Meditation in White (Lilies)
Clouds pass my high window quickly, abandoning the blue.
Indefinite mass, indeterminate, impersonal
as only intimates may know.
Though you lay there, nothing remained in the bed.
Which is the blank page’s gift, the monotone
or a suggestion of mist and stripped bones.
The nurse marked the passage with pen on paper.
Renewal, departure. A rising.
I accept the ash of suffering
as I accept our destination, the morning
and its offerings, with you in synthesis,
complete and empty, shaded in contrast,
wilting, as another opens. Laughter eases the way.
***
This was first published in Shadowtrain, and made its first appearance here in March 2016.
I waited several years for a lily left from my mother’s passing to flower again. Perhaps it was the passing of troubling times that brought its return.
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I love lilies. They’re strong symbols. And they smell good.
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You have me after the title thinking m + edelweiss
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Hmm. I can’t think of edelweiss without thinking of The Sound of Music, which takes me to a very different place. 🙂
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Ettal Abby for some Benedictine weissbeir? (Bitburger-international.com)
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I’m in!
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Meditation + ‘white’ 😜( Poured, it glistens, oh the glory! From a private well – a spring mountain clear is what the label sells – so maybe some weekend soon – you snap a cap or pop a top BOOM! Beer that is, ghetto gold, Rocky Mountain pee… robbing the Beverly hillbillies tv theme lyric)
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Beautifully haunting Robert, you made me cry with this one……
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Thank you, Ivor. The greatest compliment.
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I agree, beautifully haunting.
I love your word choices, and the construction.
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Thank you, Vanessa.
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My pleasure!
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Your words evoked memories from my own, all too common, experience of my mother’s passing.
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Thanks very much. That was the genesis of this piece – my mother’s passage.
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The subtlety of this piece seems to grab the heart deeply, almost deceptively.
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I’m pleased you found it so. Thank you.
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Most welcome!
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