Ruth

Date added: 29/05/2020

RUTH

by Silvia Dimitrova

 

Who is this woman, 

Poised and balanced,

Pointing to baby,

Carrying sheaves, which

Wave to waves of barley?

 

Who is this man,

Supporting, protecting,

Prosperous, assured,

Backed by sprouting

And spreading tree?

 

Who is this madonna,

Cuddling a boy,

With delight and tenderness,

Signalling the way

To fertile foliage?

 

Ruth, the Moabite,

Widowed, bereaved,

Loyal and faithful to

Mother-in-law from Israel.

 

'Where you go, I will go:

Where you lodge, I will lodge:

Your people shall be my people

And your God, my God.

Where you die, I will die

And there will I be buried.'

 

Ruth reaps and gleans

A harvest of love

And husband of joy.

 

Boaz, worthy and wealthy,

Honourable and wise, 

Hospitable to foreigner,

Welcoming, redeeming,

Redresses history

And Moses in Moab.

 

Naomi, triply emptied,

Gentle guidance

Now fulfilled,

Nurses her grandson.

 

Obed, gurgling, worshipping,

Bequeathes the tree of Jesse.

Bethlehem rejoices to house

The house of David,

And, in God’s good time,

Great David’s greater son.

 

© Graham Kings, Nourishing Connections (Canterbury Press, 2020).

First published on Covenant July 2019.