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Posts Tagged ‘saving the world’

Saving Grace

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on September 23, 2023| 9 Comments »

I didn’t even see
the slender red salamander
curled in the middle
of the country road,
but Brad stopped to kneel
beside it and told us
if you pick them up
by the tail, they will lose
their tail—an attempt
to distract a predator
while the rest
of the body escapes.
So tenderly, he brushed
the small amphibian
into his open palm,
then gently placed it intact
in the wet grass beside the road.
If this day were a novel,
I’d say the morning walk
was foreshadowing.
Everywhere we went
there were hands
that opened in kindness—
to greet, to serve cake,
to hug, to wave—
as if everyone agreed it matters,
the way we treat each other.
How quickly we can fall apart
when threatened.
How easily, sometimes,
we are saved.
 

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Relearning

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , on June 8, 2019| 3 Comments »

The world doesn’t want to be saved. It wants to be loved. That’s how you save it.

            —Richard Brendan

And isn’t that the way it is—

the truth that opened me yesterday

now puts me in shackles. Whatever

I knew about saving the world

must be lost. Today, the only truth

is the invitation to fall in love

with the world as it is.

Fall in love with the thorn, the sting, the loss,

the ringing in the ears after the shot.

Fall in love with all I’d rather not.

Easier when it’s metaphor. Harder

when it’s wound. Hate. Anger.

Dark snarl of contempt hurled in the face.

Harder when love feels far away.

There’s only one way then to save

the world. How we stand in the middle

of it all, lost. How we love anyway.

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