Poem March 20, 1978 Issue

Noticing miracles

Gerald Stanwell

Not just in healings of the sick,
and raising of the living dead.
We need to notice miracles
in trivial roundings of the day—the uncaught
trembling smile or the unseen thought
before it has transformed reluctant lips,
flowers of innocent being, bursting tips
of ice away / crocuses in the dankest earth.
Do we stop to mark the endless worth/
lost / forgotten / sadly overlooked,
never beyond the hope of recognition/
of another's triumphant change of heart?
No herald is heard, no announcement face-to-face,
but somehow it is there—the miracle of graces,
like rainbow-promise evidence of Love—
somewhere / somewhen / in least expected places
but trapped by fear and waiting to be free,
daring us, with mercy, recognize
and love that change of heart for all eternity.