For My Mother, Who Made Words and Loved the Word by Debbie Harris

Note to the Reader

Dear Reader,

This poem was written after the death of my mother. She was a professor, a Shakespearean actress, a writer, and, above all, a passionate follower of Jesus Christ. I wanted to tell the truth about missing her without letting grief have the last word.

She made words for a living, and she loved the Word. What she taught did not end when her voice did. It remains in her students and in her children. The poem tries to hold both things at once: that the Lord gives, and the Lord takes, and that His name is still to be blessed.

If you have loved someone and lost them, I hope you can borrow the peace this poem asks for—the peace He gives, and we take as a gift.

The Poet

Job 1:21

Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.

Philippians 4:7

And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

2 Corinthians 1:3–4

Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

Revelation 21:5

And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

She taught the line until the line could stand,

and spoke old verse with a sure, living hand.

The classroom keeps the brightness of her mind;

the stage still knows the measure she designed.

Professor, actress, maker of the word—

and more than these, a follower of her Lord.

She loved the Christ she named in work and days;

her passion was not pose, but prayer and praise.

Not only silence after she is gone:

Christ is the morning she is gathered on.