February 2022 Poetry Column
Dr. Latayne C. Scott・02/15/22
This poetry column will be a bit different than the past ones I’ve done which in which I included a poem along with a scripture and a brief devotional thought. Thinking of February as the month of romantic love, I’ll share some poems on that theme.
COVENANT
You have returned
As a gift of perfume
That is brought on the wind
From a faraway place--
I have a need now
For a covenant:
And so I willingly cut this victim,
My heart,
And invite you to walk between the halves.
(The pain confirms this love:
Having this pain
Is far far better
Than not
Having this pain)
Time,
That burner and destroyer,
Laps at the offering.
It is graced by your fragrance
And I am filled with joy.
(Genesis 15:8-20)
JOURNEY
Though I have traveled away from,
My heart turns toward
There remains no name in my soul's lexicon
For this ache;
A hurting that is dulled only by
The constant mining of the
Riches of memory.
The baring of myself continues
And reproduces itself like mindless amoeba.
It cannot exist without
Its own confession of itself
To you, the object of all,
The point of my nakedness.
What I have traveled away from,
My heart turns toward;
I am breaking all the rules of
My childhood's dearly-held autonomy;
Giving you that which could not be
Bought or beaten from me before.
In anguish, I traveled away from.
Now, my heart turns toward
You:
Your eyes, my mecca,
Your touch, my home.
MIZPAH'S LESSON
You have broken
Even the rules:
You have stolen from me
Only what I urged you to take.
You have penetrated my
Impenetrable fortresses
Without a battle.
You have overcome physics
By being close to me
When you are far away.
You have transcended language
By speaking with me
When you are not here.
You have denied mathematics
By teaching me
That one
Plus one
Is no longer two.
ANNIVERSARY HAIKU
Rousing from sleep, I
Wonder: Is this the face that
Launched my only ship?
****************
Dr. Latayne C. Scott is the recipient of Pepperdine University’s Distinguished Christian Service Award for “Creative Christian Writing,” and is Trinity Southwest University’s Author in Residence. Guidepost’s newest book release is Angels All Around Us: True Stories of Encounters with God’s Heavenly Messengers, in which her essay, “The Warrior Angels” appears. The author of over two dozen published books, guest appearances on radio, television and podcasts, and thousands of published short essays and poems, she lives and writes in New Mexico. She maintains three websites: Latayne.com, mapmyfaith.org , and Representationalresearch.com.