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By waters withdrawn to whisper     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    

Deeper

When bruising winds

Reap ruin: bereft,

When my heart starts to

Crumble,

Lead me, O Lord

To Your Rock's cleft:

Deeper into Him.

When fierce clouds frown

With lowering brow,

When life's foundations

Tremble,

O Lord, may I

For shelter go

Deeper into Him.

When breakers surge

With sickening heave,

When walls begin to

Tumble,

In Your voice, Lord,

Deep calls to deep:

Deeper into Him.

© 2004 Avril VanderMerwe

Alabastar Jar

Alabastar Jar

This broken vessel,

Lord, I lay

At Your scarred feet,

Where shattered shards

Of splintered heart

And Your great mercy

Meet.

This alabaster

Jar that held

Life’s woken dreams –

In ruins now –

Each piece I place

Where nail-pierced grace

Redeems.

Release sweet fragrance

Lord, I pray,

Costly though it be,

From life poured out

Of brokenness

Surrendered, Lord,

To Thee.

© Avril VanderMerwe 2003

Glory

Easily captivated

By a Glory

Whose radiance washes

All other worlds sallow,

And swallows my sight,

And strikes a sound

That sets my heart

Afire with hunger,

And ravishes my breath

And rends my speech

With worship that words

Serve but wanly to express;

All Your own: I surrender -

But oh!

To be consumed!

© 2011 Avril VanderMerwe

Prayer of Jacob

Prayer of Jacob

(Genesis 32:24-32)

Arrest my wrestling

Spirit with one swift

Caress or brush or blow –

Keep self-will crippled,

Close-cleaving, clinging,

Coupled to Majesty.

Direct my wavering

Stride – listing to Your

Side in pain-sweet triumph –

Bearer of Your Name,

Bowed beneath blessing,

Walking with a limp.

© Avril VanderMerwe 2008

Red Rose in a Vacant Lot

Haughty with self-assumed height,

From a glare of green

She stands and stares her small kingdom

Down,

Queening it over her unquestioning

Patch of earth.

Myopic with self-absorbed sight,

Mould and maggots,

She gives nothing away – petals

Closed,

Perfume unfurled against imagined

Marauders.

In lofty, self-reflected light,

Redly indifferent,

She dumbly contemplates her own

Worth,

Considering all else that lives and grows

Beneath her.

Oblivious to roses

Other than herself,

Blossoming with a more generous

Joy,

She reigns with withering arrogance

Among weeds.

© Avril VanderMerwe 1992

Sower of the Seed

Sower of the Seed

In a landscape once laid waste

By trampled trust –

Lying fallow, and fortified

Against all who

Trespass –

A single, hesitant shoot

Peeps unexpected

From charred soil, lifting tentative

Tendrils towards the Son’s

Embrace.

Oh Sower of the seed, whose scarred

And tender hands

Caressed this once discarded

Kernel to life

Unseen,

Now shelter, nourish, nurture it,

‘Til desolated

Fields spill flowering fragrance

Over fruitful land

Redeemed.

© Avril van der Merwe 2005