The Shallows

The Shallows

Michael Stalcup

When I drink in the stars and upward sink
into the theater your words have wrought,
I touch unfelt immensity and think—
like Grandma used to pause in patient thought
before an ordinary flower, awed
by intricacies hidden in plain view,
then say, You didn’t have to do that, God!—
Surely a smaller universe would do!

But you have walled us in with open seas
unconquerable, wild with distant shores
whose raging dawns are but your filigree
across our vaulted skies. This art of yours,
what Grandma held and I behold, these flames,
frame truth which awes us more: You know our names.

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Michael Stalcup
Poet & Missionary

Michael is a Thai-American missionary living in Bangkok, Thailand. His poems have been published in Commonweal Magazine, First Things, Sojourners Magazine, and elsewhere. He co-teaches Spirit & Scribe, a workshop integrating spiritual formation and writing craft. You can find his work at michaelstalcup.com.

Photograph by Zoltan Tasi