Remembering Norma Alloway

For Norma Alloway‘s 101st birthday, Library Student Assistant Lael Louw considers one of Norma’s poems.

We too

are shaped by Divinity

in unique design.

 

We too

live within our shell homes.

We move for a while

with the tides of life

and are gone.

Our song has been sung.

 

Our solo notes have been played.

 

What music lingers in the air

because of our journey?

(Alloway, 1988, p.8)

Norma Alloway’s voice was one threaded with humility, wisdom, activism, and warm invitation. In this exert from Listening: Friendly Thoughts from the Seashore she invites readers to recalibrate their hearts and to consider what is of most import and of most beauty. The human soul is robed in a fabric of fragility as well as eternity, and the human conscience must wrestle with the sometimes-uncomfortable tension that arises from this fabric in which some threads persist and others unravel or are torn away. Alloway contends for the divine beauty of the tension of this human life and entreats readers to live into this space with a gaze that lingers on those threads that persist.

As I read, I find myself contemplating what beauty I might cultivate that will linger beyond my fragile existence. What hope might I bring? What peace might I offer? What orphaned heart may I offer a home? What words of love and faith might I utter? How may I show the shamed and oppressed their dignity? Where can I learn the melody of songs that burst the veil into eternity?

Listen for Happy Birthday to You on the Alloway Chime at noon on March 25 and contemplate the music that lingers because of one person’s journey.

With gratituded, Lael Louw