Wednesday, February 2, 2011

The arms of the fatherless

Always in the eyes:
violence, done;
innocence, pillaged;
oppression, afflicted;
spirit, separated;
hope, abandoned.

The arms of the fatherless
are broken.

Seen in the heart:
to deliver, defend;
to help, share a portion;
to take up, relieve;
to show mercy, find;
among us always.

The arms of the fatherless
are broken
until bound up.

This poem is submitted for The High Calling’s Random Act of Poetry. The prompt was to write a poem to or in honor of an orphan, someone who has adopted an orphan, or your own adopter. Check the comments in the post to see links already submitted; they will all be collected for an article this Friday.

Photograph: Sole Provider, sculpture by Joe Mutasa, presented by the artists of Zimbabwe and Chapangu Sculpture Park in memory of those who died Sept. 11, 2001, a gift to the people of the United States for the Missouri Botanical Garden.
at

15 comments:

  1. Louise GallagherFebruary 2, 2011 at 7:52 AM

    Heartbreaking and Hopeful.

    ReplyDelete
  2. MaureenFebruary 2, 2011 at 8:20 AM

    What a lovely memorial from Zimbabwe.

    So much weight is carried in that line "The arms of the fatherless/are broken". Yet, as Louise says, hope is in the heart.

    ReplyDelete
  3. JerryFebruary 2, 2011 at 8:38 AM

    Oh yes Gylnn, as long as there is a fractured humanity there will be broken arms.
    He heals the broken arms though us and he heals the broken hearted.
    Very tight message. Well done.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousFebruary 2, 2011 at 10:04 AM

    Oh, those last two lines...

    ReplyDelete
  5. L.L. BarkatFebruary 2, 2011 at 10:37 AM

    I liked the same phrase Maureen pulled out. We are all on a journey for father, I think-- for some kind of final holding.

    ReplyDelete
  6. SimplyDarleneFebruary 2, 2011 at 11:32 AM

    Glynn, the reading your words alongside the statue image is like hearing it's shadow speak.

    I was raised in fatherless arms--until I met God almost eight years ago. His grip is tight, indeed!

    Blessings.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousFebruary 2, 2011 at 11:41 AM

    We can be the one to "bound up," can't we? Isn't that what this is, a call to binding, but a binding unto freedom?

    ReplyDelete
  8. jim schmotzerFebruary 2, 2011 at 11:44 AM

    we can only and always hope for life and peace for all.

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousFebruary 2, 2011 at 12:18 PM

    What a picture. Wonderful way to describe it. Thanks Glynn.

    ReplyDelete
  10. AnonymousFebruary 2, 2011 at 12:46 PM

    Beautifully touching.

    ReplyDelete
  11. LindaFebruary 2, 2011 at 12:55 PM

    So touching Glynn, and so heartbreakingly true.

    ReplyDelete
  12. David K WheelerFebruary 2, 2011 at 2:36 PM

    I appreciate your sense of contrast, of brokenness and redemption.

    ReplyDelete
  13. LauraFebruary 2, 2011 at 6:28 PM

    Yes, the Sole Provider is stunning! The truth in your poem makes me feel sad, until the end and I remember.

    ReplyDelete
  14. UnknownFebruary 4, 2011 at 11:23 PM

    'Always in the eyes'

    Yes, right away and to the end, so, so true...always in the eyes. always in the eyes.

    and they are what you remember long after you've seen them face to face...or even in a magazine or on tv or wherever, but especially face to face...

    ReplyDelete
  15. JohnFebruary 21, 2011 at 9:54 AM

    Powerful yet sad. I'm glad there is hope for the fatherless. Their story can be one from victim to victory!

    ReplyDelete