Self Controle

To have control
or persevere?
Sometimes the difference isn’t clear.

Intertwined
as braided strands,
taking turns on who commands.

Stand in check,
Is this the way?
Will this, a bit of self betray?

Know the road,
make a goal,
continue on in self-control.

Or hold a line,
say not today,
anger will not have its prey.

Wisdom wields
both as a team,
for neither is the one supreme.

Copyright ©2023 Mary Grace van der Kroef


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Gentleness

Whispers that linger
in the cup of hand to heart.

Feathers that flutter
on words that lilt and dart.
Leaving presence behind like art.

Strength that guards
in silken threads of web.

Holding back sharp edges
with softest flow and ebb,
minding what is said.

Unrelenting,
unmovable gentleness.

How can one possess
this uncommonness,
that embodies love’s caress?

Copyright ©2023 Mary Grace van der Kroef


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Goodness

Goodness done, spreads out like flowing water, touching lives in ripples, gentle waves.

Goodness withheld is missed like a blown kiss, or forgotten rains.

Goodness, action or being? God gives no man this name.
Yet we can walk the path he paved and read each stone footprints engraved

with Goodness spelling out his love, in actions pure, true. Feel the marks he left behind, a map of Kindness for man’s use.

Be it under tumultuous waves, or across a barren earth. May bared feet find Goodness sweet, though blinded, deaf and mute.

Feeling for the good embrace of imprints sacred bed. Walking in His footsteps, know by His Goodness we’re fed.

So sending out His ripples as we slosh through days and nights. Touching countless others with waves of gentle might.

Copyright ©2023 Mary Grace van der Kroef

Goodness saw publication at Agape Review on august 21st, 2021


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Kindness

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A single act
word
or gesture.
The power to propel
guard
or gather.
Embodies compassion,
making it action.

A smile
or nod,
unexpected applaud.
Really seeing,
being
present.

Kindness
is mindful,
refuses to stifle
when it can’t understand.
Knows God’s hand
has the end
planned.

Copyright ©2023 Mary Grace van der Kroef


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Patience

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                            Patience isn't passive
                      but A power held in check,
        ready when Time comes
              to move Inexorably forward.
                PatiencE shows a passion
           for peace iN bite sized nuggets
 unafraid of silenCe
                      wisE in gauging climates.

©2021 Mary Grace van der Kroef

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Six Word Story (99)

The amazing intricacy of the world we live in is staggering.

The science, the art, the spiritual glue, it all connects and rolls together to the ticking of seconds.

It can seem eternal. As our brains measure time, maybe it is.

I do believe that someday there will be an end and time will run out, just as water evaporates from a cup.

But as evaporation is a kind of transformation, our earth, and us, will not really cease but simply change.

I believe God is the one who wrote the rules for these systems as he creates art.

What will he have us change into when the time comes?

I don’t know. But I can dream.

Copyright ©2023 Mary Grace van der Kroef


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Six Word Story (97)

Life is a grinding down of moments, of mass.

Nature takes those fragments and transforms them into something new.

This happens with people too, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

It’s so hard to see past the decay, the destruction.

But if we are brave enough to try, if we trust God has a plan in the middle of grief, we will be shown immeasurable beauty and potential.

He made nature this way for a reason after all.

©2022 Mary Grace van der Kroef

Photo sourced from unsplash.com


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Threads End

Spooled thread
Pulled
Schooled by a needle’s eye
Guided on a waltz
Of piercing lessons
That transform
Until the line is spent

A knot of resistance
Acknowledgement
of an end

Then a slip
Release
Somehow the spool still gives

Fibres hid within the spine
Of structure
Only released when force
Finds forgiveness

When my loves thread ends
He begins

©2022 Mary Grace van der Kroef


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Pristine Floor

I turned it over in my hand
This broken piece
Of self
Traced the cracks
Noted the gaps
Counted the missing particles
Now marking
A pristine floor

A broom passed by
Grabbing flecks that soiled
This hallowed place.

Its bristles shush
My shameful grief
Watching
In silence

I should have protested
asked for time
Told my story
Before
This piece of self
Crumbled
And I was left to mourn.

Alone
Or so perceived

Untill
Generous Silence
Gave them back to me
Cupped
In recognition
Bound tightly
With the string of memories
As I prayed

He gave no rebuke
As bits poured into my hands
Losing fragments
Between hesitant fingers
He helped me count the loss
That again littered marble paths
Highlighted against its wealth
As human filth

He waited
Cupping tears that spilled
Adding his own to the soiled floor
Besmirched in regrets as thick as aged blood

Patient
He shushed the onlookers
Ready to jeer the fallen

Then I was ready
He pulled each speck to himself
Dirtying his own hands to lift my loss
Into his apron furled
It was him who shook my remnant free
Of any last dust
It was my King who carried my shame
Out the door
And when returned
Knowing it no more

©2022 Mary Grace van der Kroef


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He Names Me

Who am I?
The one that you see?
What she thinks of me?
All they note?
Or the thing he missed?

Who?

Guilty
That I forgot
Lost in the mess
Of others’ thoughts
Spewed at my feet

Why?

Untranslatable
From one mind to another
Labeled with others
Experiences
Self perceptions that tell lies

Where?

Is the truth of me
In this ever shifting nexus
Is it written down
In His book of days?
Was I

Planted

A vine that climes
Grabbing hold of His
Provisions
Both free and confined
To grow along the trellis of

His cross

When I reach the top
Will I know?
Intertwined and grounded
By Him, with Him,
I am for Him

Upheld

Blooming in my seasons
Existing, a separate being
Singleness, within the
Universe’s Whomb
Bearing fruits as He names me

Loved

©2022 Mary Grace van der Kroef


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