Jean Chellos - Walking it Out

Hey folks! Here's some more work that was submitted to us for the "Leaps of (Poetic) Faith. Continue to send us work! Today's poem is from Jean Chellos.

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Jean Chellos - Walking it Out

“Keep the faith,” that faith of your fathers,

say those who’ve come before.

Do they truly know? Can they truly instruct?

But, why not trust—have I a better insight yet?

I can test my faith; I can walk it out,

seen in the prints I leave in my path.

Keep stepping, one foot at a time, will I try.

Sometimes it’s every day, nearly every moment,

I feel a falter. I could lose my way, and on the roadside, there I’ll die!

But, then next to me, or near me, I hear

a mother’s remembrance of her child she laid to rest.

She speaks slowly, cries softly, and

gives thanks for the love they shared while they lived.

If she can, I can. What does it cost me to have faith?

So, is it in my stepping, the assurance that I’ll find?

Or, is it in my hoping, faithful while still yet blind?

The building of faith comes through many ways;

this is what I’ve found.

There is a common thread with which I roll my ball of yarn.

So far, a single source speaks to my soul and builds me up.

I see a common theme.

Without seeing forms, I believe in someone, who loves me greatly.

Without a deed held in a safe, I’m destined for a home.

So much to express, thinking of my faith, I’ll write but this.

It’s a life lived in faith that shares the strongest proof

of that which cannot be proved, but, gives me strong hope.

My sister’s husband told me of the choice he was given,

to dip his toe into a river flowing golden, or, decline and remain among the living.

END