{"id":641,"date":"2011-06-12T23:07:15","date_gmt":"2011-06-13T03:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/?p=641"},"modified":"2011-06-12T23:07:15","modified_gmt":"2011-06-13T03:07:15","slug":"warning-poetry-follows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2011\/06\/warning-poetry-follows.html","title":{"rendered":"Warning: poetry follows ~"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Sometimes when bad news comes, all that helps is writing poetry. Even the stronger, most eloquent poetry of others isn’t enough. That upwelling has to be voiced, and poetry is all that helps. This was one of those weeks: a dear friend w\/ Lou Gehrig’s disease. Another whose partner has only a very little time left… The only way to cope is to write it out…<\/p>\n

Sisters Fate ~<\/p>\n

There are three of them.<\/p>\n

Blind women who hold within arthritic hands<\/p>\n

our futures. Skeins of vivid silk — your life,<\/p>\n

my life, the lovers of friends —<\/p>\n

spill through gnarled fingers<\/p>\n

Catching\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 tearing\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 snarling.<\/p>\n

Clotho <\/em>the spinner of birth<\/p>\n

who looks perhaps like weavers do<\/p>\n

her thumb wide and flat from twisting thread.<\/p>\n

Lachesis<\/em>, the middle sister, measures.<\/p>\n

She holds the short length that will be<\/p>\n

your life, my loss, the grief<\/p>\n

that will entangle me<\/p>\n

for Atropos<\/em>, the eldest sister.<\/p>\n

Her eyes are grey stones<\/p>\n

She reaches into deep pockets <\/em><\/p>\n

for silver blades.<\/p>\n

Sharper than loss, darker than memory,<\/p>\n

they snip.<\/p>\n

snick snick snick<\/em><\/p>\n

Deaf and blind, these three puppeteers<\/p>\n

spin and measure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 sever<\/p>\n

the threads that tie your life to mine<\/p>\n

and you float free of need<\/p>\n

desire\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 language<\/p>\n

all that tethered you to this day, your life<\/p>\n

my hands. I reach for you, your shadow.<\/p>\n

The sun sets and you fade into the night.<\/p>\n

The sisters are still.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sometimes when bad news comes, all that helps is writing poetry. Even the stronger, most eloquent poetry of others isn’t enough. That upwelling has to be voiced, and poetry is all that helps. This was one of those weeks: a dear friend w\/ Lou Gehrig’s disease. Another whose partner has only a very little time…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":398,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,30,22,69],"tags":[11,31,1181],"class_list":["post-641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-britton-gildersleeve","category-grieving","category-poetry","category-three-fates","tag-beginners-heart","tag-bereavement","tag-britton-gildersleeve"],"yoast_head":"\nWarning: poetry follows ~ - Beginner's Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sometimes when bad news comes, all that helps is writing poetry. 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Years spent living on the margins - in places with exotic names and food shortages - have left her with a visceral response to folks \u2018without,\u2019 as well as a desire to live her Buddhism in an engaged fashion. She\u2019s a writer and a teacher, the former director of a federal non-profit for teachers who write. She believes that if we talk to each other, we can learn to love each other (but she's still learning how). And she believes in tea. 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