clearing 3

Patrick Friesen
From:   the breath you take from the lord. Harbour Publishing, 2002.

when god tears at your heart or you think that's it you want that to be it
   angels perhaps or demons
when you need something to shape suffering something to hold it with
   intention

when the night deepens and you stand slow and waiting for your eyes to
   take in the trees
when you make your way through deadfall scraping your arms on the
   knuckles of a poplar

when the clearing flares with light the moon's brilliance carefully milking
   the thistle
when the stone pile glistens and cools sun's heat rising into the lowering
   sky

when nothing my god happens nothing in the vastness of your small rash
   living
when you have to laugh at the end of yourself at the god you think you've
   reached

when you crouch at a cold bethlehem as a constellation wheels across the
   clearing
when the offering you brought lies scattered at your feet and the only gift
   a broken heart

when you watch as you always have from the edge suddenly aware
   something breathes behind you
when you fear the darkness of bush the animal there but no safety in the
   clearing

when you find the body of the child struck down in its ecstasy of light and
   lamentation
when you step into the barefoot prayer at last when you pass into the open
   night

Poem 1 | Poem 2 | Poem 3 | Poem 4 | Poem 5 | Poem 6

Patrick Friesen's works copyright © to the author.