Susan Cowger is the author of a poetry collection, Slender Warble (Wipf & Stock/Cascade, 2020), and a chapbook, Scarab Hiding (Finishing Line Press, year 2006). Founder and editor emeritus of Rock & Sling, her most recent publications include Ekphrastic Review, Windhover, Perspectives, Crux, McGuffin, Presence, and In A Strange Land: Introducing Ten Kingdom Poets (2019). She earned her MFA in Creative Writing from Eastern Washington University and her BA in Art with teaching credentials from Montana State University. Married to Dana for forty-seven years, she has four children and twenty-two grandchildren. (I know, she finds this rather shocking too.) Contact her on Facebook and at susancowger.com.

In the Waters

by Matthew Clark

I was scared for my life 

Saw the ship was capsizing 

And the Lord lay asleep while the storm raged 

I was losing my mind 

All the darkness was blinding 

Till the Lord with a word stilled the chaos 

In the waters, in the waters 

I’ve seen life go so wrong 

Seen the best sink in sadness 

Till the dark seemed their only companion

But I’ve seen Jesus come save

Walking out upon the waves 

With his feet planted firm in the madness  

In the waters, in the waters 

Interlude 

And some days nothing makes sense  

Lord, the still place is spinning 

And the center can’t hold for much longer 

So won’t you bring us your song 

As the howling grows stronger 

Your voice is an anchor, Your voice is an anchor, Your voice is an anchor to me

In the waters, in the waters 

BRIDGE

I can hear it, I can hear it, I can hear it coming through 

Through the storm, through the darkness (I can hear it coming through)

In the places I was sure your love had left me 

Every night I was sleepless 

But the beauty of the moonlight was you singing 

When the flames tore the house down

There were friends who became my home and family 

So I know you will not fail 

That your love, my God, endures forever 

©2023 Matthew Clark, Path in the Pines Music (ASCAP)