She has taught creative writing at King University in Bristol, Tennessee, and at St. Leo University in St. Leo, Florida; she is also a former artist-in-residence at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts.
She lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas, where — in a residential program for formerly incarcerated women — she led poetry workshops, resulting in a book of their creative writing: Today There Have Been Lovely Things. She and other poets also share poetry with Alzheimer’s residents in a Fayetteville memory care center.
The following poem first appeared in The Christian Century. (The Swahili words Kibanda matope mean mud hut.)
Traveling light
I caught the gleam of her silver bracelet
as she stroked her son’s back in church
that Sunday the missionary came.
The gesture invited a burst of sunlight
that poured through the stained glass
and over our shoulders, down the aisles,
swam through our ribs to reach the world’s night side.
Imagine the miracle. Loving her son that instant
changes the plight of the ninth child
in the kibanda matope, the one the missionary
said was born blind and given the most meager
share of meal in preference to others
who needed more to live, but he comes to see
after all because someone was sent,
and the light is always looking.
This post was suggested by the poet James Owens.
Posted with permission of the poet.
Entry written by D.S. Martin. He is the author of five poetry collections including Angelicus (2021, Poiema/Cascade), and three anthologies — available through Wipf & Stock. His new book The Role of the Moon, inspired by the Metaphysical Poets, is forthcoming from Paraclete Press.
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