Love Poem: Devotion Poem, This Painting I Do
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Written by: Sally Eslinger

Devotion Poem, This Painting I Do

*** This Painting I Do ***
                        (A Devotion Poem for Jim)

It is my heart
Painting your portrait
Out over this paper
After I caught your profile, 
When you weren’t looking,
Casting your attention
In another direction,
While I blended in
The colors of your chin,
And you hadn’t known that
I’d peeked over 
Your well-kept
Walls of mystery, which
Usually…no, always even I 
Do not cross…But
Today the artist, I,
Let my sight spy
To set down the contour lines
Of your portrait, which
I promise when completed 
To then hide this artwork 
From the view of anyone else:
Beneath a cross-hatched weave 
Of a thousand tiny strokes
Of glittering beams of gold,
And shining rays of silver,
Stippled stars overall to consume 
You — silhouetted by all the light
Of God’s gracing and
My loving heart’s way 
Of seeing you.


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(C) sally young eslinger 12/10/2022
Thanks be to God…



———————————————————————————————
(C) sally young eslinger 12/10/2022
Thanks be to God…