Failed Sail – a poem by Cordelia Hanemann

Failed Sail   

You moan of your spiritual dryness.

You have polished the gunwales,
adjusted the rudder, tightened the halyards,
trimmed out new sails. You are ready
for your adventure; but, alas, no wind:
God has not shown up.

You must now, in your frustrated
prayer moment, grit it out alone,
sit, fists furled in your lap;
or, you pace the unsteady hull,
wiggle the dagger board, yank
the tiller, pivot the boom. Nothing.
You’ve been stood up by an uppity God,
putting you in your place.

Did you expect God
to light on your bow,
bluster into your sails?
Don’t you know that God IS
(always showing up), that it is 
you, who have not shown up?

Perhaps, God-who-IS is waiting 
for you to let go 
the tiller, haul up the anchor,
risk a drift with the current. 

Cordelia Hanemann is writer and artist in Raleigh, NC. She has published in  journals: Atlanta Review,  Southwestern Review, and Laurel Review; anthologies, The Poet Magazine’s Friends and Friendship, Heron Clan and Kakalakand in a chapbook. Her poems have won awards and been nominated for prizes. Recently the featured poet for Negative Capability Press and The Alexandria Quarterly, she is now working on a first novel, about her roots in Cajun Louisiana.