Friday, November 10, 2017

Poetry Friday: a beautiful one by Anne Porter


I've shared Anne Porter's work before, but not for awhile. Here's a beautiful one: 

A Short Testament
by Anne Porter

Whatever harm I may have done
In all my life in all your wide creation
If I cannot repair it
I beg you to repair it,

And then there are all the wounded
The poor the deaf the lonely and the old
Whom I have roughly dismissed
As if I were not one of them.
Where I have wronged them by it....

(Read the rest here, at The Writer's Almanac.)

~~~~~

The inimitable, incomparable Jama Rattigan has the round up this week

10 comments:

jama said...

Thanks for sharing this new-to-me poem. Contrite and heartbreaking in so many ways, and then that final image. Wow!

Linda B said...

A poem of great contemplation, and perhaps of regret. It is lovely, Karen.

Kay said...

This poem is new to me--and gives so much to ponder.

Tamara said...

I am always glad to read the poems you share, Karen! You introduce me to so many wonderful words. Thanks, friend!

Mary Lee said...

All the harm I've done...ouch.

Sally Murphy said...

As others have said, I hadn't come across this poem before. It's left me digesting, which is a sign of a powerful poem.

Karen Edmisten said...

Thanks, friends!
I'm so glad to have introduced Anne Porter to some of you. She blows me away.

Brenda at FriendlyFairyTales said...

Wow, that is a powerful poem. I love the image of "promises/ Burst[ing] into song."

Michelle Kogan said...

I think many of us have been on this road of regret, for words said or actions taken or not taken. Thanks for this moving poem Karen!

WordsPoeticallyWorth said...

Greetings from the UK. I enjoyed reading your poem.

Thank you. Love love, Andrew. Bye.