Philippians 1:9-11

I fancy God a farmer

who lost herself loving

within her satchel of seeds

in the womb-dark felt

the scratch of sackcloth

birth pangs and tumbled

out like eager rain

to the deep ground

To sow is to sow oneself

sew Earth and Heaven up

To fall is to flow oneself

            proclaim the river

            mouth from the new

            seam in the old veil

As with water from a pail

God floods ground with love

and it overflows up

as bright stems from

the scattered seeds

Return is only ever the longing

garden as winter breaks

(the word bursts

forth after falling

with joy to blessed

everything)

On the last morning

Christ says

I am here!

and Christ responds

righteous in the soil

How I have waited

and in the waiting

birthed myself within

seeds who Spirit roots

in the well of love!

As she harvests herself

I realize that all my life

is merely the arrival of Spring

and every bloom of beauty is

God growing God in me.

___

Aidan Stoddart’21 is a Comparative Study of Religion Concentrator in Eliot.