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Saving Mercy

O Lord, “create in me
a clean heart”
and wash the soiled
memories and reasonings
from the murals to which I cling.*
“Leadeth me beside the
still waters,”
wherefrom Your Love can
bathe my soul in Beauty.**
O Lord, “create in me
a clean heart,”
and I, in surety, can in
Your sheepfold rest in peace,
dipping my gourd into
Your living spring, eternally
slaking what before
could not be relieved.***

Leo Carroll
September 6, 2025
Westford, Massachusetts

* Psalm 51:10
** Psalm 23:2
*** John 4:14



Photo by Leo Carroll

Creature

O Lord, You held me
cupped in Your hands, cradled
in Your arms. You made
me to tenderly lie against
Your bosom. You formed me and
shaped me until I was as
close to Your image and likeness
as a human creature could
become, and then You
looked into my face and
breathed my name, and like a
tiny mustard seed in
the womb You placed me –
into the innocent,
lush garden of an in utero,
warm enclave.*

Leo Carroll
April 25, 2025
Westford, Massachusetts

*Jeremiah 1:5



Photo by Adriane Iordache (via Unsplash.com)

Fences

Some people build fences
to keep others out,
while others build fences
to keep themselves in.
All that can be done is to
gently place a gift
at their gate, and hope
somehow it is seen, as
through pretty, pastel curtains
they discreetly peek…

Leo Carroll
March 11, 2025
Westford, Massachusetts



Image by Google Gemini Imagen3

Grace

O my Lord,
You so easily peer into
my heart, winding Your way
deftly and knowingly through the darkened
corridors and staircases
and recesses of my soul –
and alas You find
me, on a slab in a drab
burial cloth, hidden
behind a hewn rock hitherto
unrolled – but just as in
the Garden of Eden when
You found Adam and Eve in leaves
aft their fall clothed, and
just as for Lazarus in
Bethany four-days aft his
death be told, You mercifully
summoned me forth,
and grace’s white raiment You
chose I wore.

Leo Carroll
February 12, 2025
Westford, Massachusetts



Photo by Lhar Capili (via Unsplash.com)

Cedars

(Matthew 19, John 2)

So this is my Shepherd’s gate,
the entrance to which certainly is not
what I had anticipated — the eyelet of a
needle for a camel to impossibly
navigate! But rather have emerged
the soft colors of gold and green, caught
in the autumn light of an
end-of-afternoon, cedar dream.
And a tear washes my cheek,
overcome by the unmerited, sweet
mercy which grace in beauty has
bathed me! Thus I realize at this very
late hour, was revealed the
delicate veil which gives access to
Cana’s wedding feast and
shaded bower…

Leo Carroll
October 9, 2024
Sammamish, Washington



Photo by Leo Carroll