GRIEF by Edith Lazenby

Grief to me is personal and yet poetry gives me a way to share it…

By sharing with you through the transcendent medium of poetic lyric and image -where meaning meets me where I least expect-, the deeply personal gives me more me!

This piece was written a few years ago and yet it holds now on the edge of the evening.

Sadness is always close to me. 

One of my teachers told me my beauty rests in how I hold my sadness because it is so much a part of me.

And yet even more so today, years later, I find what holds me is the grace I find within the poem: the way I can graze what aches in my heart and yet find its release in my hands, as if each prayer held a bird learning to flap its wings and as my hands open, take flight.

Grief

 

Like a cricket’s legs, sadness

Waxes on the wings

On my back few can see

As they are rays

Of light holding shadows

As if shade from a tree

Where I find quiet, a reprieve

From the steps

To keep this dance, my life,

Moving to music

Each tear makes, like rain

On a roof, drops paddling

On a summer day so

A breeze can come, taking

The heaviness of heat,

The weight of a nameless angst

That holds each foot

Rooted to the earth, feeding

Self as I ground down

To pull the energy into my heart

Where love is a promise,

Roses out my window, stars

In the sky, the kitten in my hand,

Change folds its prayer

From there to here and back,

Able to touch from anywhere.

Edith Lazenby: “I love to write. I began writing poetry in elementary school. Sometimes I write poetry daily, other times not. I adore Mary Oliver, her way of embracing the light while acknowledging the darkness. I teach yoga full time and find the practice has grounded me deeper in my body and heart and helped me move closer to what I call spirit. I also now edit for Elephant Journal and write for them as well. I live with my husband, who is my best friend, and 4 kitties. Life holds challenges yet with time I feel better able to live in the moment, moment by moment. All great teachers teach presence. I find each day is a lesson in being. The process of writing holds me and I find the craft teaches me something new each time. You may visit my blog here.

~If you are interested in seeing your poetry appear in this blog, or submitting a poem by a woman that has inspired you, please click here for submission guidelines. I greatly look forward to hearing from you!~