Good Faces
by Karen Yoder
Around me sit good faces with lines of
grace, crinkled hope, foreheads smooth—
grateful for community. I see workmanship soft
around the eyes like the smooth lip of a cup
washed and wiped, shiny as Venus on a clear night.
I hear worship well from soles vetoing darkness and death,
wavering songs amidst falling stars and harsh sunsets.
He promised a good path is plotted, so let us rise
like the closest star and mirror His good face.
Karen collects syllables while planting perennials, entertaining first graders, and filling the birdfeeder.
Photography by Kenneth Godoy
This reminds me of sitting on the front bench of my home church when I was fourteen, and my artist friend, Annette, beside me, leaned over and whispered, “I would like to draw that face”–and so I noticed it, sitting under the graying hair in the “amen corner” before us, a good face. I saw the lines of it, the personality of brow and firmness of lip, the weary ears and listening eyes–crinkled hope! Karen, you not only saw, you drew, and now we can see, too.