La Calaca Love sorrow

Love Sorrow

 

Love sorrow. She is yours now, and you must
take care of what has been
given. Brush her hair, help her
into her little coat, hold her hand,
especially when crossing a street. For, think,

what if you should lose her? Then you would be
sorrow yourself; her drawn face, her sleeplessness
would be yours. Take care, touch
her forehead that she feel herself not so

utterly alone. And smile, that she does not
altogether forget the world before the lesson.
Have patience in abundance. And do not
ever lie or ever leave her even for a moment

by herself, which is to say, possibly, again,
abandoned. She is strange, mute, difficult,
sometimes unmanageable but, remember, she is a child.
And amazing things can happen. And you may see,

as the two of you go
walking together in the morning light, how
little by little she relaxes; she looks about her;
she begins to grow.

 

Mary Oliver

 

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Comments

[Delphyne]

That is one powerful piece of writing by Mary Oliver - terrific image to accompany it, too.

[Caya Papaya]

I just love the words and art. Thanks for checking in on me- I am slowly emerging from the underworld.

[Lea]

You do know me so well... I have never heard this piece before today, I will read, and re-read it many times...

No, she will never be far from me, ever. She is mine in all this strangeness and I love her fiercely and with all the tenderness I can muster...

Thank you sweet Rebecca, for all the ways you grace our lives, this living from the heart and helping us to love and name what has been so unknown, until now...

[peggy gatto]

Incredible poem, thank you!