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Showing posts with label Margo Swiss. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Margo Swiss. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Poem 012

Covenant

1. Lip Service

The word went forth
with a holy wind-----blew in
but broke off-----suddenly—
the very mouth-----charged to proclaim
clammed shut-----fallen
asleep-----dead to the world
ears-----deaf to the singing—
hard-hearted-----paying only
lip service-----to the thirsty
turned back from the waters.

Forsaken-----instead
they were made
to bed down-----in briers and thorns
suffer for a season
at the hands of the wicked.

2. Praise

In time-----another came
God-sent-----to witness
Truth-teller-----pronouncing sentence
while the Word teemed-----raining into
silences-----re-sounding aloud
with a gasping-----mouth
the earth cracked-----open
and the land began
to breathe-----again.

The people rejoiced
ate and drank and-----came
to know God
with a full heart
they went forth-----praising.

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Margo Swiss of Toronto, Ontario teaches Humanities and English at York University. She is the author of Crossword: A Woman's Narrative, and her forthcoming collection The Hatching of the Heart (Poiema Poetry Series/Cascade Books). The source of "Covenant" is Isaiah 55.10-11.