From the forge

Posted on February 4, 2023 by Rosalind C Hughes

I made
a heart; hammered
away at steel
hot from the forge
until I got into its groove,
turned the base until
it barely looked
like the barrel of a gun
any more.
I sliced it with the saw
until it wouldn’t hold
any more.
I thought about
that Bible verse,
turning hearts of stone,
but this one,
these are still metal,
and magnetic;
they make that hard
ringing sound when they fall.
They remember
the hardness of heart
that created them.
I hope that they remember,
too, the fire
that moulded them
into something new.

About Rosalind C Hughes

Rosalind C Hughes is a priest and author living near the shores of Lake Erie. After growing up in England and Wales, and living briefly in Singapore, she is now settled in Ohio. She serves an Episcopal church just outside Cleveland. Rosalind is the author of A Family Like Mine: Biblical Stories of Love, Loss, and Longing , and Whom Shall I Fear? Urgent Questions for Christians in an Age of Violence, both from Upper Room Books. She loves the lake, misses the ocean, and is finally coming to terms with snow.
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