Sinning and Rebuttal

As I was reading over the poem I wrote today, I thought, huh, I don’t really believe that.  So I wrote a rebuttal.  In the end, I think there’s room for both perspectives:

I. Sinning

If I shoot many arrows

I will miss the mark

far more often

than if I shoot none

So much to learn:

How to align my stance

The arm that holds the bow

The one that draws the arrow back,

My eye . . .

Some of my arrows may not even fly

And some will fall so wide

you couldn’t even tell

which target I had tried

The ones that land in the intended haystack

will be my early victories

and I may hit the target by and by

They say the verb “to sin”

derives from archery

and means “to miss the mark”

Well, let me sin, then

and often

and wildly

Let me fall colossally

if that is what it takes

to live a life that zings

that’s vibrant through and through

If that is what it ultimately takes

to be true.

II. Rebuttal

The sinning poem assumes

That we are separate from grace

And must attain it incrementally

By many times of falling on our face

This is a thing we’ve been so deeply taught

It’s hard to separate it from our thought

Hard to imagine lambency, perfection

Or certainty, or peace, or clear direction

And yet, if once we’ve felt the light arise

That lifts our heart from sorrow into joy

Delivers praise and wonder to our eyes

And liquid harmony into our day

We can believe that even without work

We can stride forth at once and hit the mark.

© Wendy Mulhern

February 25, 2012