Tuesday, January 15, 2013

{Adagio: A Poetry Project} Les Mains


Today I give you a third offering of Adagio: A Poetry Project, a collaborative poetry writing project dreamed up by my beautiful friend, Elizabeth Marshall. 
Our first poem spoke of wordsmiths and dripping pens and pages stamped crimson.
Our second installment birthed two different poems (Elizabeth's and my own) written separately but, still, as an Adagio, in which we balanced and turned to the same music.
And then there is today's poem. 
Again, we have strung words on colored threads and woven them together into one piece.

Today's offering is also our way of participating in the first ever Poetry at Work Day, launched by the brilliant folks at Tweetspeak Poetry.
And although Elizabeth and I do not work in high rise offices or on construction sites or at the supermarket, there is still poetry to be found.
We are busy raising children and shaping hearts and pointing to the Divine
and all of that,
my friends,
is
poetry.
Photo credit: Hand by jamie neely on flickr
Les Mains

Your hands reach back
through inky curtains
worn, frail, thin
settling our shaky human brokenness
and
smoothing the broken shards of conscience
all the while
quelling a thousand restless swirling places
and
righting rattled beats

And then, as always
You are here
the warming sun your canopy
and I must grab hold of your shadow
for fear of sinking deep into
the pools of light
left in your wake
For the day
it keeps moving,
ray upon ray

Always
You reach forward
no more fevered pitch
or furrowed brow
You are slow
and steady
All that races
finds a peaceful pace
In a twinkling
the frozen is warmed
and the darkness becomes
Light

And as with all creation
Your hands
form a holy welcome
That longed for warm embrace
enveloping all restless souls
with grace

++++++++
It is our hope that you may want to write with us--your prose, your comments, your poetry--however you feel led. Our poem, Les Mains (French for 'hands'), talks of the power, the breadth, the warmth of God's reach. For us, our hands can be tools and vehicles for working, for writing, for loving. We would love to hear your thoughts on the multiple roles that hands play in the living out of your days. You are welcome to write in the comments here or at Elizabeth's. And feel free to link to any of your own writing that you would like to share.


 Poetry at Work-Hot

i'm a poetry chick

3 comments:

  1. Friend, this is so very beautiful. As I told Elizabeth, I feel refreshed and held after reading your collective words. Thank you.

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  2. Yes, I like this poem. The touch of human hands is only a faint suggestion of the Divine touch.

    "The hands of the King are the hands of a healer..." ~ Tolkien

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ashley,
    I saw your comments over at Elizabeth's place and I responded there but I'll say it her, too. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete