Fire and Word

Fire and Word

Anne Waterman Murphy

How do I touch the interface of God
with mere ink and wisps of parchment;
feel a holiness of language slide
cool beneath my fingertips;
disguising syllables speaking
flint to my kindling; the phonetics of fire?

Where can I find the flash point of the Spirit?
When do phrase and font vibrate; rattle
like dry bones dancing; igniting a spark;
a red hot, white hot dove soaring on its
own thermals; deliberate in its trajectory;
a glide path to the very center where I
am undone; the debris of my disobedience
burns away, and my long dead and dusty bones
quiver and shake, vibrate and rattle;
begin to rise; begin to dance.

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Anne Waterman Murphy
Poet & Teacher

Anne’s poetry has appeared in Christianity Today, Today's Christian Woman, Decision Magazine, Time of Singing, Alive Now, Christian Communicator, Radix Magazine, Ekstasis, and others. She serves on the Board of Directors for St. Davids Christian Writers’ Conference at Allegheny College each June, where she has taught workshops on poetry and serves on the mentoring team.

Photography by Ilia Bronskiy