I have a question for you, if you're game: what do you mean by haunting? I'd love to hear what aspects of it resonated for you in that way. Learning how readers interact with poems is really fun for me. :)
The image of the butterfly wings being ripped off is deeply unsettling for me. But it's the right kind of unsettled. We aren't meant to say glibly, "He'll work it for good" when someone is suffering. We are meant to sit with them in that pain and let it affect us. Your poem's imagery affects me like that. It defies my desire to package God into a theological package I can understand, similar to the way the book of Job unsettles me in my daily reading right now. Also, I was thinking of haunting the way C.S. Lewis talks about being pursued by God. Your poem looks closely at the natural world and then shows how God can pursue us, haunt us if you will, through the way he provides for the blacksnake's "callous fangs." I saw a blacksnake writhe up a tree at alarming speed one summer, and I have thought about it every time I climb a tree since then. I genuinely love this poem.
I'm honored that you took the time for such a complete reply! Thank you for the gift of your thoughts. You're echoing much of my own experience with God as I work through these Meditations in conversation with the way He works in the world and communicates with me. You're so right about how we're to be there for people who are going through suffering – a lesson I am slow to remember.
One of those paradoxes it sure is, blessings for one, woe for another. Great poem in many ways!
Thank you, Carole!
Amen! So well executed Mark. Not a syllable out of place, nor an image - and the poem's argument is carried off without a hitch.
Many thanks, Sam! I'm glad to hear that it worked well.
Stun. Ning.
Thank you, Tania! I appreciate you.
The darkness and light in your words is like a moving painting. Like chiaroscuro.
"The soft-shelled eggs that swell disguised/ inside "
Just beautiful.
Thank you, Ann! What a beautiful description of the give-and-take. I'm grateful for your insight.
Oh my goodness. This is wonderful.
Thank you, Margaret Ann!
Stunning on so many levels. Thank you. 🙏
Thank you, Kaylene!
This is haunting in just the right way. So well done.
I have a question for you, if you're game: what do you mean by haunting? I'd love to hear what aspects of it resonated for you in that way. Learning how readers interact with poems is really fun for me. :)
The image of the butterfly wings being ripped off is deeply unsettling for me. But it's the right kind of unsettled. We aren't meant to say glibly, "He'll work it for good" when someone is suffering. We are meant to sit with them in that pain and let it affect us. Your poem's imagery affects me like that. It defies my desire to package God into a theological package I can understand, similar to the way the book of Job unsettles me in my daily reading right now. Also, I was thinking of haunting the way C.S. Lewis talks about being pursued by God. Your poem looks closely at the natural world and then shows how God can pursue us, haunt us if you will, through the way he provides for the blacksnake's "callous fangs." I saw a blacksnake writhe up a tree at alarming speed one summer, and I have thought about it every time I climb a tree since then. I genuinely love this poem.
I'm honored that you took the time for such a complete reply! Thank you for the gift of your thoughts. You're echoing much of my own experience with God as I work through these Meditations in conversation with the way He works in the world and communicates with me. You're so right about how we're to be there for people who are going through suffering – a lesson I am slow to remember.
Thank you, Abigail!