A Poem-a-thon

I decided to participate in City of Refuge’s first ever Poem-a-thon. All participants commit to writing every day during the month of April. 30 days of poems. The goal is to raise support for each day of the month (hope is at least $30/sponsor, $1/day/poem) that goes directly to City of Refuge’s refugee care and programs.

I’m no poet, but I have a thing for writing. I’m no poet, but I have a growing love for refugees and newcomers that are coming to us from around the world. Beautiful souls who are changing my entire view of what matters in this life.

I decided to get some practice in today. Here is a pre poem-a-thon original. If you’re up for sponsoring me (which really just means supporting our work with refugees), head to cityofrefugecolumbia.org/poemathon, click “Donate to a Participant” and find my name. I’d love to have your support.

Is it safe here? 

Safe enough to share, safe enough to listen, safe enough to stay? 

Our hearts beg to know the answer: do I have a place where I belong? 

Is there a place where I can be fully me, fully imperfect, fully different? A place where I can admit when I am hurting, when I am lonely, when I am selfishly longing for more? Is there a place safe enough to hold all my thoughts, all my tears, all my dreams? 

Is it safe here? 

I hear my daughter asking. She’s only 3, but her question strikes a chord – maybe it’s something we’re all desperately wanting to know. Are we safe? Do we fit? Will you stay or will you go? If I close my eyes, will you be there when I wake? Will you help keep the scary things away, or will I have to hide, defending myself alone? 

Of course I know the answer… yes and no. It depends on what we mean by “safe”, it depends on where we place our hope. Safe, but only sort of… this life holds no guarantee. Are we talking about our lungs’ ability to breathe, are we thinking about our figurative hearts’ ability to cope, are we wondering if our soul will withstand the journey from here to there? 

Is it safe here? 

We stand resolutely in the middle. 

Safe, not in the temporary … safe, only in the eternal. 

Safe beyond what our eyes can see, beyond what our hearts can fathom. 

A perspective that supersedes today’s realities. 

Here may always be unsafe.

But we live, we laugh, we love… fiercely, selflessly, willingly…because our hope is in the eternal. 

Not here, but there. And there is what we live for.

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