and pooled till my suspicion broke
To flood me with joy as love soaked my doubts.

And drinking, I am filled, full as the sea
Because of the water who thirsted for me.

Randall Edwards 2022
Artwork: James Tissot (French, 1836-1902). The Woman of Samaria at the Well (La Samaritaine à la fontaine), 1886-1894. Opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper, Image: 10 5/16 x 14 13/16 in. (26.2 x 37.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Purchased by public subscription, 00.159.69 (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 00.159.69_PS2.jpg)
#gospelofjohn#thepoetrypub#poetry

Job’s Ending

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Today’s is the last day for the November Poem a Day Challenge. Day 30’s prompt is appropriately, Endings.

I use it to wrap up a series of poems I’ve written over the past two months which have drawn their inspiration from the book of Job. This poems is based on Job 42.

You may listen to me read the poem via the player below.

There was nothing left to do
But put my hand over my mouth,
Not speak another word.

You are right and strong,
And though I still believe
I did nothing wrong,
I know you did not either.

For now my eye sees you,
Sees all that you have done,
Perceives something you will do,
And it is too wonderful for me;
For not only can You do all things,
But you will do everything
That needs doing.

I see the work of your hands
And something of their stretched span,
Something more than getting what’s owed,
Someone in between,
In between merely getting the reaping 
Of that which was sowed,
And the strong arm which can
Work or hold or let go.

Somewhere between the span of those two hands
Is a heart that will be betrayed and broken—
Broken open in an effusion of blood
And water and love.
I had heard of You, but I have spoken
Of things I did not understand,
Things I did not know.

And though I still sit on this heap of ash,
And though I have more questions I could ask,
I am at peace, am comforted, and at rest.
For I am Yours, and You are mine,
And that is best.
Now, whatever good You send 
Will not be the first but only the rest
And resting in You shall never end.

© Randall Edwards 2021
Artwork: Ilya Repin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons