Friday

A Draft of the Latest Poem with More for Your Journal/Discussion to Follow

This poem is a little sad, but you know sadness can be beautiful and enriching too. Because in the throes of this experience of Patricia's illness and passing, we were learning, I am still learning, about the preciousness of time.  To soften the sadness, I'm adding some pictures of my new life-partner, Lisa.

Lisa and I met in 2007, two years to the day before the anniversary of Patricia's rebirthday.  Isn't that pretty?  And isn't she beautiful? Well, you should see my beloved's heart.

Time is a Visitor
(a work in progress)

by

D.M. Solis


I kept
some of her sweaters
the ones she wore
holding me
here in our home
where we learned
time is a visitor
teaching us
many things,
where we learned
how much of it
we'd wasted
pleasing others who
would never approve,
wasting so much
preciousness
trying to be pleasing
to interpretation
just the same.

She, who had been
alone
for so long
used to say,
"Oh, my Dear,
where have you been
all these years
all my life?
Where were you?"

When she became ill
I asked the nurses
to bring warm blankets.
There the lovely
bluish fingertips
of her pianist's hands
rested over the fabric
of our learning.
I remember them
in happier times
caressing the sides
of my face.
Sometimes
I still dream her
voice saying, "Oh,
ma chère,
où etais-tu
toutes ces années
toute ma vie?
Où etais-tu?"

Abrupt as water
sucked into
the desert
the visitor
departed while
my beloved suffered,
died, and was soon
gone too.
Now I'm left
to sort her clothes
in our home?
In the place
where thoughts
do not leave, are
echoes in emptiness
pounding against
the concavity
of my broken
ribs
in this
secret sacred world.

A poor little fish
knows she must learn
to survive
in mud until
the next rain, if it comes,
to love the mud
and cherish it.
Resting here
I must not waste
time
squirming
to get out
when this
is my place
for healing
and learning
while time
is only visiting
me.

For Your Journal/Discussion/Artist's Retreat:

1. How has time been your teacher?
2. Where are you struggling? What would happen if you rested with the challenges there for a while to gain perspective or clarity, for discernment before moving on?
3. What are some ways you've been taking care of business, or trying to gain approval (or something else) and perhaps wasting time?
4. How is it possible that the "mud" of your life may be a sweet, sacred place where new seeds may rest before they grow?

And here are those pictures of Lisa, the love of my life, (with a tiny bonus, one of me) as promised.