Two Poems

I went to a bookstore in my neighborhood and marveled at how many amazing books there are in the world. I could do nothing but read every waking moment and there would still be books left unread, ready to blow my mind, inform my understandings, and tug at my heart. I can't decide if I'm heartened or disheartened by this fact. So, I'll put it as just another one of those 'both together at the same time without blending the two' compartments of my brain.

And then, life brought me across two different poems. One by a poet I know and love, one by a poet I'd never read. And already I love them both as if they've been poems I've recited for years. So here they are for you... ready to blow your mind, inform your understandings, and tug at your heart.

Heavy

by Mary Oliver

That time

I thought I could not

go any closer to grief

without dying

I went closer,

and I did not die.

Surely God

had His hands in this,

as well as friends.

Still, I was bent

and my laughter,

as the poet said, 

was nowhere to be found.

Then said my friend Daniel

(brave even among lions),

"It's not the weight you carry

but how you carry it -

books, bricks, grief -

it's all in the way

you embrace it, balance it, carry it

when you cannot and would not,

put it down."

So I went practicing.

Have you noticed?

Have you heard

the laughter

that comes, now and again,

out of my startled mouth?

How I linger

to admire, admire, admire

the things of this world

that are kind, and maybe

also troubled -

roses in the wind,

the sea geese on the steep waves,

a love

to which there is no reply?

And this from Rumi...

I don’t like it here, I want to go back.
According to the old Knowers
If you’re absent from the one you love
Even for one second that ruins the whole thing!

There must be someone… just to find
One sign of the other world in this town
Would be enough.

You know the great Chinese Simurgh bird
Got caught in this net…
And what can I do? I’m only a wren.

My desire-body, don’t come
Strolling over this way.
Sit where you are, that’s a good place.

When you want dessert, you choose something rich.
In wine, you look for what is clear and firm.
What is the rest? The rest is mirages,
And blurry pictures, and milk mixed with water.
The rest is self hatred, and mocking other people, and bombing.

So just be quiet and sit down.
The reason is: you are drunk,
And this is the edge of the roof.

I'm off to bed, to read a good book :)