Buried Faith and Other Poems
by Chelsea Fraser
BURIED FAITH
Not a sliver shines
to find me where I lie.
A load of loam surrounds
And rubs me darker still.
I crack, and out of me
Springs forth my heart,
Unwinding into night
A dark betrayal,
Unfurling itself from me—
Not a shard of light
Shines on my brokenness.
I crack again, my thoughts
Seep out and fly, down,
Down away from my poor hull,
Into yet deeper darkness,
Deeper night.
But sudden!—heat,
And something like to light
Awakes my heart, and green
Fills up to all my cracks
And overflows down,
Down into the darkness
Storing sweet renewal.
Whispers echo back
Around my startled thoughts
Buried far below all friendship,
Far below all expectation.
Your buried songs reverberate:
Our buried thoughts
That root us into Place.
We husks, we bear the burden
And the hope of Eden’s soil:
A seeming endless darkness
With the hope of endless light
We may never see—
A mustard seed
Moving mountains
In its planted faith,
My heart allowed to fly
and know the Sun,
For here in the dark,
We fight to hold
With rooted thoughts
And buried reminders
To hope and truth and wonder
While our bodies break in shoots
That search to know the More
Above the earth, up
Up away where we may not see.
And still, I offer up my heart
And down my roots
And crack to open for the Truth:
For I am a warrior of the dark,
And I carry the light with me.
March 11
It’s green now.
The right berth of the woodshed
is nearly empty.
Warmth is waxing larger week to week,
buds shedding sneezes
that will be flowers
or trees.
My toddler helps “gard” with me:
mini-garden guard,
shovel in hand
bouncing toward my bent frame,
reaching into earth to purge the weeds—
his eager play shovel working with the shimmers of Eden.
Lord, make me that green again.
CHELSEA FRASER
Chelsea Fraser wears many hats. She is a wife, mother, poet, musician, and arts administrator with a B.A. in English Literature and an M.A. in Organizational Communication. She has been published in Ekstasis Magazine, The Dewdrop, Vessels of Light Journal, Persephone Literary Magazine, and The Way Back to Ourselves Literary Journal. Her debut poetry collection, The Mother Tree, will be published with Vine and Shoots in April of 2025. Visit her: Chelsea Fraser Writes.