EMILY’S VIRTUES

by Luci Shaw

Before her fingers lost

their cunning—my mother-

in-law, last of a generation

of refugees from up north—

we’d shell peas

together, culled from her yard,

splitting the pods along

their green seams,

releasing the pale pearls into

a tin bowl, the metallic

thunk a reward for the ancient

virtue of diligence.

Another—thrift,

unraveling and re-knitting

old sweaters. Baking into

fresh bread my child’s

leftover cereal.

Withered skin, yellow as

old linen. In her nineties,

and her memory

slipping, she’d wake at

midnight, losing track of

hours, put on her hat and

gloves, come down one

stair at a time, for church.

We’d lead her back up

to bed, wishing we had

her resolve, her faith

implicit that the way she

honored God, God would

honor her. Hold on to her

the way she held the bannister

tight on the way down,

which was for her, the way up.


Luci Shaw is a poet and essayist, and since 1986 she has been Writer in Residence at Regent College, Vancouver. Author of over thirty-seven books of poetry and creative non-fiction, her writing has appeared in numerous literary and religious journals and in 2013 she received the 10th annual Denise Levertov Award for Creative Writing from Seattle Pacific University. Her new collection, The Generosity, will be released in August, 2020, by Paraclete Press.