In Be Thou My Vision, Rebecca Ramsden reminds us that poetry and holiness can be found anywhere, and in anybody. With her lines of peace and quietude, we are brought along with the narrator into an unexpected encounter with divinity, oneness, and understanding—in a public swimming pool of all places. According to Rebecca, the poem’s title comes from the hymn the lifeguard was singing. She told The Dewdrop, “It is my hope that divine connection can be experienced in my poetry whatever the topic may be.”
Be Thou My Vision
The life guard strolls the quiet
perimeter. I rest after laps,
meditate afloat in a warm pool.
Gently he sings a hymn.
His voice like a shepherd
in the hills tending his flock.
You recognize the walk,
the words carried
by robes across the water.
His spirit resonates, not in
volume, but pilgrim strength,
of intention, belief, vision.
I return to childhood, my own
devotion raised in a church,
a gratitude nestled in my core.
Right here, under a Milky Way
of metal beams, stretched
across a galvanized galaxy.
Right here, in a concrete womb
voice of a seraphim floats –
echo about my fetal chapel.
Rebecca Ramsden
Rebecca, a retired Registered Nurse, travels into the wilds to soothe the mind and open the heart to what is consistently stable. Being surrounded by nature, she feels held by the Great Mother, safer to traverse the shadow world, to find sacred in the observance of daily living. Rebecca’s poems have been published in This Was 2020, Martin Lake Journal, Please See Me, Talking Stick and as winner of the Creekside Poetry contest.
This is a beautiful and powerful poem that perfectly captures a moment.
An extraordinary moment reflected in the water and in her words.
They sit expanding in my heart. Thank you Rebecca.
Very talented! Love it!
A divine rendering “…spirit resonates, not in
volume, but pilgrim strength,
of intention, belief, vision.”
Love love love bliss