#on grace

[inkpressedpetals]

[deerlydivine]

Something that strikes me about misconceptions around what capital G Grace means is that its always something to be offered haphazardly, or without discernment.

One can practice Grace in myriad ways, offering another space to process and recover, sharing resources through hardship, offering compassion in tense and scary situations. Not one of these examples requires one to submit themselves to another for the practice of Grace.

[softproserpina]

— from ‘If Not, Winter: Fragments Of Sappho’ translated by Anne Carson, fragment 108

[popefrancissays]

“’Well! Father, I am a sinner; I have tremendous sins. How can I possibly feel part of the Church?’ Dear brother, dear sister, this is exactly what the Lord wants, that you say to Him, ‘Lord, here I am, with my sins.’”

[lifeinpoetry]

You know how when Usain Bolt runs & you want to cry it’s so beautiful? That.

How could we not be a song? I hum this man in my bed all night, my mouth a loose choir

& his body a gospel & I don’t mean like a song I mean gospel like a religion or like a testimony

etched in gold. How could we be only a song? I lay men down for what some call me a faggot for

but I call it worship, I see his wood & bark Amen Amen Amen. I call out God’s good name

in the midst of the first miracle—the black body. Look at him, at us.

— Danez Smith, from “On Grace,” Nepantla: An Anthology Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color

[lifeinpoetry]

How could we not be a song? I hum this man in my bed all night, my mouth a loose choir & his body a gospel & I don’t mean like a song I mean gospel like a religion or like a testimony etched in gold. How could we be only a song?

— Danez Smith, from “On Grace,” published in Nepantla

[loudlylovingreview]

Dewitt Henry: On Grace

Economy and naturalness,as in ballet, or basketball’s dunk,or skater’s twirl, leap and glide.Body’s flow seems effortless.Opposite of clumsy.halting, forced. Off balance.Yet both ideas combinein “graceful fall,” like thatpromised by self-pity.Richard Yates’s Walter Hendersonat nine prided himselfon losing toy gunfights:“the performer would stop, turn,and stand poised for a momentin graceful…

Dewitt Henry: On Grace