Shalom and the Sea

The Word of God creates
Potential and limits, bound up together
Like the edges of the sea, all glorious
Endless blue embracing the shore

When seas kick against the goads
We call their rebellion a disaster
The tsunami destroys, dishonors just limits
Breaking shalom with coast and village
We wail, send aid, pray

I once had a friend named Timo
He hated boundaries, down to the sign,
“No running by the pool!”
Pontificated long of the injustice of it all
How his own freedom could be curtailed
By law, by obligation to another

No one declared it a disaster
He did not hear the bonds of shalom break
The crack! of sin’s whip on the back of his soul
The wailers never arrived, nor help
I do remember saying a prayer
Longing for the unlimited horizon
Of a bounded sea

©2026 Jacqueline Tisthammer. All rights reserved.

Continue reading “Shalom and the Sea”

Delight

A young child dissolved in giggles at his very first joke,
repeating the punch line in sheer bliss

A red-cheeked adventurer standing high above the town
on a sapphire-blue morning, enraptured in the frosty air Continue reading “Delight”