indigo is the

joy and lament of a

human being

theologian

father

fashioning new ideas about the divine

within the painful loss of his daughter

within the constraints of his own intelligence

within the constraints of what religion

had been telling him his whole life

some of which was good and

some of which wasn’t

good

it’s a way forward

where forward means the

interaction of

past choices

past events

and personal agency

in this moment

and this moment

and … yes, this moment

it’s the hope

on the underside of grief

like the pilot fish

with the shark

around the whale

within a section of ocean

an ecosystem of

depth and light

and slow-motion shadows

oceanographic poetry

that breaks the surface from

time to time

that breaks one’s heart from

time to time

indigo is

the color of grief

for its gradation of

sapphires and violets

descending into violence

or ascending into lightness

the beauty of which is found

in both extremes

entanglement

the divine infused within the whole

the hole infused within the divine

read it for cursing

for weeping

for laughing

read it for mourning

read it

for the

world

is on fire

Jonathan K. Foster