Saying Goodbye
To What Is So
Things became clear at his memorial.
Life-giving questions returned and we
were all blessed by this gift.
Absent our assumed distractions
and generations of repeated lines,
we can begin to feel, feel what
we are feeling, open a source
of blessing and grace. Coming down
to what is so, down with the power
of what is given, we can take
the uncommon step, seeing things
just as they are, allow the heart
to break, learn how to weep
in the remaining light. Witness
to the pain and cries of this world,
how can we live in communion
with what nourishes and honors life
and how are we to sustain this awake
relation to what is always arriving
in awareness? As we apprehend
how everything passes into silence,
how it is never clear when and if
we will ever meet again, life-giving
questions can return: How much love
do we wish to offer; How much love
are we able to receive? Together,
let us lay our burdens down.