---
title: 'The Potter and the Clay: A poem by S.J. Fisher'
type: post
author: 'R. Andrew Myers'
date: 2020-09-30
url: https://confessional.org/blog/2020-the-potter-and-the-clay-a-poem-by-s-j-fisher
---

# The Potter and the Clay: A poem by S.J. Fisher

Writing for the *Herald and Presbyter* over a century ago, African-American Presbyterian poet and preacher [Samuel Jackson Fisher](/authors/samuel-jackson-fisher) contributed a Pauline (echoing Rom. 9:21) composition worthy of highlighting today.

![](https://assets.confessional.org/images/fisher-samuel-jackson-the-potter-and-the-clay-title-page.jpg)> Coarse is the clay in the hands of the potter,
> Clay often trodden by beast or by man;
> Yet on his wheel he molds it to beauty,
> Shaping it lovely by skill to his plan.
> Then with the charm of the great artist’s power,
> Slender the vase — completed by fire —
> Stands in its loveliness, exquisite, pure;
> But the clay is forgot in the vase we admire.
> 
> Out of the sand from the pits of the hillside,
> Swept by the tempest and drenched by the rain
> Man can create the goblet so precious
> Or mirror for beauty to answer again.
> The pebbles we crush in our footsteps so careless
> Genius can change into lenses of light.
> Who will consider, when stars grow the clearer
> The sand which has given the visions so bright?
> 
> Rude are the souls born in slavery’s shadow,
> Dull the black faces unlighted by God,
> Clay from the meadow and sand from the desert,
> Image of lives long by earth’s passions trod.
> Truth is the potter and love is the fire,
> Changing the beastlike to beauty and grace,
> Souls made translucent, or polished like brass,
> Fitted for heaven, reflecting God’s face.