Poetry BY Hannah Sanders
Love Without Misanthropy
What is love
if it doesn’t question?
If her eyes don’t pause mid turn
after slap on right cheek
to look in their pain hollowed eyes
before offering the left.
Her honor rests not in their shaming,
nor their insouciant blaming,
but she must ask them
to know who they are
by their deeds, too.
So she wanders a while,
with neither tunic
once close to her skin
nor cloak of beauty,
but pauses to reflect
in water’s restive mirror,
sees her nakedness of soul.
She’d been a pack animal once,
ready to carry every burden
laid across her back;
she must choose now
if she’ll tarry another mile.
What is love if it doesn’t
resist, doesn’t counter
cold with coals for a fire?
Thin Places
She looks at her life being shaped
And sometimes gets what Bilbo said
When he felt like butter scraped,
Spread thin over too much bread
They say there’s a use for sorrow
But she’s spent and sapped; could
Utility wait for tomorrow?
She glances at the shoes cast aside
By one traipsing through the house
And sighs.
Oh, to be so unencumbered as
Bare footed toe wiggling
Traipsing child full of wonder;
Such as she was once.
She takes off her own shoes,
Toes grooves of wood cool floor
And imagines a holy moment-
Did Moses at burning bush
Un-sandaled, place his shoes
Neatly side by side? Or fling
Them in disorderly awe?
She imagines she’d wander
Without her sandals
Lost in replayed conversation
Aware only of holy habitation
In that thin place
On the mountain of God
Where Heaven and earth meet;
Where sheep feed.
She thinks again of thin places
Of her own ordinary life
Torn places for graces glimpsed
With unveiled vision,
Where comfort and joy seep
Easy from God’s heart to hers
Like gentle rain falling.
She holds her hands out
To catch the falling graces
Of peace and joy,
Her hands overflowing
Onto kitchen floor grooves
And feet-worn spaces;
There’s hope overflowing
Into all her thin places.
Hannah Sanders is a follower of Christ, wife, mom, teacher, artist and writer. She loves all things book-ish, afternoon tea, and is happiest in the mountains and when surrounded by tall trees. Her art, prose, and poetry have been featured by the Brazos Valley Arts Council, The Way Back to Ourselves journal, and Vessels of Light among others. You can find her on Instagram @hannahsanders.art
