Cathryn Dutton, CVV 18
I composed this poem thinking about the ties to service and those less fortunate that my service with CVV instilled in me. There are so many things in the world that try to pull us out of our purpose of being companions on the journey and so many circumstances in the world, especially as of late, that try to make the disadvantaged even more disadvantaged and would make it very hard for people who are committed to loving and walking with the poor to do so. I try, as a teacher and a servant of Christ and my fellow man, to do my best to serve others and remember always what ties me to my purpose and holds me fast even when other things get in the way. This poem is a just a small reflection of those feelings.
Unbreakable
Like ropes anchoring a heavy boat, they tie me
When swaying seas rock the vessel threatening to overturn it, spilling its goods from fore to aft
Pulling pieces of plank from the dock
Splashing salty signs of shipwreck for every sailor to see–to take note, to be wary of the danger that looms in the ocean below
They hold fast
They are frayed
They are old and sodden and salt speckled
They used to bear a honey hue and now they are brown, muddy, and crusted with years of sea lashings and heavy ships and hearts tugging relentlessly on them
But they do not break
They will not break
The God that summoned the sea water and breathed fresh ocean air into dolphins and seagulls and crabs crawling across the beach
Once breathed determination into the fingertips of the men who weaved these ropes
Whose intention was always for these ropes to hold to a vessel and keep it shore bound
For that boat is not meant to be rocked on jagged waters
Tossed about mercilessly in the eye of a storm
It is to stay docked
It doesn’t belong to the water
It belongs to the people
For at its helm is the heart of a woman who looks seaward
And sees what is to come
She hears the men and women and children on the shore she guards
Hungry
Hurt
Homeless
And knows that in the sea there is nothing for them
It is too frequent that the sea touches the dock these days
But on the shore, the God that brought dolphin and seagull and crab and the rough hands of men who just want to do something good into being, prevails
He is King
A King who summons smiles
Decrees dancing
And heralds hope unto the hopeless
Though the sea may lash and taunt the boat to venture out atop its waves
The ropes that hold it fast will not give way
For they are God’s ropes
Tethers of love and resilience
And they will hold that boat securely on its people’s shore
And will salvage the holy vessel until the time has come that what lies ahead and beneath has less teeth, less cold deadly pull, less opportunity to drown, devour, and decay
Until then, the ropes will hold
And the people on the shore will smile amidst hunger, dance in spite of dread, and know that hope has walls thick enough to shelter anyone
And I will keep watch
Tossed though I may feel
Bright and blue that the ocean may appear some days
I will keep my perch atop the eagles nest
With my heartstrings tied to the shore and my eye on the horizon
