God's Gift

Eternity rang

As God delivered His gift

From heaven's splendor

To earth's clay:

Demons trembled

Angels sang

A mother smiled

A baby cried out.

Eternity quaked

As God delivered His gift

From heaven's mercy

To earth's cross:

Angels trembled

Demons smiled

The Father turned away

A mother cried out.

Eternity thundered

As God delivered His gift

From earth's tomb

To heaven's victory:

A mother trembled

The Father smiled

Angels sang

Demons cried out.

Eternity resounded

As God delivered His gift

From earth's mortality

To heaven's glory:

Demons trembled

Angels sang

The Son smiled

Man cried out.

God delivered man

Delivered

His gift.

© Avril VanderMerwe 2004

Low Tide

The shore lies emptied,   

Exposed by the ebb of a tide   

Retired to collect itself –   

Its absence leaving     

Leaden sand to bear   

The weight of my slog   

Through the landscape of a loss   

Strewn with the detritus of broken   

Shells that once sheltered     

Teeming life.  

Overhead the keen     

Of a gull rouses me to collect     

Myself and the gleam of white feather   

Set against bright ocher  

Of shining pebble     

At rest beside rose-tipped,  

Unbroken shell: gifts bequeathed     

By waters withdrawn to whisper     

And shift and waken my eyes to see    

The tide has turned.

© August 2012