MyThrive

THE MARKETPLACE
by Rick Silver
8-28-2010

This is a poem about community and tribe, about how we are shaped by life as individuals, and how those experiences flow first into the creations of our work and then, as we join together, are merged into something greater – an expression of God. I imagine how this process might have occurred for our ancestors – in the bustle and energy of the marketplace.

Once
When the bittersweet song of our hearts --
Formed of the aching and longing
Of moment upon moment --
Guided our hands

(Into the stitching of a garment
The gathering of purple grapes from the vine
The press of our fingers upon plump olives
The caress of a lamb’s fur
The prodding of the fire under the sizzling meat
The skilled dance of fingers in a skein of yarn
The pouring of crystal water from an earthen vessel)

Then
We gathered our offerings
And came with them
To the marketplace,
A cacophony of life,
A great mingling and mixing
Of words and worlds
Cultures and currents.

Held
In its womb,
Fertile and dense,
We opened and merged
With one another,
So the goodness of our creations
Could pour lovingly
Into the waiting mouths eyes ears and souls
Of our brothers sisters cousins friends.

Here
An abundance of spirit
Entered the world,
Joining us as one,
Holding us
In the cracked and calloused
Human hands of God.