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

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

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

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

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

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

it was excruciating to watch
the boiling in oil
listening, though never a sound was made
nor a struggle against

excruciating
to see a skinless man crawling over stones
silent as a sleeping lamb
blind yet fully bright

excruciating
to watch as he signed
asking for writing materials
then, on his stomach, begin to write

as though he still has fingers
as though he still has eyes

his story is a vision
written with spirit fingers
and eyes
listening to the Inner Voice

the only sounds
the scratching of a stylus across papyrus
and the sighing of Breath
as he listens


c. 2024 Roberta Compton Rainwater