Cheers, Marnie!

Yakutat, Alaska, 2004

A poem for your birthday MLS.

Holding the Light (Stuart Kestenbaum)

 

Gather up whatever is

glittering in the gutter,

whatever has tumbled

in the waves or fallen 

in flames out of the sky,

for it's not only our

hearts that are broken,

but the heart

of the world as well.

Stitch it back together.

Make a place where

the day speaks to the night

and the earth speaks to the sky.

Whether we created God

or God created us

it all comes down to this:

In our imperfect world

we are meant to repair

and stitch together

what beauty there is, stitch it

with compassion and wire. 

See how everything

we have made gathers

the light inside itself

and overflows? A blessing.