solidarity’s question: who will embrace such present sorrow
I am only one, but still I am one . . . but I can do something.
—Edward Everett Hale, "Lend a Hand"
i sit here
alone in the chapel
a dark desert night
Jesus, have mercy on me a great sinner
i breathe in then out
Jesus, have mercy on us
i breathe slower
Jesus, have mercy on me a great sinner
slower into the dark
Jesus, have mercy on us
the clock chimes the quarter hour
Jesus, have mercy on me a great sinner
i sit before All Hunger, Thirst and Longing
to plead in the silence for grace among the violences
Jesus, have mercy
Sister Lou Ella Hickman, a member of the Sisters of the Incarnate Word and Blessed Sacrament, has been a teacher on all levels including college, and she has worked in two libraries. Presently, she is a freelance writer as well as a certified spiritual director. Her poems and articles have been published in numerous magazines as well as in After Shocks: Poetry of Recovery for Life-Shattering Events edited by Tom Lombardo and in Down to the Dark River and The Southern Quarterly both edited by Philp Kolin. She and Pam Edwards co-authored Catechizing with Liturgical Symbols. Her first book of poetry, she: robed and wordless, published by Press 53, was released in the fall of 2015.
