Sarah Law

The Finding

This is what God loves:

the scholars and the consecrated souls

discussing life and death, and drawing

finger and learned gaze along the scrolls

in search of infinite old formulae.

God loves the priests in their solemnity,

the choreography of ritual,

the absolutions granted to their

penitents. The archetype of right.

And in among them, God adores the

child, who’s entered the great temple

with a running jump and lively

hands; who skips up through the hall

and calls them all out with his answers:

word-forms fluttering like doves,

startling the sages with their upward flight;

and laughter, like an unexpected hug,

very much to God’s delight.

Sarah Law is a poet, author and tutor living in Norwich in the UK. She edits the online journal Amethyst Review for new writing engaging with the sacred. Her latest collection, This Transfigured Chapel of the Threads, won a bronze medal in the 2023 Illumination Book Awards.