this heart was safe
until
your solo
handled it
bled on it
cracked it out
of its prison
surrounded it
with love
c. 2025 Roberta Compton Rainwater
Nov 10, 2025
Nov 10, 2025 at 2:00 AM UTC
bone collects wisdom becomes wisdom
it holds upright becomes upright
bone creates and re-creates
it creates blood becomes blood
what if God looked ahead
saw that Adam
who received the Breath of Life
was the only one who also was
the first one to have the Blood of Jesus
run down the cross on to his skull
bone becomes blood
blood becomes breath
breath is blood is bone
c. 2025 Roberta Compton Rainwater
May 20, 2025
May 20, 2025 at 12:39 AM UTC
decades after the ceremony
truth washed the plaque of fantasy
from my romanced brain
espoused
I read the lies
using romance-colored fantasy
fantasy clings and numbs
becomes a barbed *****
in a gorilla war
something dies
only to emerge
from the cocoon of barbed fantasy
with under-developed wings
flightless
vulnerable as a butterfly
awaiting her wings to strengthen
something lives
c. 2025 Roberta Compton Rainwater
May 16, 2025
May 16, 2025 at 9:38 PM UTC
leavened and unleavened
it dropped to earth from
the heavens
to nourish and feed
nourished the souls
fed the bodies
nourished the spirit
fed the body
sustained the unexplainable
fed the existential
as only manna can
as only God can
as only God would
as only heaven could
c. 2025 Roberta Compton Rainwater
Mar 11, 2025
Mar 11, 2025 at 9:44 PM UTC
daddy holds me in his heart
though he has gone on
I hold him in my soul
though I am still here
like nesting dolls
we contain each other
being contained in and by
God
c. 2025 Roberta Compton Rainwater
Feb 25, 2025
Feb 25, 2025 at 10:58 AM UTC
I wonder when
the puzzle that I am
will be completed
where is the missing piece?
is there a missing piece?
am I real? does it matter?
those are the quests
we all
start with when we don’t
c. 2025 Roberta Compton Rainwater
Feb 15, 2025
Feb 15, 2025 at 12:24 PM UTC
it is writ on my heart
the sacrifices
we’ve made for her
the blessings
received for defending her
1.
sailing into the unknown
for a chance at freedom
landing in her arms -
her lush starkness, both
frightening and alluring -
to feel it and know it
2.
surviving the sacrifices of the
first year
as strangers in a strange land
gratitude for blessings
from the wilderness
which was full of woods,
huntable, edible creatures, and
plants that heal
3.
her soaring beauty and roughness
the generous giving of her indigenous peoples
the challenges to survival and
the support of survival,
both given freely, balanced in wildness
and by wildness
4.
the feeling of belonging growing daily
nurtured in courageous living
the feeling of fulfillment bursting
like fireworks across many lives
a land developed by and for originality
a land that develops its peoples in physical
strengths and heartfelt works
5.
the gathering of genius that made victory
inevitable when defending was needed
a deeper understanding created by unrelenting
challenges to survival from all angles
a grinding unstoppable to the
pioneer spirit bred in the bone, to the bone,
in the marrow of bone
c. 2025 Roberta Compton Rainwater
Feb 15, 2025
Feb 15, 2025 at 12:20 PM UTC
I watch as you walk across campus
with your new love
not me
anymore
I’m treading water
keeping my heart above water
above the pain of no
in the gulf of neveragain
you wanted more than
so much more than
and decades later I suddenly know this
is changing no to know
it still hurts
c. 2025 Roberta Compton Rainwater
Jan 25, 2025
Jan 25, 2025 at 3:24 PM UTC
it is the deepest teaching of
them all
that a sacrifice must come
before the blessing
yet many
are stopped by It
to receive the chrism
of Blood
which saves and erases
what was
transforms those who ask for It
into a blank slate
with a tender heart
and an open eye
because
surrender makes Whole
makes Holy
the anointed
for
Sacrifice must come
before
Blessing
c. 2024 Roberta Compton Rainwater
Nov 3, 2024
Nov 3, 2024 at 5:28 PM UTC
this human life seems
always to be crawling
each moment justified
by
anything but God
its movement neither
to nor fro
back nor forward
for nor against
for
anything but God
but
Love changes waiting
to Wisdom
and
movement
away from anything
but God
c. 2024 Roberta Compton Rainwater
Sep 10, 2024
Sep 10, 2024 at 11:11 AM UTC