Words That Stick

Toxic waste
blackened paste
words that stick
hearts defaced

By sludge abused
forever bruised
beneath the crusting
phrases used

Unclean thing
how they cling
defy attempts
to shield the sting

Leprosy
our legacy
every man’s
dark felony

Guard the tongue
from speaking dung
words once said
can’t be unsung

Copyright ©2020 Mary Grace van der Kroef


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Beauty of Forgetting

First, the sun bleached its vibrancy
To subtle whispers
A mural of marked moments disappearing
Through existing

Redraw the lines
Splash colours fresh
Upon the wall
For red, to leak
Where pink alone has walked

Blue holding Yellow’s hand as
Fresh green parades between
Look
It wasn’t as it was before
A shift

Mourn this change that steels
Celebrate what it reveals
In vibrant presence
A portrait restored
As MemoriesWhat is forgotten fades
What is remembered enhanced

Copyright ©2023 Mary Grace van der Kroef


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Hope like Cold Fury

She took my anger
And flew away
So now, I can finally pray

She was God’s Grace
Before I asked
He gave it through her winging blast

Hidden in
My seeking brush
Hope is His, my fears to crush

He knows my needs
Before I call
This is His story after all

©Mary Grace van der Kroef 2020

Hope like Cold Fury was written to accompany the painting by the same name. The original painting by Mary Grace van der Kroef is Sold.


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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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Joy

Found in simple spaces
when lights have dimmed to ease
weariness of day from shoulders prone.

In the morning beams
where radiance sings
reserving stage for feathered accompaniment notes.

Shimmers in the shadows
like the fuzziness of heat,
but greats in bells that chime with chirping mirth.

Often hid amid
wide open space
blending with a magic you can not trace.

Given to the few
who look beyond circumstance
to find the lines God painted beneath.

Even when awash,
paying untold cost,
finding treasure hid and hold relief.

Copyright ©2023 Mary Grace van der Kroef


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Available titles by Mary Grace van der Kroef

Underground United/Off Topic Publishing

I have been waiting for months to be able to share this publication with you. I am so thrilled and excited to announce that on October 31st my short story ‘Underground United’ was published in the Wayward and Upward anthology of stories and poems.

I am honoured to stand alongside so many other talented and hard-working writers and poets. The diverse backgrounds of the writers who were selected is exciting, the content is stunning, and the hard work by the publishers to make this project happen will not be forgotten.

The forty pieces in this book unite two creative endeavours at the heart of humanity: making music and telling stories. Each writer took inspiration from one of the ten tracks on the Wayward & Upward album by Spinoza Gambit. This anthology collects one short story and three poems for each track, showcasing the variety of interpretations a single piece of music can evoke.

Wayward and Upward description –

Off Topic Publishing has played an important role in my personal growth as a writer, and now as well in my published career. The staff and Editor are all amazing individuals and I am so grateful to them for their hard work, and dedication to Canadian literature and excellence. I encourage any writers out there to connect with them and enjoy the community they are growing around the written word.

They have a monthly contest that is worth checking out and entering if you are a growing writer. The entry fee continues to be affordable and each entry receives feedback from the judges. I have never won this contest but several of the pieces I entered have gone on to see publication elsewhere. The feedback I received was encouraging, as well as important to my later success. Thank you to those judges!

Wayward and Upward is available for purchase directly from the publisher, as an ebook or in print form. Find it by clicking one of the links above or by visiting my own bookshop and following the links provided there.

Mary Grace van der Kroef


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Mountain Glory

The glory of a mountain peak
Is like a friend who doesn’t speak
Light that plays on glass like lake
Almost moves a heart to break
But if it breaks this pain is kind
It only serves as a remind
There are many friends beyond mankind

©2020 Mary Grace van der Kroef

“Mountain Glory”

Original Painting by Mary Grace van der Kroef

Acrylic Pain on stretched canvas.

Gifted to Karla Ans

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Titles by Mary Grace van der Kroef

Maple Red

See new blush upon the leaves
Slowly spread
Deepening as it flows
To maples deepest red

Perhaps we humans stole these shades
For moments, soft and close
Painting cheeks as we embrace
Those we adore

A tribute to nature’s love
That depends woody roots
While releasing laughter’s leaves,
Nourishment through winter’s silence

The first sign of this acceptance
This dance that nodes at death
The evidence of time’s ministrations
He flirts with nature’s chilling breath

©2022 Mary Grace van der Kroef


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Growth

Today I share my reading of the poem ‘Growth’ with all of you.

‘Growth’ is one of the 36 poems in my new poetry collection, ‘Words of Weight’. Now available at Amazon as an ebook and paperback book. Or barrow it with the Kindle Unlimited program.

If you have read my new book, please consider leaving an honest review. Each one is important regardless of star value, and we appreciate each one.

(Review on Amazon or Goodreads)

Never Empty/Ekstasis Magazine

Reviving the Christian Imagination

Covering creative culture with Christianity Today

“Within the pages of Ekstasis, we exhibit arts and letter that reflect the depths of Christian life.”

– from the Ekstasis Magazine About Page –

I have found the pages of Ekstasis Magazine, both online and in print, to be a place of great beauty and deep thought, reverence and worship, joy and celebration.

I would like to thank the editorial team for including my poem “Never Empty” in their Autumn online lineup.

I invite you to visit them and enjoy the many rich works of writers/artists of all kinds.

“Ekstasis publishes work that slants toward the triumphant and glorious aspects of life in Christ, framed through the arts and literature. Ekstasis is based in the work of Beautiful Orthodoxy, as defined by Christianity Today.”

– from the Ekstasis Magazine About Page –

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