What I Saw: two poems by Elizabeth Rhodes

The Ocean Doesn’t Argue

To argue with the ocean,

how it climbs ladders,

touches clouds and star.

Fist to God is as if

a battalion of words will cut,

kill creation itself. The slit

of earth does not listen,

does not move.

God sees the cluster of sand

run through the vapor of hands.

Salt in the eyes and the bubbling

swell of defeated laughter.

And he has not forgotten. Even—

the ease of his head could turn,

look at the beauty of his bare feet,

yet he looks at us. Fist, a crumbled,

crashed wave on this shore.

What I Saw in the Church

To know you know God,

that this is not just a room

full of pews and pedestrians of earth

but in the presence of holy wonder.

Words coming from graves, sands

and selections of colliding lives

that say there are Cherubim, Seraphim,

rising from ground and our burden,

the roots of sin to be shaken, unrooted,

in fire for the function of letting love

be known to all. You know that kings,

rulers of all heaven come to your side.

Unravel shame, righteous ones,

linen and cloth left at the tomb.

____________________________

Elizabeth Rhodes is a graduate of California Baptist University with a degree

in Creative Writing. She’s been published in the CBU journals The Dazed Starling

and The Dazed Starling Unbound as well as Imposter: A Poetry Journal and

Inlandia: A Literary Journey. She loves to write stories that are raw but hopeful.

She also enjoys spending time in nature and with her cat, Little Bell.

December 2025 issue

SPIRIT FIRE REVIEW