Like you — I'm guessing, but hey, I think I know you pretty well — I'm stunned that 2022 is coming to a close. Every cliche I've ever heard about age and time is true. Time really does fly, the days really are long while the years actually are short, and time truly is a blur. The fountain of cliches is a fountain of truth.
As this year ends, I'm thinking about the blur that is 2022 and about what holds it together for me. And as I often do, I'm turning to Jane Hirshfield. When I read this one, what I feel down to my bones is persistent, ferocious love.
This one's for you, Atticus.
For What Binds Us
by Jane Hirshfield
There are names for what binds us:
strong forces, weak forces.
Look around, you can see them:
the skin that forms in a half-empty cup,
nails rusting into the places they join,
joints dovetailed on their own weight.
The way things stay so solidly
wherever they've been set down—
....
(Read the rest here, at Poets.org.)
~~~~~~~~~~
Join Patricia Franz at Reverie for the final poetry gathering of 2022 and see what binds those of us who love this community.
Photo credit: Kevin Quarshie, Pexels
13 comments:
Wow- Hirshfield's powerful image of scars that bind us - proud flesh - adds a whole new layer to love between people. Thanks for sharing this, Karen. Blessings to you in the blur of year end!
Thank you for this poem, Karen! I didn't know this one, and I love it. Also, "The fountain of cliches is a fountain of truth." Yes! Wishing you a happy New Year!
Patricia, I love the view of that added layer as well. 38+ years of marriage means we have created many layers. :)
Laura, so happy to introduce you to one you hadn't read! Happy new year!
Oooh, nice one. I definitely plan on reading more of Jane H.'s work this coming year. Thanks for the start!
I learned about 'oroud flesh' when I started riding more seriously, my horse torn trying to eat grass beyond a barbed wire fence! It does happen. I love your sharing, Karen, that "that nothing can tear or mend." is truth, even after death. Thank you and Happy New Year to you and your family!
Oh, I remember first reading this in college and learning what "proud flesh" was and just... being stopped by that, as if understanding the means and mechanisms of scars and past pain so clearly then... and being seventeen, and not really understanding at all.
What a year. We all carry so many scars from so many things, but I love the description of them as "a great vehemence," so much stronger and emphatic than the untested skin beneath. May the next year see us stronger yet. Happy New Year, friend. ♥
A classic that means differently depending on how old you are when you're reading it. Thanks for helping me revisit it, and giving me the chance to wonder about "that nothing can tear or mend." Happy 2023!
I love the image in those last lines,
"And when two people have loved each other
see how it is like a
scar between their bodies"
How lucky we are who have such scars!
Thanks for sharing this one, Karen. It's such a beautiful tribute to lasting love. I didn't know the term "proud flesh" but it certainly is fitting.
Thank you for sharing this poem, Karen. Love is the greatest gift. Happy New Year!
Happy New year, Karen🤗wishing you a year to come filled with finding grace in the unexpected, and hope in things longed for, lit by the Light of Christ, always. 🙏🏽❤️🕊
All I want to say after your post and after Hirschfield's poem is amen. It's all true--the cliche's, the truths of her lines and stanzas. And, I just would like to slow down a little bit. Happy New Year!
Thanks for sharing Jane Hirshfield's poem Karen– what really strikes me is it was written 40 years ago and could have been written yesterday, such a strong perceptive poem. Happy New Year to you and your family!
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