The weight shifts,
the stone of grief
lifts for breath.
Stories of sorrow
press the earth
as lights come on
across the city
and dawn tints the sky.
We are many
yet in our pain
we are one, one family
of the poor and wretched,
the rich and famous,
woven like cloth
by our joy and suffering.
This lifetime or the next
we will meet again,
our tears the water
of life’s deepest well,
ten thousand Buddhas
journeying together
to the farther shore.
Artwork by Eilish Hynes
GLORIOUS, Spirit Brother!
I love the last line:
“This lifetime or the next
we will meet again,
our tears the water
of life’s deepest well,
ten thousand Buddhas
joined in journey
to the farther shore.”
A great promise for us all – rich or poor, this life or next!!
Beautiful, Don — and the painting by Eilish, too. We are bound together by our stories in so many ways. Stories of grief and healing shared, familiar and incomprehensible, joy and pain — each one rising through our living, up into mist to answer a call from the sun. That’s what the painting says to me, too.
Thank you Don!
Beautiful Don!
The stone of grief seems quite heavy these days…….
Thank you for this dad
Beautiful poem; beautiful painting.
Thanks
yes Don – we are one, threads of a whole cloth woven anew as raiment for the maker in this day
When I serve another in some way, shift happens. Care to be taken when visiting inner self, lest the stone grind down into quick sand. The weaver knows.
Lovely poem, Don. You and Eilish make a perfect team. Thanks for this.
So honest and beautiful, Don. I love the cloth we weave………cut and sewed together with the deepest part of us. Thank so much for your beautiful ability to describe this extraordinary life!