Grace<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
After nightfall an anonymous sculptor
\nand helpers install a statue below a Fairhaven
\nbluff. As platform, they choose the jagged
\ntin boulder surrounded by water at high tide.
\nThey balance the statue perfectly on one foot,
\nand bolt it in to older metal. The artist calls
\nthe statue Grace. She points one arm to sea,
\ntrails the other to meet leg curling up behind her.
\nFormed of silver bands wrapped around steel
\ncore and heart, she\u2019s untempered and pure.
\nGrace is silvery fine and fair, and appears
\nto be a dancer\u2013her stomach is taut, her limbs
\nlong-muscled and lean. A friend tells me Grace
\nis in a standing bow pose or dancer\u2019s pose.
\nTo me she seems prepared to leap or soar.
\nWhile Grace is lithe and limber, she is caressed
\nby salt water and air, and her carbon steel
\nis in certain decline. When the sculptor returns
\nand takes her from us, he will leave this artistry:
\nhowever we choose to picture or embody grace\u2013
\nin repose, or as a dancer prepared to soar or
\nleap, reclining, or as an elder walking with
\nquiet dignity\u2013we rediscover grace. Grace
\nresides in us, and remains available always.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
“Grace” is reprinted from the 2012 Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest Chapbook,<\/a> 2012.<\/p>\n Andrew Shattuck McBride<\/a> is a Bellingham-based poet and editor. He has poems published or forthcoming in Platte Valley Review<\/em>, Magnapoets,<\/em> Caesura<\/em>, Haibun Today, American Society:<\/em> What Poets See<\/em>, Dreams Wander On: Contemporary Poems of Death Awareness<\/em>, Generations\u00a0<\/em>of Poetry<\/em>, bottle rockets<\/em>, Mu: An International Haiku Journal, Prune Juice: A Journal of Senryu and Kyoka, Shamrock Haiku Journal, A Hundred Gourds, The Bellingham Herald, <\/em>and Clover,\u00a0<\/em>A Literary Rag<\/em>.<\/a> His poem \u201cGrace\u201d won a merit award in the 2012 Sue C. Boynton Poetry Contest.<\/a> He has edited poetry collections by Washington poets Cathy Ross, Seren Fargo,\u00a0and Richard Lee Harris.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Grace After nightfall an anonymous sculptor and helpers install a statue below a Fairhaven bluff. As platform, they choose the jagged tin boulder surrounded by water at high tide. They balance the statue perfectly on one foot, and bolt … Continue reading