Open-handed

 
“You have blessed us
when we could not bless you.”  [i]  
This shows how upside-down it is
– always is – 
to guess the flow from Low-Above
whether acts of good
or simple love
 
When actually
– and always – 
it’s not “I and Thou,”   [ii]
but Thou and I
from birth and infancy
for any constant move
against inconstancy
 
Why, more than half 
(not always half)   
when not aware, 
my blessings fail in sleep 
forgetting you, 
or fight with time, 
dejection and destruction, too 
 

  (continued on next page)

                                   
And all the while  
– yes, always – 
Your sun will shine, rain fall 
on just and unjust.   [iii]
Sometimes we find how much we grew  
while in our own Un-Blessing  
we were Blessed by you  
(2010s) 


[i]  “Daily Companion”.  Magnificat.  February 2013.  p. 326  – Also, see: {https://aleteia.org/daily-prayer/saturday-february-27/prayer-for-this-morning-0/}  
“O God, you have loved us without our deserving it.
You have forgiven us without our earning it.
You have blessed us when we could not bless you.
Grant us the grace to love as we have been loved,
through Christ our Lord. Amen.”    

[ii]  “Martin Buber, I and Thou”.  Wikipedia. org. {https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_and_Thou} (accessed December 1, 2021).
“Ich und Du, usually translated as I and Thou (You), is a book by Martin Buber, published in 1923, and first translated from German to English in 1937 …. In Buber's view, all of our relationships bring us ultimately into relationship with God, who is the Eternal Thou.  Martin Buber said that every time someone says Thou, they are indirectly addressing God.”

[iii]    Matthew 5:44-45, Jesus said, – 
“But I say to you, love your enemies,
and pray for those who persecute you,  
that you may be children of your heavenly Father,
for he makes his sun rise on the bad and the good,
and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.”