Today I tried to find it in morning
meditation, the Hazelden reading,
the Book of Miracles, yet deep burning
in my gut didn’t cease. I sought heeding
Psalm 23, then lyric parables
of the carpenter, Billy Graham’s take
on salvation, Thomas Merton’s cables,
the Dalai Lama’s latest saintly talk.
Then a faint voice whispered, “Check out Webster’s
under ‘humble.’ ” My trudge paused at the root:
“From Latin humus, earth.” Images stirred:
seas of dark loam breathing life, bearing shoots
in cascading colors; hands of a child
molding moist clay. My face softened. I smiled.
Roger Armbrust
June 21, 2007
