#75 - on memory and change

Jan 06, 2020

Artwork by Manuela Kherouf

Storage by Mary Oliver

When I moved from one house to another
there were many things I had no room for.
What does one do? I rented a storage
space. And filled it. Years passed.
Occasionally I went there and looked in,
but nothing happened, not a single
twinge of the heart.
As I grew older the things I cared
about grew fewer, but were more
important. So one day I undid the lock
and called the trash man. He took
everything.
I felt like the little donkey when
his burden is finally lifted. Things!
Burn them, burn them! Make a beautiful
fire! More room in your heart for love,
for the trees! For the birds who own
nothing– the reason they can fly.

Other poems I read this week:

"they ask me to remember
but they want me to remember
their memories
and i keep on remembering
mine." -why some people be mad at me sometimes by Lucille Clifton

"In all the days and years that have followed,
I don't know that I've ever experienced
that same utter certainty of the goodness of life
that was as palpable
as the sound of the cicadas on those nights:"
-from Reverence by Julie Cadwallader-Staub

"we will only think of the past

as one second before

where we are now, the future
just one second ahead
but every once in a while
we can remind each other

that we are both survivors and children
and grandchildren of survivors."
-from The Game Between the Jews and the Indians by Sherman Alexie

"We have only begun to know
the power that is in us if we would join
our solitudes in the communion of struggle.

So much is unfolding that must
complete its gesture,

so much is in bud." -from Beginners by Denise Levertov

"and we’ve had this conversation before,
my wife and I, many times,
about how tired we are,
about what we might buy them
and how much it all costs,
about how they annoy us, how fast
they’re growing, how scared we are
about what might happen, about this life,
this life, so tiring and wonderful,
and how, if we could, we’d repeat it,
this life, many times,
many times."