I’ve posted this poem before, but it seemed apropos for today, too :)
If they come in the night
by Marge Piercy
Long ago on a night of danger and vigil
a friend said, Why are you happy?
He explained (we lay together
on a hard cold floor) what prison
meant because he had done
time, and I talked of the death
of friends. Why are you happy
then, he asked, close to
angry.
I said, I like my life. If I
have to give it back, if they
take it from me, let me only
not feel I wasted any, let me
not feel I forgot to love anyone
I meant to love, that I forgot
to give what I held in my hands,
that I forgot to do some little
piece of the work that wanted
to come through.
Sun and moonshine, starshine,
the muted grey light off the waters of the bay at night, the white
light of the fog stealing in,
the first spears of the morning
touching a face
I love. We all lose
everything. We lose
ourselves. We are lost.
Only what we manage to do
lasts, what love sculps from us;
but what I count, my rubies, my
children, are those moments
wide open when I know clearly
who I am, who you are, what we
do, a marigold, an oakleaf, a meteor,
with all my senses hungry and filled
at once like a pitcher with light.
2 comments
Your poem (the Piercy poem) touched me very, very…today! I was teaching Chapter 2 of “Altar in the World” about mindfulness (at my church) and read the last stanza to them. Our treasures are those moments of complete awareness of someone and/or something. We need those moments and must pay attention more to find them. Thank you for sharing this poem, Jana.
so glad to know that it resonated with you (and them) :)
If you like this poem, I highly recommend that you buy one of her books–I don’t think you will be disappointed.