The World’s Sharpness – a poem by D.S. Martin

The World's Sharpness

Arising from the 24th sonnet of Elizabeth Barrett Browning


          Despite a handstitched receiving blanket
for your arrival   soft   dry & warm
& your mother's strong arms
          despite the appearance of our world   
so round & smooth   you could   only briefly   
be protected from the catch
of serrated things   from the stab of worldlings  
          So come   you pierced 
torn   & riven of soul
          come   you born to trouble  
muddled by sunderings   & you   
so hard pressed
          come to the one who offers rest

D.S. Martin is Poet-in-Residence at McMaster Divinity College, and Series Editor for the Poiema Poetry Series from Cascade Books. He has written five poetry collections including Angelicus (2021), Ampersand (2018), and Conspiracy of Light: Poems Inspired by the Legacy of C.S. Lewis (2013). He and his wife live in Brampton, Ontario; they have two adult sons.