No, I´m not Hildegarde

I find Luci Shaw´s poems fascinating, but sometimes they don´t make any sense to me. But this one seems to tell me that even though we´re just a BLOT in the eyes of God, still He loves us and cares about everything that happens to us. Tell me if I misunderstood it! Our life is but a blink, that´s for sure, even though we THINK that 60 or 70 or even 80 years is a long time. To God, these years are nothing compared to the eternity we will spend with Him.

NO, I’M NOT HILDEGARDE

Reprinted from Harvesting Fog, Copyright Luci Shaw 2010, Pinyon Publishing.

Used by permission of the author.

I’m merely a floater in the eye of God,

a flake of his winnowed chaff. A twig

from the tree at whose root his ax is laid,

if you believe Luke, and I do. I am a wisp

of the fog that blinds my world today. A drop

from a leaking tap. An odd button. A blot.

I’m less than the smallest bone of St. Catherine’s

withered fore-finger; in Sienna it’s preserved

behind glass and I’m not. I’m a loose tooth.

A hesitation of wind. The lost coin next found.

A river wrinkle come and gone. An eyelash

found by an ant in the dust. A blink.