Miracle Story Poems

This month I am writing with my Poetry Sisters. We are all writing prose poems in the style of Marilyn Nelson’s “Minor Miracle,” about a small, miraculous thing you have seen or know. Click the link in the poem's title to read Nelson's poem so you know where we are headed. The Poetry Sisters have been writing together for over ten years now, which is hard to believe. This year we are excited to be joined by Rebecca Holmes, starting next month.

What I love most about Marilyn Nelson's poem is the exquisite details in her setting. You can just feel yourself on that bike ride through the countryside, and hear the dialog rip. Also, of course, the amazing turn as the miracle is revealed at the very end. I have been racking my brain for an experience of a small miracle that would fit in a poem. I can think of so many miracles, as God is so good. But they are not small. Maybe none are, right?

So anyway, we got a kitten just after Christmas this year. Talk about small, this cat's tiny. And full of zip. The more I thought about him, the more miracle I saw. It seemed the Spirit was showing me a miracle to write about and share. Here's what I got:

Talk About Minor Miracle

Which reminds me of another bit of fluff

that saved us. When the littlest kitten

skittered into our house, it was a house of broken

hearts, wrung out, stretched thin fears, and

no more family dinners. We’d got to when no one

could stand to sit down together

in case tears choked or fists flew.

After losing so much, there was plenty of space

for a tiny flutter of pin prick, skinny boned,

all sass curiosity that could dash up and

down silly with wide eyed jade gaze. Hungry. Bold

enough and fool enough to catch any dangling

loose end; forgotten strings, crumpled receipts,

dust bunnies or tumbled scraps left too long

for want of care, want of will. We’d lost a child.

Lost a brother. Lost.

“Where’s the kitten?” The youngest son would say,

tipping his head around my door; come out of his cave,

from out the silence around the screen glow. He’d scoop

up kitten from amongst my quilts, pretending

to toss him over. But really, snuggling

that beating heart. The way a teenage

boy grabs a hug, sliding sideways as if.

The wonder of how a curl of fur

fits in a hoodie pocket, finds a warm lap,

accepts kisses. All start and go and what? Eager

to trouble the waters.

-Andromeda Jazmon

Please go visit the blogs of my Poetry Sisters to read their poems, 

Laura Purdie Salas
Liz Garton Scanlon
Tanita S. Davis
Sara Lewis Holmes
Kelly Ramsdell
Trisha Stohr Hunt

Also, please visit the Poetry

Friday Round up at Tabitha Yeatts' blog The Opposite of Indifference. Happy Friday!