Jeremiah 23:23 – Proof Enough

There is a myth that you are not here.
That you are not in the far fields and distant shores
that are too often my haunts.

A myth that if I cannot touch you,
you do not exist. That your time has passed,
and the waves that crash around me are merely inertia.

Myths are useful. They give life meaning.
They explain, and we hold dearly to them,
clinging to them like a child, often for dear life,

often past reason.

Most of us grow up. We stop to listen.
to open eyes. We breathe in the flowers
and their gentle sweetness.

We remember being saved by love
at the most unlikely times and places. Proof enough
of what is and is not real.

About this poem

Jeremiah 23:23 reads “Am I only a God nearby,” declares the LORD, “and not a God far away?” It is one of the verses I will be preaching from this Sunday, so it has been rattling around in my head all week.

A poem about God. A poem about love. Poetry is never about one thing.

The picture was taken in Rye, NH.

Tom