by Joanne Spence

Riffing on Psalm 46

Our Beloved
The Beloved
Whose beloved are you?
Are you the beloved of the Ukrainians?
Are you the beloved of the Russians?
Indeed, the earth is changing.
Where is the holy habitation of the most high?
I believe you are in our midst
Because you say you are.
I believe you are an ever-present help.
I truly want to believe that you are 
breaking through hearts of stone.
Then I think of my own 
Stubborn heart
And I wonder
If you are the infinite Heart of Love
How can I even know that with my
Tiny finite mind?
The Psalmist assures us you reign
Even, or could it also read, in spite
Of humanity’s desolation.

You say, “Be still and know that I am love.”
But we won’t be still
Instead, we work till we drop
Believing it is necessary to our calling
and even our salvation.
But in you all hearts
You are with us.
Oh, beloved help us, ALL OF US, find
Your refuge and your strength.

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Joanne Spence, MA is a writer, teacher, entrepreneur, lover of sunsets, and translator of hard stuff. She calls Pittsburgh, PA home where she empty-nests with her husband, Doug, and flirts with the idea of homesteading. Trauma-Informed Yoga: A Toolbox for Therapists is her first book. Her poems have appeared in Pittsburgh Theological Journal and Enfleshed.