We are the lithograph of God's Image - <br />Each a numbered edition <br />From the stone cut. <br />Some copies turn out faint, <br />Mere brush strokes on heavy matte - <br />Wisps of the eternal <br />Then gone too soon. <br />Others have depth, <br />And shadowy after-images <br />Where the artist rolled over and back, <br />Over and back, <br />Until satisfied that the ridges and trenches, <br />angles and curves <br />Of this bas-relief of God's Being <br />Are stamped into paper faithfully. <br />Some imprints are so deeply etched in skin and bones, <br />That even entrails and hearts <br />have been bruised. <br />These are the saints, the prophets - <br />The lamed-vavniks - <br />Who hold up all the world <br />On their shoulders. <br /> <br />We are the silkscreen of God's Image - <br />Our bodies, the bolt of silk; <br />Our blood, the ink pressed upon it; <br />Our hardships, the roller <br />That pushes color through the fabric. <br />The harder the life <br />The more the Image comes through!<br /><br />Lillian Susan Thomas<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/from-the-stone-cut/
