Grace - By Mara Lemanis
Grace
The grace of wisdom
arcs over pain
like an aurora over broken glass
and from the splinters
forms history’s hologram
to bear us to the hall
where justice sits
and lays bare pain;
it is the hall
where our defenses cry
and deny offenses
we once swore
and tossed from memory.
The grace of wisdom
wafts over words
conjured from fossils
exhaling dreams
of immortality;
she waits to welcome,
but is never called
to field assaults
and vagaries of chance
or rude defeats;
she summons pageants
of remembering
where history’s patrons,
disciples, minions
reenter the court
of common ancestry,
stone axes polished,
swords gleaming in the fires of will,
bows strung like chain links
with arrows pitched to pierce
and scream like storm whistles;
chariots, catapults, siege towers, missiles
all loom in the glory
of their armored claims
as peacemakers, artisans, scientists, sages
ministers of action and retraction
berate and praise,
condemn and boost
the sturdy covenant that shields
their liberal arts,
their fastidious thoughts.
All bow to those stiff arms
that rise and fall,
come pain and thrall,
the storied legions
of the Parthians,
the Mughals, Mongols, Macedonians,
Romans, Ottomans,
the Krasnaya Armiya,
the federal forces of USA;
their bodies flouting pain
exacting victory and ruin,
laurels and grief.
Before us like an unillumined
cataract in heaven’s vault
waits fate
we blindly tried to steer
defy, plead, mollify, or warn,
listening to soundwaves
echoed mouth to mouth
as ear to ear we hear–
the boom of “great” and “grand,”
the chant of “me” and “mine,”
the baritone ring of “our”—
sounds scraped from wilderness
etched on monuments,
engraved on castle walls
and gates of villas,
piped through doorways
of handmade homes
to the last stutter of time’s entropy;
to the seat of judgment
where wisdom waits
to joust with fate
and meets our gaze
with a wistful
laugh of grace.
Mara Lemanis
Mara Lemanis
Biography: Mara Lemanis is a literary scholar. Her essays have been selected for 20th CENTURY LITERARY CRITICISM and are included in undergraduate student textbooks in the U.S.
She has worked as an archivist for Historical Preservation and with the IRC, assisting refugees in Oakland, California.
Disclaimer: The views, opinions and positions expressed within this guest article are those of the author Mara Lemanis alone and do not represent those of the Marbella Marbella website. The accuracy, completeness and validity of any statements made within this article are not guaranteed. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions or representations. The copyright of this content belongs to Mara Lemanis and any liability with regards to infringement of intellectual property rights remains with the author.
