Wandering Heart: Second Sunday of Easter: Poem

Here's My Heart (Inspired by "The Lanyard" by Billy Collins*)

As a child I made a nativity

set for my mother—

pinch pot clay, uneven

angel wings,

hair made with the help of a

garlic press,

Joseph’s staff rolled out like

I was God

and it was an earthworm.

There was nothing beautiful

about it,

nothing whispering of talent,

but I made it for my mother!

So I wrapped

that questionable piece of

art in a box

and gave it to her

like I was handing her

a Picasso.

Here, mother,

you carried me in your womb.

You bandaged my knees

when I fell.

You made soup when

I was sick.

You rocked me to sleep as

an infant

and sewed my costumes

by hand.

In return, I made you this

haphazard nativity!

And in my childlike mind,

I thought that the small

white lamb,

molded from a lumpy piece

of clay,

could somehow make us even,

could somehow balance

the scales,

could somehow pay her back.

And bless my mother,

because in her grace,

she smiled and she

displayed that

hodge-podge nativity set

on the mantel

as if it were her pride and joy.

(I believed that it was.)

Maybe that’s the way it is

with God.

I say, Here’s my heart

and God smiles.

And God takes it.

And despite the ragtag nature

of my human-hearted faith,

whatever I can give always

ends up on God’s mantel.

Whatever I can give always

calls for pride and joy.

Poem by Rev. Sarah Speed

 

* “The Lanyard” from The Trouble with Poetry: and Other Poems by Billy Collins. (Random House, 2005).

reprinted with permission from A Sanctified Art