Living Worship – a poem

saintphilipsnorwood ♦ March 26, 2013 ♦ Leave a comment

“I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Rom. 12:1

The floury palm that presses once again

into the yielding dough, it is “I love”

that wrings the sopping rag and scours the pan,

that knows the choicest spot to stroke above

the ear or underneath the chin – each form

of kindly touch or labor is “I love”.

The fingers settling root and seed and corm

into the crumbling loam, the hands that move

to draw the thread through cloth or thought through pen,

through brush and clay the shadows glories prove –

to trace the labor of those scarred hands

that formed the all from nothing is “I love”.

For Love Himself is bread and breath and fire,

mold of my clay and spring of my desire.

Kathryn Boswell