A spare and beautiful poem from Anne Porter. (Read more about her here, and here.)
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.
(Read the rest of the poem here, at The Writer's Almanac.)
The round up today is at Dori Reads.
8 comments:
Ohh, do I love this one. Unimaginable promises, and death's bare branches are so starkly evocative. Lovely, as Porter always is...
Very lovely, Karen. This is an old favorite of mine. Thank you for the reminder.
Lovely! I think the above poster is right, the key is in that beautiful ending.
This is simply lovely. I have not read it before today but now I know the perfect person to send it to. Thank you.
Ouch. I have failed so many. I need to make repairs of my own.
Oh so lovely! What a gift. Thank you, Karen.
"Whom I have roughly dismissed
As if I were not one of them."
Ouch! That cuts to the bone doesn't it?
But that final stanza... Here in the midst of February it has extra poignancy I think as we wait for the unimaginable spring.
"lives I may have withered around me..." I too, feel a responsibility and need for forgiveness after reading these words.
That is some poem. Thanks for posting it.
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