For the All Souls Charlottesville 2014 

"Joyful in Hope" Advent Creativity Gallery

fear and LOVE

(inspired by All Souls Charlottesville Women’s Retreat 2014)

Like choking smoke and thick dark paint, our fears,

Color our skin, our lenses smear.

Our pores gasp for breath, hearts bloody and bare,

Strain for oxygenated air.

Eyes searching for flickered light through the thick,

Worn souls scraping beneath the quick.

Enveloped in LOVE; light we cannot see,

Float in vibrant air we cannot breathe.

We cannot feel them for the thick smoke paint.

Our cells struggling; minds growing faint.

In voices small, we name seemingly powerful fears,

But they are merely tiny drops and smears.

And LOVE – true LOVE, perfect LOVE – like Light,

Shatters dried paint flaking, piercing clear sight.

Heat of perfect LOVE burns up, dries to soot,

What felt large is charred to naught.

To the truth of these words we bend our ears;

Perfect love drives out, decimates our fears.