I wrote this poem 7 years ago as I was leaving Norfolk to go to Yorkshire, since then I have left Yorkshire for Blackpool, and am now preparing to move again, each time these sort of emotions have swirrled about me, not because I don’t want to move but because it thrusts me into a liminal space, a waiting time where all is change and nothing feels quite stable or concrete ( if it ever really is).
There is nothing wrong with that of course, and while I do know deep down that I am accompanied on this transitional journey there are times when the storm rages, when I doubt myself, I know that I will leave some things unfinished, and I feel very alone. So the questions remain ….. and yet I know that all will be well.
As this storm
rages about me
I wonder
if you are asleep?
Do you sleep
as life’s
waves crash
over my soul?
Do you sleep
as my heart
is overwhelmed
(again)?
Do you sleep?
Don’t you
know that fears
beset me?
Should I have
faith to survive
this storm?
… I am
weak
and my faith fails
me….
… are you
waiting
for me
to call
your name,
to ask for help?
Or will you rebuke me?
Sometimes I fear
I don’t know you
at all …
Are you sleeping?
1 I lift up my eyes to the hills—
where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD watches over you—
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.
(Psalm 121)
Eternal footsteps 