This poem also appears in the February 2024 issue of U.S. Catholic (Vol. 89, No.2, page 8). Click here to subscribe to the magazine.
The Blessings of Water
We are flesh made for water, bone and soul.
Our thirst cries out, gritty voices longing for
still waters, the promise of rescue.
Delivering the remnant from the gnashing flood,
drenching the Nile with frogs and parting
the Red Sea swallowing Pharoah.
God instructing Moses to rod-strike a rock
quickening it into water, washing Naaman’s
leprosy away, and splitting the Jordan so Joshua
and the twelve could enter the promised land.
Jesus stilling the harrowing storm, walking
on the Galilee and filling parched ears
with parables from a rippling boat.
Sacraments sealed with water.
Baptisms, Siloam healings, Eastertide
sprinklings, calming rains from a cloud canopy
refreshing us like sunflowers, rains and dewfall
greening the countryside with the blessings
of the harvest, pools and ponds reflecting
heaven’s nightly buoys, the stars.
Our lives are written in water. The womb’s sea
brings us into the world and sprinkling
holy water over our gravesite carries us out,
out into the Deep.
