Psalm 1: Intersection

My friend and colleague Megan Willome writes a delightful series on Substack called Poetry For Life, where, each week she presents a poem, walks us through that poem, and offers us exercises to reflect and write if we wish to. A couple of weeks ago, she wrote about Sally Fisher’s, “Here in the Psalm,” a take on Psalm 23 (a Psalm that has always terrified me), and it gave me an idea – how about working my way through the Psalms and writing my own “Here in the Psalm” poems? So, here is my take on Psalm 1:

Can I be the flowing stream

instead?

I will still try to be good

I’ll curve around the tree

that’s meditating

and going nowhere

I’ll say hello

and thank you

for the shade

or its branch

that snapped

and fell

landing on my body

so now my path

is even more crooked

and wild

I will ask the Tree

to stay near

don’t leave me

so I can keep moving