Where The Crawdads Sing

 I’m happy to report that the weekend went well. In short, I got to play my guitar, sing, speak, and spend time with some of the most genuinely loving people I’ve ever met. God’s love and grace abound, and that was very evident over the weekend.

 

While the weekend was long and packed with activity, I still found a few moments to continue my discipline of black-out poetry. I haven’t missed but one day since Heidi the Librarian and I started our black-out poetry journey on June 4, 2021. We have now blacked out Anne of Green Gables, Bridge to Terabithia, The Giver, Bridges of Madison County, four black-out poetry books, and…our newest completion: Where The Crawdads Sing.

 

We finished the latter over the weekend. While I sat in the retreat, I had a quiet celebration with myself, and thanked God for the journey that we took through the crawdads.

 

With 391 pages, plus the introduction and title pages, Where the Crawdads Sing produced 190 different poems over the course of six and a half months :-o.

 

I laughed at some of the poems that emerged from the pages—

 

A biology lesson

Is tedious

For sure.

 

I cried at others—

 

She looked.

No one stood for her.

She breathed in.

She was empty.

 

Some poems were about simple love—

 

They are staring into each other’s eyes

The way everybody wants to be.

 

Some poems were about difficult love—

 

She bent at the waist,

Holding her face in her hands,

Soft groans came from her throat.

Tears welled and he looked away.

He always went back to the bottle.

It had something to do with the war.

But he shouldn’t take it out on his wife,

His own kids.

 

Some poems were inspiring—

 

You are free to

Go

Serve

Thank

Gather

Discover

Hope

Relax

Explain

Remember

Mess up

Wander

Work

And follow.

I love you.

 

Others were just plain silly—

 

One thing she knew about life:

you can’t eat grits without salt.

 

But all of them were created in the moment, from the text, already on the page, waiting to be seen.

 

Friends: Life is happening all around us. Love is written in the text. Grace is already on the page. God is just waiting to be seen.

 

So may we see what God would have us see today…and when we do, may we respond in quiet celebration and gratitude for the journey that has brought us here. Amen.

 

PS. This picture is the last poem I blacked out in Crawdads. I thought it was an appropriate way to end the book.