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Wednesday, December 19, 2012

World Without End

I prepared this poetry feature at Escape Into Life a couple weeks ago, before the Newtown shootings, and now the boy at the window (in a photograph by Matt Eich) haunts me terribly. I suppose you could see a tilted, makeshift cross in the duct tape on the window, especially with the ghostly strip of glue on glass extending past the main vertical, but I see a symbolic, makeshift "Y" saying, "Why?" about so many things.

This is a sad, dark, dangerous time of year for those who suffer from depression, who live side by side with the joyful tidings of others. I feel grateful and lucky to be able to come up out of my own darker moods. It's not an act of will for many.

But I do feel at times like the road signs are down in our society.

How lovely, then, to be able to gather with women friends last night for book group. Pam, the hostess, had asked if I'd read the last chapter aloud, and I did, though I cried where I always cry, in this hilarious book, The Worst Best Christmas Pageant Ever, by Barbara Robinson, when the Herdman kids make an old story new, and real.

And the soup was yummy! And I took pumpkin muffins (some sprinkled with chocolate chips) and gluten-free pumpkin bread in a loaf soon to be delivered to my mother, as our gluten-free member is no longer gluten-free! Small joys, small pleasures, small acts of sharing. Never-ending consequences.

Please take a look at World Without End at EIL, a variety of poetic responses to the idea of the end of the world. What that means in some personal ways.

12 comments:

  1. The EIL feature is wonderful, Kathleen. Your choice of images. . . well, each contains its own poetry. So much to sit with here and contemplate.

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  2. Thanks, Maureen. It's all them. I just assemble and present it, and am glad to do so!!

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  3. Thanks for doing what you do at EIL and here.

    You are a road sign to those of us reading!

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  4. Thanks, Sandy. And thanks for those Dickinson artifacts, that Emily seal!

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  5. Those are very beautiful images and words.

    Baking is a good, helpful thing :).

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  6. That window image just stomps on my gut. For those of us with depression and anxiety issues, this is going to be a challenging Christmas. Whatever happens with the "fiscal cliff", we seem on the verge of a lemming event.

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  7. Kathleen, I visit EIL somewhat regularly. I really enjoy it.

    Love the one piece 'Unthinkable'

    and yes the pic of the child behind that taped glass is haunting

    I'm glad I have Aztec ancestry

    Gracias mi amiga

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  8. Thank you for visiting--here and there--dear friends. Let's hang on by the skin of our teeth.

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  9. I was so touched by your pumpkin bread, and felt bad you went to all that work when I had just ended my gluten-free experiment - but was so hoping your mother would enjoy the fruits of your kind labor. And then there was so much food I didn't end up having any of it - so sorry!

    Thank you for the bread, the reading, and the tears.

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  10. No problem! It was happy, yummy-smelling work, with holiday music in the background. I have delivered the loaf, and my non-gluten-free dad loved it!

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Go ahead and comment, and I will publish it after I get an email notification! Thanks!