Mary Martha

Can I sit
attentive to the voice of many waters
      and yet
    move, serve, respond?

Can I act,
responsive to a world of burning rubble
      and yet
    listen, stop and breathe?

Full of many things,
       I forget
to choose the better part.
Caught in mindless bustle,
       I catch
eternity in the friction that grinds
to a hault.
O bless the failure
that drives me kneeward.
Bless the gravel that stirs up
my knees to stretch and rise.