I missed posting yesterday; so today’s post has poems for 2//28 as well as 2/29. Also, I’ve realized that some readers haven’t known that I was still posting. My fault, since I was adding each days to the bottom of the first post, which wasn’t easy to follow. With this post, I’m shifting to posting each day separately.

2/28/2024

. . . and placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

No going back—and only one way forward,

the path that’s muddied by our tears

and sown with foes. Behind us, deathly swords

that whirl and thrust. Within, a legion of fears

sprung from our own corrupt and anxious hearts,

and envy makes an enemy of a brother,

Cain killing Abel, and the kinder arts

yield to the war of each against the other.

And yet, though worn and tattered, hope of good

still sows our field with seed, still tends, still reaps

the harvest. Faithful still, it has withstood

the curse, rejoicing even as it weeps.

No going back. And yet we find all ’round

seedlings of Eden springing from the ground.

2/29/2024

SONNETS FOR MARY

ANNUNCIATION

Just what the angel’s words portended none

could truly know. In God’s long love affair

with humankind, nothing had ever gone

as planned. Isaiah knew a maiden would bear

Immanuel, but not a word was said

of how inopportune the birth would be

for you, unmarried—no word to ease your dread

of the abandonment that you could see

waiting there in the shadows. And you knew

from all the prophets that to be God’s friend

is dangerous. You pulled the faded blue

of your headscarf close and wondered how it would end—

and yet found hope enough in what you heard

to say, “To me according to your word.”