Elijah asks Elisha, "Tell me, what can I do for you before I am taken from you?" —Anna A. Friedrich

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Stack Takeover: We’ve invited Anna A. Friedrich to take over our Substack for two weeks to share her latest poems that examine the lives of the prophets Elijah and Elisha through a poetic lens. Read more on her Substack, Monafolkspeak and in her new book Under the Terebinth.

Tell me everything
God whispered—

Tell me how to find
the cleft—

Tell me whom to trust—
whom to fear—

Tell me how 
the prophet bends

under years 

of impossible 
prayers—

Tell me where the valley
leads—

Tell me when to call down
fire—

Tell me how I know Yahweh is
telling me to run—

How long (tell me) do I 
watch the clouds?

Tell me when to lift
my head, when to stay
laid low—

Tell me what these hands
are for—

Tell me to rest—

Tell me I am 
not alone—

Tell me how to long 
to die and 

to go on. Tell me where the sacred
brook runs deep—

Tell me how to drink—

Tell me my inheritance
is more than drought

and downpour, more 
than raven-fed despair—

Tell me everything
God whispered—

Tell me everything
again.

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Anna A. Friedrich is a poet and arts pastor in Boston, MA. She shares an original poem every Wednesday morning at annaafriedrich.substack.com, and her first full-length poetry collection, Under the Terebinth, is now available (from Wipf and Stock).