Winner - "Polished Cream Poetry Contest" 7/05 |
Staying on the Edge How does distance look? It extends from a spacelessness within to the edge of what can be loved. -Anne Carson Autobiography of Red You think New Yorkers have no sensitivity, that we are inured to the hardships of mankind. Well, you may be right, But I see my husband Walking up Seventh Avenue With the grace of a landowner Tenderly watching over his fields. I see my friend Toni growing very thin, Yet floating above the Village crowds Like a young heron fresh from marsh reeds. I see saints in the making, giving alms and aiding the ill and the poor. This homeless ecclesiastical frieze blends with the balustrades of the subway, whose white sienna marble turns hue with the daylight and opens onto the downstairs where walls are the color of ripening winter wheat. There is more going on than you care to consider. Too much happens at every moment and it must all be chronicled, put on paper and turned into song, sung in churches and open parks. Oh, we have all had our bad times, but that is no longer the common ground. There should be special encounter groups and programs to recover from the disease of greed. We should all learn to do only that which must happen, and then to record it with keen observation. There must be a fine edge on each fine horizon that ceases to move, in the distance, but stays, as we do, detached, and totally aware. |