—for Hannah
Sometimes a day,
like a mountain,
has no road,
no route,
no trail,
no map,
no right way,
no signs,
no directions,
no guide,
no promises,
no cairns,
no place
to arrive.
Sometimes
the only
step
to take
is not
to take
a step.
How humbled,
how human
we are then.
Naked as birth.
Raw. Unmasked.
So far from
any path
we might
wish to set.
Such a terrible
generous day
to conceive:
when nothing
is asked of us
but to be
the dust
that is
breathed.
Courage, courage and hope!!
j
OHH Courage, courage and hope!! It was needed today! Thank You!
joanne
yes, thank you. this poem is for a friend of mine who, my gosh, has so much courage.
Oh, you know it.
oh friend, it’s no easy thing just to be breathed, and I know you know
It’s nice to be known, is it not? 🙏
This reminds me of some very spare, very luminous poems by Thomas Merton. It’s a kind of Zen psalm, beautiful in a thousand self-evident ways.
ah, yes, thank you! I can see that … it was interesting how much I longed for it to be a lush poem, and yet all it wanted was to be spare. so i obeyed