You declared your intentions
long ago, the covenantal wax
blood-red beneath your seal.
Like a bridegroom dressing
his bride in costly white
you declared your love
revealing yourself
in the rivers and the canyons
and the willows growing
wild, in every leaf
and every stone
in every vein pulled
tight beneath my skin
your name flows blue
and opal-white. How
readily you come to us
now parting the grass at dusk
now willing the shadows
to rise and ordaining the
stars by which we see.
Now calling the faithful
to see.
The Foundry
We asked him
what he was doing
and when he would be through
with the pounding and the heat
the hammer and the tongs
our only consolation his loud
songs of ages past and ages
yet to come. I heard it the other
day at last, the clap and the shudder
the full-throated note thrust out
into the street. It shook the air
like a church choir splitting
atoms and drove the birds
from their roost, booming pitch-
perfect to my bones. I saw its
beauty then, the curve, the flare,
the hammered rim, a trace of glory
in the polished brass, and I
stopped asking when
and fell down instead before
the barest glimpse of
God’s relentless grace.
Kirsten Lasinski is a Denver-based poet, author, and editor. Her poems have been featured in Copper Nickel, Fathom, Ruminate, Steam Ticket, and Time of Singing. She is currently finishing her third novel.