Lyn McCrave shares two poems responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A Butterfly in the Pandemic
Today, a butterfly,
the first of the year,
caught my eye
emerging into spring,
and brought me hope.
For you too, little one, have
been cocooned like us.
Your playmates gone,
wrapped around with silence
as you waited.
Could you have known how
beautiful you’d be
when you arose?
For you have grown
in trusting patience
to such a transformation.
So, may our fears
and broken dreams,
our flowing tears
for this world’s sorrow,
transform our hearts to deeper love
to live tomorrow.
26 March 2020
Night Journeying
At night, as I unravel
like old frayed rope,
and the sea mist rolls
in over my horizon,
You are there.
I tremble and flow
this way and that
on the shifting tides.
Yet I know Your strong
hand rests on my tiller.
The rising waves slap hard
against my creaking bark,
as I hear you whisper
“Courage,
I have written the map on your heart.”
from The Geese Flew Over My Heart, p. 17
Lyn McCrave has lived in Scotland for nearly 50 years and started writing poetry as a teenager. She is a retired doctor who is married with a family and practises Spiritual Accompaniment in the Ignatian tradition.
