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Lesser Gifts


Lesser Gifts

I.  This Little Light of Mine

Oh come now! It’s so tiny, so unshiny
how can it give light enough
to make a cricket dance?
Puny little thing! It flickers
now and then, but when
it’s held up to the light of day
it fades and squirms away.

Just hold it up, you say
and say and say.

Oh, all right then, here you go,
I sputter, eyes a-roll.

You shake your lion head and smile
and I see stars, so small, fly off your mane
but all together dancing, 
whitening the air. 

Is mine like that? A little star
among the billions trillions sesquatillions?
Yeah, I guess—what if we all said
Not enough of this big bright is mine?

Is that your point? Should I just
stop my whining, just 
let my microscopic flicker shine?


II.  Coins of the Realm

Walk up timidly and put them in
my little coins, the last I have
of this world’s goods. One, two….
So small, so insignificant, 
but all I have to give.

Ah, someone sees! So what?
I’ve nothing left to hide.
My pride? That’s had to go
As all the rest has slipped away
And I’m an emptiness.

But listen—He is speaking
to his followers and all the gathered rich:
This widow put in more than all the rest.

How can he say a thing like that?
My little nothing? But he’s seen it,
knows my life from start to end
and has pronounced my nothing
not just good enough, but best.



Disgusted with my own whining about not being a “real” poet (because that’s what this self-flagellation amounts to), I’m beginning to see the value, in fact the preciousness in the eyes of God, of simply giving what one has. Just keep summoning the courage to share our little gifts. 



November 2018
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Comments

  1. Magnolia LadyJanuary 28, 2019 at 6:43 AM

    I think it is a common problem to think what little we do is certainly not enough.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownFebruary 3, 2019 at 2:14 PM

    Way to go, Carol! I rejoice that you are sharing these gifts of your poetry...of your delightful and depthful ways of perceiving what others might pass by,,,, Sr. Chris

    ReplyDelete

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