The Way of Martha and the Way of Mary

by Stephen Graham

This, I was worth to God, whose wheel the pitcher shaped.

And again:

He fixed thee midst this dance

Of plastic circumstance,

This Present, thou, forsooth, wouldst fain arrest:

Machinery just meant

To give thy soul its bent,

Try thee and turn thee forth, sufficiently impressed.

The way of Martha had given place to the way of Mary. My elders read Rabbi Ben Ezra to comfort one another:

Grow old along with me!