Grace
I wrote the poem “Grace” because of a recent unfortunate event. A good friend experienced a life-altering stroke. He must now live his life using a wheelchair, and he has no speech.
I recently visited a stunning 12th-century church in the Harz low mountain range in Germany. In the empty subterranean chamber of the church, there is a mesmerizing resonance. The stonework and ambience inspired my improvised melody. The person who accompanied me on the trip recorded my singing on his mobile phone without my knowledge. Later that day, he played it, and I thought it would be suitable as a backing track for the poem as it also has a metaphysical note.
Maroula Blades is a multidisciplinary artist living in Berlin. She was awarded 2nd place for the German 2023 Amadeu Antonio Prize for her interdisciplinary educational project, ‘Stones in Symphony’. She was selected for the 2021 INITIAL Special Grant from the Academy of Arts in Berlin. In 2020, Chapeltown Books released her story collection, ‘The World in an Eye’. Works were published in The Caribbean Writer, Thrice Fiction, The Freshwater Review, Ake Review, Abridged, The London Reader, and So It Goes, among many others.
