"I rejoice at Your Word, as one who finds great treasure." --Psalm 119:162
The theme of our Lake Murray Women's Retreat is "Treasures." The word "treasured" popped up in both Friday and Saturday's Retreat poems, and as our speaker, Ernestene Clemmons, spoke for the last time on Sunday morning, I composed the final poem at retreat.
Treasures
Treasures in heaven I gather and store,
pressing them with care into the shabby trunk
into which I pack my legacy.
Into this weathered trunk I lovingly place
my words--
in journals, notes, letters, and poems--
and prayers whispered deep past midnight.
I harvest His joy--
compressed into phrase and
inked into permanence,
carefully tucked into the corners
of the time-worn trunk.
I crease into fragile tissue paper
the unworded and unwordable treasures
of faith, tradition, courage, hope--
boxed away in the dim recesses
of an old attic,
waiting to be rediscovered.
I crush these my treasures to my heart,
press a kiss to them deeply,
then pack them away--
to be unfolded, slightly yellowed,
shaken out, and honored
by the generations to come.
April 18, 2010
Copyright 2010 by Susanne Barrett
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