{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.