Types of Clarity

Types of Clarity

 1.

Winter nights, deep and still 

a well of darkness opaque 

as every unanswered call

2. 

Unexpected sun in mid winter 

freeze, I turn against cold, 

against wind, face to sun: 

                                                      fill me

3.

From winter's grim march

this blazing blue sky is a

grace I want to deserve

— Drew Myron

Hello Reader,

A sort of numb getting-through has taken over. One step, another step, press on, press on . . .

You too?

At this point, it seems we’re all hunkered down, pulling the weight of every individual and collective worry. The days are beyond heavy.

A friend is sick, a parent dies, a job lost, storms rage, depression grows. Even if covid has not touched your life directly — and I hope that’s true for you but know it’s not the case for many — the virus has intensified the grief, depriving us of the tiny things, like holding hands and gathering together, that help process pain.

How to keep on?

I had to pull off of the road and cry, a friend says, and in the telling I feel her sobs, exhaustion at the core of caring.

You have to search for beauty, says Austin Kleon.

Keep walking, says Annabel Abbs in this beautiful essay, The Body On Grief

Yesterday, a blue sky opened vivid and true. I turned to the sun and for a moment I finally felt a calm. And then wrote a few lines. It’s not a great photo, not a great poem. But it doesn’t matter. I’m making. Writing it out and getting through, one line at a time, this is how I’m keeping on.

How about you?

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