for Kayleen
As the tide rose and the waves grew nearer,
she took a stick and drew in the sand
a small labyrinth. In the center
she placed a dried tangle of roots,
some sodden gray feathers,
and the broken open shells of oysters.
White stone at the entrance.
Warm sun on our skin.
On the short path, we wrote with a stick
the names of people and places we longed to heal.
All around us the whirling of dark sea birds
seeking higher places to land.
All around us the sound of waves crashing on rocks,
sound of cliffs slowly eroding into sand.
This excerpt from Laurel Chen’s comments to her poem, AAP’s Poem-A-Day:
“This poem articulates my belief that grief isn’t a dead thing; it’s very much alive and continues to shape how I grow and live in this world. This poem says: healing is forever, another world is possible,…”
Onward through the slogs.
https://poets.org/poem/greensickness
thank you for the link!!
This poem is balm to the soul. Let it seep through the body, mind and emotions. Let it seep out into others.
it was balm indeed–to not only name what we wish we could heal but also to honor our inability to do so …
Could it be that time, perhaps nature, transforms the gigantic cliffs of loss into manageable grains of grief? Please let it be so.
and the waves transport everything …