They’ve given me words,
Lately, my gentle evangelists.
Words that clarify the faith, hope, belief,
Nestled privately within me.
One said INTUITION,
And I knew.
I knew, as I’d always known,
Even without knowing.
It wasn’t such a leap, moving from belief to Belief.
Another said OBEDIENCE,
He said it from the pulpit
And I felt my entire being
Activate, electric.
Work, and work hard—I will, I will. I’ve always needed it to be difficult, this life.
Then came RESTLESS,
Given to me over lunch, casually, just like that.
And that made sense, too, because it had felt like
Going quiet, a white-out, when I finally came home.
Weary and ecstatic, how to hold so much in one heart? I’ll learn.
Finally, in my inbox, TRANSCENDENT,
And the way my heart leapt to it,
For it,
Yes, yes, again, I knew this word, but now I understand.
Catherine Olien holds a PhD in Art History from Northwestern University. She is a dual French-US national and dreams regularly in English, French, and German, in Italian much less regularly, and only very rarely in Greek or Latin. She lives in Northern Virginia with her husband, dog, and two daughters.
Agape Review 