Art and LiteratureLife and FaithMarriageParenthoodPoetry

Like So Many Things

Like So Many Things

Through invisible fissures
bones invested the jelly
and were spooled around
with veins that traced
a floating scaffolding
of fibers, twitching
with electricity, suffused
with untouched blood
newly made for this alone.

This new being is like a heron
perched on the concrete box
that catches the beach
after the hurricane
swept away the sand.
How still he stands before
he lifts into the heavy air,
rolling his wings once
and gliding inches clear
of the water that pulses
as if it were breathing.

As if it were simple,
this thing moves forward
like a band of light
that all at once streams
over the mountain ridge.
Even though it traveled
for hours, encircling
the earth completely,
there was a moment
when it reached the limbs
of the trees, and their leaves
were undone with light.

When I reach toward this life
that lies between us, breathing
her own soft breath,
I feel that it is safe to trust
in this light that is unpredictable,
that moves directly
from one place to another,
that comes from nowhere
and suffuses everything,
that is like so many things–
the heron’s silent course,
the sand that pulls away,
the fulness of your thigh
beneath the waves
of the Potomac River.

 

 

Photo credit
Daniel Hyland

Daniel Hyland

Daniel is a Catholic writer and voice artist living in the Shenandoah Valley with his wife and daughter. He believes in the power of beauty in life, nature and art as a tool of evangelism, and seeks to follow Christ through study, work and prayer. His favorite book of the Bible is the Song of Songs because of the stunning intimacy it presents both with regard to the sacrament of marriage and the marital union with God to which every soul is called in Christ. He is the proud owner of a small collection of facial hair, charitably termed a mustache.

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