RAP: Color of Grace

L.L. here. Thinking, what is the color of grace?

I look at an Esther passage (see below and, hey, don't mind that I've added line breaks, because it really is a poem if you close your eyes and listen), and I marvel that it teems with supposed colors of grace... white, blue, silver, gold, pearl. Yet the passage describes Persian courts that turn out to be anything but gracious to the Jewish people.

Over at Seedlings in Stone, I recently considered that color is slippery; we think scarlet speaks one thing, for instance, but it might speak another. Grace is slippery too; we see a "street woman/arranging roses in a paint pail" and discover, to our surprise, that she's mixing up a batch of grace.

Who can capture the slippery nature of color or grace? A few agile souls have done it, beginning with the writer of Esther...

"Esther 1:6-7"

There were
white cotton curtains
and blue hangings
tied
with cords of fine
linen and purple
to silver rings
and marble pillars.
There were couches
of gold and silver
on mosaic
pavement of porphyry,
marble,
mother-of-pearl,
and colored stones.
Drinks
were served
in golden
goblets, goblets
of different kinds
and the royal wine
was lavished...

Lorrie's Wall

There you sit
on your pedestal
munching
munching
my ideas of heaven
like a rabbit
with its lettuce
oblivious
eyes wide
immune to revelation
your pride
red
and hard as brick

Heather's "Grace"

The poet seeks Grace
At the river Cephissus
Among her charming sisters.

But he finds, too often,
A tributary, the child Narcissus
Dabbling in his own reflection.

The child says grace
With scrubbed and ruddy cheeks,
Head bowed, fingers folded

But loses the words
And lisps,
“Bless...Thy bounty...Amen.”

The pastor speaks of grace
Starched and pressed, neatly packaged
Unmerited favor, God's riches, Christ's expense.

But even good words
Lose their listeners,
Nodding in sanctified rows.

I searched for grace
Googled it, actually,
Read the Wiki

And got nowhere.
Grace... What is grace?
Where to find it?

So I went searching for grace.
Flipping through memories
Like a stack of soft-edged photos

And found on a page,
Ms. Bishop's Filling Station
Grace in the doily, comic books, a begonia.

Downtown, I found a street woman
Arranging roses in a paint pail
Torn petals on cracked pavement.

And here at home, my little boy
Locks sun-laced with gold
Earth on his hands and heaven in his hair.

Grace glimpses,
Like Browning's burning bushes,
Abound

When
By grace
We know to look.

NOTE: If you would like to participate in 'Random Acts of Poetry', read here for instructions.

Color poems:
Lorrie's Wall
nAncY's Jordan
Bought As Is' Blue
Laura's Shoots of Green
LL's daughters' Gold on the Forest Floor

'Searching for Grace' poems:
Cricket's Searching for Grace
Bought As Is's Grace Found Me
Heather (poem left in comment box at Seedlings in Stone)
Teri (poem left in comment box at Seedlings in Stone)
nAncY's A Random Act of Something That Could Be Mistaken for Poetry
Mom2Six's In Search of Grace
Laura's Searching for Grace
Eric's I Searched for Grace
Prairie Chick's Grace in Winter
Erica Hale's I went Looking for Grace
LL's Little Excuse
Teri's Grace, Where Are You...
Sarah's An Offering
LL's Communion
Marcus's Myth of Grace
Elizabeth's I Found Grace
Ann's Open Your Hand to Take Now

General RAP poems:
Jim's Three Old Friends
Rebekah's Grace Field
Laure's The 7 O'Clock Morning Hour
Joelle's Snakeskin

Red Pipes in Prison photo of art installation by Dayton Castleman. Post written by L.L. Barkat.

• Tags:  
• esther
• grace
• random acts of poetry

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