Poetry Friday

I wrote a little bit about Ted Kooser -- here, here and here -- way back when I first started this blog ... no one was yet listening, and I hadn't yet blog-named my children, thus the reference to "Eldest."

This poem came to mind this morning, in considering what might have been, had I needed and wanted to drop everything to go and be with my sister.

And I know, as this poem sparsely but accurately tells us, that every moment -- no matter what the diagnosis -- is courtesy of grace.

At the Cancer Clinic

by Ted Kooser

She is being helped toward the open door
that leads to the examining rooms
by two young women I take to be her sisters.
Each bends to the weight of an arm
and steps with the straight, tough bearing
of courage. At what must seem to be
a great distance, a nurse holds the door,
smiling and calling encouragement.

(Read the rest of the poem by going here, and clicking on At the Cancer Clinic.)

The entire Poetry Friday Round-up can be found here at Semicolon.