I feel like I stumbled
down a hill of years, only
to land in a pile of my books.
Along the way, I cracked
like a Russian doll; finding
something smaller and more
essential inside every version
I've known as me.
And now, when all I know
bursts into flame each time
I try to give it away, I'm asked
what matters.
There's something perfect
in how we're worn; like sculptures
left for Spirit and wind to finish, the
film taken from our eye just as
our heart is exposed, one
crumbling into the other.
Wow. A powerful poem. It really hits--the impact of it.
This poetical version of awareness resonates with where I am in aging (a little past 57!) and I'm grateful for your wisdom.
Dear Mark,
I loved your poem. It expressed in words a lot of things that I feel but could not pinpoint. You have analyzed well and used expressive and commmunicative language to help me understand myself. Thanks.
Cleo Lampos
A beautiful and thoughtful sentiment for today. Being in this age range, I resonate with what is being shared. Along with the daily discovery, its the coping with losses on so many levels. When I was one and 20 I always thought this time of life was about what you had. I never realized that its also about what you lose that is important. Coping with the loss of significant people in your life determines how you will be able to go forward and endure.
A most appropriate and timely poem to tuck into my husband's card as he marks his "57th" birthday tomorrow (May 15th)! Perhaps it will give him pause - to ponder in the "Spirit" something "more essential" - especially the "version" of himself as Artist.
Thank You for this oh sooo timely posting!
"There's something perfect
in how we're worn; like sculptures
left for Spirit and wind to finish, the
film taken from our eye just as
our heart is exposed, one
crumbling into the other."
I can sure relate to this. All I thought I was so sure of crumbling in my hand like so much dust. Going backwards in time to try to figure out the future.
"Feeling like I stumbled
down a hill of years, only
to land in a pile of my books."
Stacks of books on my desk, possible places where I am hiding. Maybe if I read enough of them I can find me.
Etc.,
Thank you for this, I was wondering where I was this morning.
Beautiful poem. Rich, striking, resonating.
Just wanted to make an extra comment for today to say I really appreciate not only the daily quotes, but the responses from everyone. I have really gained a lot from reading them and they have actually been helpful to my journey, whatever that actually is! I enjoy the opportunity to read this every day and reflect and it has become an important part of my day, without my realizing it fully, until today. So thank you Kayla, readers and writers!
Well, okay, I was so excited to see this, being 58 even. I really resonate with every bit of the crumbling selves -- and the many piles of books are an understatement! --however I felt sharp disappointment at the part where the word perfect is used for the end result.
Try though I do to label it all good, all God--I can't seem to get to seeing it as perfect or even good to have had everything in my life that used to seem to show such promise, later crumble with only a few kernels of learning from all the selves who had invested so much, only to later crack, die, or fizzle at this point in life.
--guess I'm wanting some sign that Spirit and Wind are really going to finish this in some way that makes the perfection a lot more obvious to me than it currently is! I mean I like Buddhism and studies of many other faiths, but I guess I had hoped that investing in a lot of relationships through the years would have led to a more meaningful service path and a richer interpersonal existance than has been my experience with the relationships I've invested so much in repeatedly ending in them dying, moving or disintegrating before my eyes, until I feel rather extinguished and the piles of books no longer seem to hold all the promise that they always have before.
Apologies for subjecting you to the pity party, but looking for any clues you may offer to finding that sense of perfection to all of it... ??
Thanks.
From what I have been told, perfection can also be taken as meaning completion. If so, it means that we have lived life completely as and when it comes to us. I also don't believe that we will be completed, or at least that we will ever see the completeness of our lives, until after we pass over at the ends of our lives. Then as in a tapestry we will see the finished pattern and not just the individual stiches that we do now.
A pastor friend of my says that his question for Jesus when he gets to heaven is, if relationships is what "it" is all about, why are they so hard.
I think relationships come and go with where we as individuals are at anyone time in our own lives. Some are meant to be there for awhile, some not. Maybe you can go back and explore who were in your life when, and get some sense of the seeming fleeting-ness of your relationships.
Hope this helps.
Deanna
Visitor-
Just some thoughts to your Response.
Clues to the "Mysteries of Life" made Perfect? They are as individual and unique as your fingerprints. That is how VERY SPECIAL you are to GOD - unique and unrepeatable! All the "piles of books" in the world could not blueprint your Life for you into boxes of categories, let alone when we bump-up against another totaly unique and unrepeatable individual. We are ALL made for GOD ALONE and, in what I have come to learn, the Vertical Relationship MUST come first - GOD and only then the Horizontal - Others. That forms a CROSS and alas, we are called to "Carry our Cross". That too is custom made, Sculpted so that "The Holy Spirit" can forge the "Soul" into PERFECTION! The Organic Whole- mind and body, along with the human spirit does Not Know how all of this is 'being chipped away at' - that is the painful part. THe SOUL I believe KNOWS on a Very, Very Deep level - because the Soul alone came from God and goes back to God. The "cracked doll" that the Soul inhabits in this Life is like the shell of a 'hermit crab' that no longer serves its purpose and so moves on until "Soul and Spirit" are of ONE PURPOSE. The Sculpture is then MADE PERFECT by the "Touch of the MASTER'S HAND"! All this while we are simply trying to just 'live life'!
Just sharing some "personal Wisdom",
margaret rose
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