I have gotten caught
holding one end of a love;
that connection looping in air
swung loose and empty.
they say spirit does not die,
or love; both simply twist together
freed finally from body
like a snake leaves spent skin
or an empty chrysalis slept in too long
and split
sighing, we grow
out of flesh when it weakens
and can no longer hold
the all of us, spirit too big
for what matter is left to hold it
people end, but not relationships:
when your father drops, and your mother;
when a land is lost, or a time,
and your friend blotted out, gone
sometimes, in our leaving
we stretch out hands
or the equivalent of hands
touching nothing,
and you dying
reach with similar yearning–
I have felt
the force of it, hard
and sighed without breath
she said to me once in a dream
love and longing are the same feeling
you reel out love’s long line alone,
stripped like a live wire loosing its sparks to a cloud;
how they are both desire, sparking
like a live wire loosed in space
to longing and grief everlasting
~title and all italicized from Annie Dillard, Holy the Firm, one of my favorite quotes of all time threaded in this experimental piece. Here is the quote, in full: “And you can get caught holding one end of a love, when your father drops, and your mother; when a land is lost, or a time, and your friend blotted out, gone, your brother’s body spoiled, and cold, your infant dead, and you dying: you reel out love’s long line alone, stripped like a live wire loosing its sparks to a cloud, like a live wire loosed in space to longing and grief everlasting.”
Susan Daniels Poetry 