Black Sea: four poems by Rebecca Collins

piano keys, image by Uwe Baumann, on Pixabay

Adonai

Now I know

who You are,

stained in fibers and place

the excruciating,

merged in souls

Your Word,

death breathed into failure

so failure sheds itself,

leaving only Love.

              *

Patience

You wait

as gravel turns to dust,

the searing cracking

becoming gold

swept into Your hands,

its marks on them

shining us all

so we cannot hide

and no longer have to

under other pebbles.

           *

I Can Only Imagine

In my mind

I touch the first key,

the first few notes of “I Can Only Imagine”

and my knees and forehead

become my fingers

playing

lowering to the ground,

the sides of one hand in the other…

You are this prayer and its answer,

gently lifting me—

how can I fathom the “I can only imagine”

of the touch,

eyes,

face,

arms and heartbeat

of my God,

of Unconditional Love?

(This poem references "I Can Only Imagine,'" a song by MercyMe,

written and composed by Bart Millard.)

               *

Black Sea

I see You,

the white-gray curl

where sea and sky leave themselves,

so I leave myself

to walk to You

on the water of my faith,

in the gradual dimness

clear not even pretending black,

filled too much with Your light.

At 44, Rebecca Collins wrote in Italian and published her first book, 'Tre raccolte poetiche' (Midgard Editrice, 2022), which was born in Perugia, Italia, where she lived on and off

for almost one year. Since September 2023, she has lived in Sakartvelo (in the country

of Georgia), where she came to and has been transformed by Christ. She wrote her Testimony, which is in Heart of Flesh Literary Journal. Her poetry has been published

by Cosmic Daffodil Journal, Trampoline: A Journal of Poetry, and ZVONA i NARI, and

her poetry plus an interview are in Everscribe. Rebecca is the Founder and Editor

of Outside the Box Poetry (OtB). 

June 2025 issue