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Friday, September 20, 2013

Poetry Friday


Photo by Jean-Pol Grandmont. Found on Wikimedia Commons.

Parker J. Palmer posted this on Facebook earlier this week. It's one I don't think I quite fully understand, not yet anyway, but it's been kind of rolling around in my brain all week; the questions seem very important and I want to understand them.  It's anonymous, so I think that it's ok for me to post the whole thing here.

"Love Wants to Know How"

Autumn comes with its riot of death,
It's clarion bell of color,
drives the living green to ground
even as it thins the veil between worlds.
The visible and invisible walk now together
with arms outstretched over fields
where workers hasten to the harvest
none may divide against itself.

So; where are you in this?
How long do you loiter
between the said and unsaid,
the done and undone,
between the half and true rhyme
of a life answering a life?

Geese mark the sky with dark wedges
call with harsh tongues,
to what thrives at the margins
of all we so reluctantly receive.
Go now,
quickly and with great force,
toward what burns in your dreams
at the dying of the year.

Who can say?
Perhaps you reap the whirlwind,
perhaps the harvest--
but is it ever enough to not know
the bonds and bounds of what will one day
forsake you for the grave?

- Anonymous

Tabatha is hosting Poetry Friday and three giveaways at THE OPPOSITE OF INDIFFERENCE.

6 comments:

jama said...

Wow, great poem -- hadn't seen it before. Much to contemplate. Thanks, Carol!

Michelle Heidenrich Barnes said...

Haunting! Thanks for sharing this today.

GatheringBooks said...

Hi there Carol. I loved these lines most of all:

So; where are you in this?
How long do you loiter
between the said and unsaid,
the done and undone,
between the half and true rhyme
of a life answering a life?

Lots to think about, indeed.

BJ Lee said...

Geese mark the sky with dark wedges - love that! I don't totally understand this poem, but it's got some great language. thanks for posting!

Tabatha said...

That is a powerful poem, Carol. I can see how you would be thinking about it afterward. Right now I'm wondering about what the title is saying. Hmm.

Jone said...

Thanks, Carol. Beautiful