I'm offering two selections this week that are somewhat stark in nature. I can only hope that you'll find some resonance with your own experiences.
Nameless
Blaring horns and screeching tires
Snips and bits
of conversations
Loud and boisterous on city streets
She stood alone
her back to window glass
enclosing warmth and food and comfort
Just out of her reach
Styrofoam cup clutched
in grizzled finger
“spare some change for soup?”
“Spare some change..”
“Spare some...”
In mismatched clothes
her body swollen, old,
her shoulders tired
Lifting her cup at strangers
Passing her by as if she were
A ghost they could not,
would not,
see
She leaned back against the glass
The saddest face
I’ve ever seen
Invisible, cold, hungry and alone
On teeming city streets
I put $2 in her cup
I wish I’d asked her name
A Tightrope's Edge
Some days it seems
a short walk
cross the field
of fading green
Into mists and shadows
swirled
like comforting arms
Soft
promising protection
in its veils and swirls
A blanket
deep with downy feathers
Shutting out
the raw and jagged edges of the world
The strife
the pain
the endless, endless need that tear
like jagged knife
across the soul
That way lies madness
Both the above ©2011, SM
I know the above may feel a little dark and jagged. Let me leave you with something I find haunting yet oddly comforting from the 12th century mystic, poetess nun Hildegard von Bingen
Caritas Abundat
Caritas abundat in omnia,
de imis excellentissima
super sidera,
atque amantissima in omnia,
quia summo Regi
osculum pacis dedit.
Loving Tenderness abounds
Loving tenderness abounds for all
from the darkest
to the most eminent one beyond the stars,
Exquisitely loving all
she bequeaths the kiss of peace
upon the ultimate King.