I Witness Guest Blogger: Ruth Moose
In a writing workshop about Wide Open Spaces: Women Exploring Call through Stories and Reflection, participants were asked to choose a prompt to write about from the end of the chapter I wrote in the book called “More than Skin Deep.” Ruth Moose, a Chapel Hill author and poet, chose to use the prompt “God as poet of the world.” This phrase is a quote from Alfred North Whitehead’s writing about God that I mention in my essay. Below is what she wrote in response to this prompt. Thank you, Ruth, for being an “I Witness” guest blogger.
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Oh Lord, you made the balloon
Big as a moon, yellow as sun
And you set it down
In the rolling pastures
At the end of my street.
Thank you.
And you made
The black and white cows
Leave their pond of green
Water, come and worship
At the wonder.
God of things living
And made, days of sunshine,
Rain, mist and storms,
You play well among
The toys of this world.
We marvel at wonders
Great and small
From the dark-eyed
Anole to the black
And yellow spider
Who makes a string
Quilt of dew, decorates
It with bugs, winged things.
Oh spare the butterfly,
The moth, the wayward
Hummingbird, the little
Clubfooted mouse
Who had never seen
Much beyond his mother’s
Watch. Spare him
The cat’s claws.
Spare him the cave
Of the wet mouth
Behind the jagged
Gate of cat’s teeth.
Let the nurses in blue
Help and heal In your warm
Lights.
Listen for the singing
Grasses, the sighs of trees.
God, you are the poet
Of this place, the lord
Proprietor of this place,
The one who teaches
Kindness and that love
Is larger than the universe.
God of water
Make it blue and pure,
Cool to drink, to cleanse
Us over, in and under
As we rock with this
Tilting world, this boat
That carry so many of us
On this crazy journey
Into darkness, that haunted
Cave we cannot see, nor know
The end. Put your sure
Hand on our shaking shoulder
And be there in the boat
As we go through
This fun house
where mirrors don’t ever
Tell the truth and laughter…
Is an easy sound of caring.
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Ruth Moose is the author several books, articles, and collections of poetry. You can find out more about her work at http://www.mainstreetrag.com/RMoose_2.html
This poem really unites the imagery of sound and sight in a creative way – the way the mirror at the end reflects truth and laughter, caring… the actual joins with the conceptual.