Expectation—Sarah Spradlin

"I am still surprised at the violence of love alive..."

Sarah is a farmer and storyteller raised in Georgia. Now, she lives in Central America where she's worked in cross-cultural ministry since 2020, which pretty much boils down to planting things, talking to people, and writing poetry on long bus rides. Her poetry has been published on Story Embers, Kingdom Pen, and Ekstasis, and you can read more of her work on her Instagram, @sarah.spradlin.

Expectation

by Sarah Spradlin

The earth
in birthing
is broken twice: 

once
to bury seeds
she is torn open 
to make room   
for what is barely breathing

then again 
to multiply,
she is disrupted 
by emerging seeds
disturbing the empty air
to prepare the way
for a flood of feasting.

I measure the distance 
between the breakings 
and the reapings 
through many radiant 
and dark hours:

even as I watch the sun 
callus the earth 
against resurrection,

beneath the surface
she is yielding—
seeds soften and swell,
then break out of darkness
into life.

The first breaking
is inevitable;
the second is a miracle
made no less remarkable
by patient expectation.

Some seeds 
never reach 
the surface
a sorrow borne by 
soil and sower alone

yet,

devoting ourselves 
to what may be lost
is perhaps the bravest 
thing we do

and I am still surprised
at the violence of love alive, 
willing even to receive death 
so that something might 
take root and rise.

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