After Bad News

Dear friends,

This week’s bonus poem is a very tender one. A dear poet-friend of mine, Paula Gordon Lepp, recently discovered she had a recurrence of cancer, and is currently undergoing chemo infusions. Paula and I have met in-person only once, but I’ve come to know and adore her through her poetry and our communications over the years. I feel this way about many of you in my community, and poets I know all over the world. I never underestimate how love and prayer sent from a distance can heal and support, and I have learned to trust this as a spiritual truth. A number of other dear friends have also recently faced a difficult diagnosis, and so this poem is dedicated to Paula as well as to them.

After Receiving Bad News from a Friend

for Paula Gordon Lepp


Malignant: a word with too many

syllables, too much density

in the mouth. A word no one wants.

And yet, it comes like any

unwelcome visitor, with a knock

at the door we’d rather ignore

but cannot. I think of my friend

handing me a jar of muscadine

and grape jelly last summer,

spreading that deep purple sweetness

across a piece of toasted sourdough

and tasting the sun now trapped

in each bite. How I am still feasting

on the labor of her love, that old

family recipe passed down through

the generations. Maybe any misfortune,

unlocks life’s truest instruction,

which is to simply be right here

for each other, to share the light

our bodies already know how to store

and turn into food. To offer what we can,

even when a friend lives far away,

to say: I will hold you inside myself

as you pass through this new gate.

I will walk with you, giving whatever

love I have preserved for this moment.

*


If you enjoy these free weekly emails, please consider making a donation here, or become a member and support this offering on a monthly basis.

Photo credit: Photo by Sydney Riggs on Unsplash