I composed this poem thinking about the ties to service and those less fortunate that my service with CVV instilled in me. There are so many things in the world that try to pull us out of our purpose of being companions on the journey and so many circumstances in the world, especially as of late, that try to make the disadvantaged even more disadvantaged and would make it very hard for people who are committed to loving and walking with the poor to do so. I try, as a teacher and a servant of Christ and my fellow man, to do my best to serve others and remember always what ties me to my purpose and holds me fast even when other things get in the way. This poem is a just a small reflection of those feelings.

Unbreakable

Like ropes anchoring a heavy boat, they tie me

When swaying seas rock the vessel threatening to overturn it, spilling its goods from fore to aft

Pulling pieces of plank from the dock

Splashing salty signs of shipwreck for every sailor to see–to take note, to be wary of the danger that looms in the ocean below

They hold fast

They are frayed

They are old and sodden and salt speckled

They used to bear a honey hue and now they are brown, muddy, and crusted with years of sea lashings and heavy ships and hearts tugging relentlessly on them

But they do not break

They will not break

The God that summoned the sea water and breathed fresh ocean air into dolphins and seagulls and crabs crawling across the beach

Once breathed determination into the fingertips of the men who weaved these ropes

Whose intention was always for these ropes to hold to a vessel and keep it shore bound

For that boat is not meant to be rocked on jagged waters

Tossed about mercilessly in the eye of a storm

It is to stay docked

It doesn’t belong to the water

It belongs to the people

For at its helm is the heart of a woman who looks seaward

And sees what is to come

She hears the men and women and children on the shore she guards

Hungry

Hurt

Homeless

And knows that in the sea there is nothing for them

It is too frequent that the sea touches the dock these days

But on the shore, the God that brought dolphin and seagull and crab and the rough hands of men who just want to do something good into being, prevails

He is King

A King who summons smiles

Decrees dancing

And heralds hope unto the hopeless

Though the sea may lash and taunt the boat to venture out atop its waves

The ropes that hold it fast will not give way

For they are God’s ropes

Tethers of love and resilience

And they will hold that boat securely on its people’s shore

And will salvage the holy vessel until the time has come that what lies ahead and beneath has less teeth, less cold deadly pull, less opportunity to drown, devour, and decay

Until then, the ropes will hold

And the people on the shore will smile amidst hunger, dance in spite of dread, and know that hope has walls thick enough to shelter anyone

And I will keep watch

Tossed though I may feel

Bright and blue that the ocean may appear some days

I will keep my perch atop the eagles nest

With my heartstrings tied to the shore and my eye on the horizon