A Poem about Miracles

World of Miracles

This is a world of miracles and wonder!

Where in the face of death, exhaustion, sorrow,

Every day someone chooses love

Serves the poor, gives a shirt to the naked, water to the thirsty,

Shelter to the homeless, food to the hungry.

Where in spite of the vast ugliness,

And amid the ruins and the ashes, someone plants a garden,

Makes a small poem of beauty that few will ever see,

And like artists everywhere, works without acclaim.

I don’t want to hear about miracles-as-magic-tricks,

Changing water into wine, stones into loaves of bread.

Tell me about miracles of goodness, kindness, beauty, caring, sharing,

Undeserved love.

Those are the miracles I want to hear about!

                [Bob Coughlin / June 3, 2014]

The day after I wrote the poem above, a student called my attention to this brilliant poem written by Mary Oliver (who comes from nearby Maple Heights, Ohio). "Logos" is Greek for "Word."

I was stunned by the similarities of these two poems.

Logos

by Mary Oliver

Why worry about the loaves and fishes?
If you say the right words, the wine expands.
If you say them with love
and the felt ferocity of that love
and the felt necessity of that love,
the fish explode into many.
Imagine him, speaking,
and don’t worry about what is reality,
or what is plain, or what is mysterious.
If you were there, it was all those things.
If you can imagine it, it is all those things.
Eat, drink, be happy.
Accept the miracle.
Accept, too, each spoken word
spoken with love.