She's a real card

 Here is the next installment of my pics of J's Christmas cards to us this year.  Couldn't resist the shadow cast again...

And further in the collection of covid poems and other creative pursuits, a dear friend sent me this one.  It captures so much...Covid creations.  We must collect them.

What I am Learning About Grief

By

Abigail Bottome

What I am learning about grief

I am learned in grief

Know its contours

Depths and lows.

Long ago I donned that garment

It became part of my wardrobe

Gentle and familiar with time

This new lesson in grief

Contains sharp edges

Aspects so scary I shrink

I cannot trust joy

Nor happiness

The road ahead remains dark

What I am learning about grief

The water in the harbor still charged with sunlight

A dance of sparkling glitter

The sky above still cerulean or cobalt or turquoise

Dogs still sniff at the brown grass

Runners still run and walkers still walk.

What I am learning about grief

I am well-schooled through years stacked

One upon another

I have learned grief

Studied grief, sometimes wrestled with grief.

This grief is different

Twinned with worry

Uncertainty and fear.

What I am learning about grief

It’s fear, unknowing, horror

This strange attack launched

Against us all.

What I am learning about grief

I seek the “peace of wild things”

Like Wendell Berry who reminds

They have no foreknowledge of grief.

I seek comfort in the familiar

In the presence of wild things

To shutter worry, anxious thoughts, 

Anger at the hubris

The stupidity of our so-called leaders.

What I am learning about grief

Turning the pages of the magazine

Images of health workers in New York City

Eyes ablaze with worry

Above masked faces

Images from a horror movie

Or Africa

Not here in the greatest country on earth

So some thought

Though many knew better.

What I am learning about grief

Empty theatre stages, art exhibits, no opera

What happens to artists

Who live daily through their gifts?

Performance by performance

No audience, no ticket sales, no money

They rise above this pandemic

Offer performance online, virtual concerts

A collective world

Of connection and meaning.

What I am learning about grief

Though alone, I am one among many

This awareness steadies me

Loosens the pull of worry

I am not alone

In this unfamiliar world

Brought low not just by this covid

But by arrogance and clumsy greed

We must learn humility

Share our humanity across the earth.