October 28, 2009 | 2:01 am

This Ground

Posted by Emily Stern

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Standing on this ground
Always having been
Never haven known
how to admit my woes,
i feel the squish between my toes
wishing myself on the side of right
where serenity abounds
until I land on higher ground.

but there is love here, if I let it be there,
so I welcome
the glare
From the judgment
that’s lifting
Where old paths of justice
are finally shifting
And I’m sifting
through
this mossy shame
Before throwing it away.

Devoted to the aesthetics
of tree trunks and rivers,
Chutes and ladders of a
Rerouted day deliver
Pillars of progression
Filtering lesson after
Lessening the journey
Of one way.

                Take the socks off my feet,
                i would heal the earth,
                but she’s here healing me.
                I am a woman who stands when she’s called,
                threats are a challenge, or mean nothing at all.
                I am a woman of tea cups and listening
                of a candle alight with simplicity that’s glistening.
                beauty is wine, growing deeper with time,
                blessed with a voice to speak, with a song to sing
                and the ability to release what I need not bring,

I’m wholly impressed
by this perfectionist
Choosing to use the most perfect word, Let.
Let the wildebeest come and undress her roar
Let your commandments nourish the love that I thaw,
Let me trust in faith beyond the wounds I bear
Let me be still long enough to feel the air,
Let the truth be sung till we all understand
we have always stood on the promised land.

                    Like the bird on stilts
                    Where what’s the point,
                    Anoint this ground,
                    sisters, anoint.

For natural catastrophes
No longer seem to worry me
my spirit and this song
Are free but joint,

                    take the socks off my feet,
                    i would heal the earth,
                    but she’s healing me.

                     
                        -This Ground,
                  © april 2007 Emily Stern