End the Silence Campaign

how great thou art

silhouetted in ocean
you lick salt off your lips
swallow futures
you grow trees tall enough to hide
regret, pulled
atmosphere ballooned like a belly,
stitched to the earth
like a parachute,
we breathe each other’s breaths
until we’re dizzy with fumes

a country with roads halfway finished
gravel stops suddenly
against a barricade of trees, bowed
carving paths only for those with
heels made of the earth,
I am covered in your bark

waiting to crack.

Yay! Michelle joined us in writing! Here is her response to the writing prompt:

How great thou art

My toes curl at the thought of you
wishin. waiting. wanting just to be
falls of water avalanche down
how great thou art!

How Great Thou Art

your flesh folds over

as you curl yourself

then open. you’ve drooled

on my shoulder twice

since we collapsed into

each other last. you twitch

in your sleep

and while you operate the day

you glow

between the fluttering

but my these random bursts

lead me home.

Now we are going to write a poem inspired by Lucille Clifton’s “How Great Thou Art”

listen. You are beyond

even Your own understanding.

that ribandrain and clay

in all its pride,

its unsteady dominion,

is not what You believed

You were,

but it is what You are;

in Your own image as some

lexicographer supposed.

the face, both he and she,

the odd ambition, the desire

to reach beyond the starts

is You. all You, all You

the loneliness, the perfect

imperfection.

So now we will write a poem that begins “how great thou art” and take it wherever we want.

With potential’s passing

hand and welcoming embrace,

the broken bright, cracke me

open slow. Another body pillow

soaked in sleep walking trails.

The loose leaves fossilized.

When they read, years later

maybe they can tell folktales

of these minor triumphs.

I am a mighty mythology

taken in vain .

I asked God if she needed a drink…