…and longing, yes, this most of all;

Sitting on my desk and due to be returned to the library is Franny Choi’s book of poems The World Keeps Ending, and the World Goes On . I posted that poem a few weeks ago and today I will post a second choice.The poem Things That Already Go Past Borders, is really a series of lists , things that move across borders. Yet “borders” although needed create today more fear than adventure, more terror than contours to be explored. I am confident that it has been more than once that astranaunts have remarked on their view from space of our earth as a planet full of mystery and wonder with no lines or borders of seperation. I was unable to find the poem in print other than in the book but I did find Choi reading her poem and so I will write only a few lines of the poem and trust that you will use the link to hear the whole poem.

Things That Already Go Past Borders

trade deals; pathogens;specific
passports; particular skill sets; vegetables; car
parts; streaming rights; seasonal workers; some
…
and longing; yes, this
most of all; the longing
of families; and the long
-ing of storms https://voca.arizona.edu/track/id/70994
Please pause on the word “longing” allow its sound and
its shape and in its broken form, to stir your pondering.

Prayer:
Lord of heaven and earth, Creator God,
of all that is, hear our prayer of brokeness.
We have grabbed pieces of the planet and claimed them
for ourselves with the lie that we were there first! We have
drawn lines, like rivers over places where there are no rivers.
We have built fneces and walls to keep others out and at times
to keep others in. We have divided rather than shared, we seek
to posses and own rather than to be global tenants of the earth.
O Creator God, forgive our greed and destruction, forgive our
desire to dominate rather than accommodate.
Lord of heaven and earth, show us a better way forward by first
traveling inward to our heart and then from there outward to
bring life and healing and to ease the pain and discomfort of all the long
-ing, yes, this most of all. Amen.