I remembered this poem from an old issue of First Things, and loved it from the moment I read it. Leslie Goerner’s "Redemption" has some of my favorite lines in all of recent religious poetry.
Redemption
The angels offered reprieve,
escape for Lot’s entire household
including almost–sons who having witnessed
a divine defense of honor
dared to scoff at certain doom.
Commanded in that final moment to depart,
Lot himself paused,
needed to be tugged away
from his destruction—
man caught up in doubts and compromise
the hand of grace dislodged for him; for us.
What did Lot’s wife hope to see
when on that moving day her eyes slid back
to the town where she had raised a family,
exchanged the recipes of substitution . . .
Perhaps she turned to douse with tears
the fire of a hearth where friendship dawdled
near the shame she’d entertained:
in her heart, still burning,
embers of a tolerance
for sin we too have hosted—
her final heedless turning hardened
into destination.
Me? I love that image of needing to be
tugged away
from his destruction—
man caught up in doubts and compromise
the hand of grace dislodged for him; for us…
If that isn’t the perfect description for the ongoing process of conversion, I sure as heck don’t know what is.
Hugo,
In order to free themselves from the consequences of sin, Lot and his family just had to have faith.__Lot’s wife is full of self doubt, and so she turns to look back on the past.__This is a really great example of God offering a new beginning, and man’s inability to see it as such.
You’re right, a great example of redemption!
Thank you for providing this great poetry every Thu…..We love it!
JJB,
Recently, my husband has had a realization about a line in a song he likes, something about not looking back when you put your hands to the plow. He realized that when you put your hands to the work you are to be doing, if you look back behind you, you get off the line you’re supposed to follow, weaving a crooked furrow instead of the needed straight line.
He was suddenly able to apply it to that temptation to look back at his own past and let it pull him down. When he looks back, it causes him to have difficulty with the present. It keeps him from staying true to the line he must follow in the here and now.
Hugo, thank you for posting this poem.
Caitriona,
Thank you! What a great metaphor!