Tuesday, June 22, 2010

This Hobbled Existence


May 2006


Every now and then
I look up and out
from this hobbled existence
through a window of miracles
and glimpse:

a heron gliding by
like a grim and skinny matron
clutching her pocketbook
under a stiff wing,

or a shimmery rainbow
gossamer valentine from the deity

or the silent promise of daybreak
every day brand new upon the planet

or a patch of blue amidst gray storm clouds

or the stalwart enduring heartbeat of a thousand year old cedar
an eagle peering down from its topmost scrag

Every now and then a brand new miracle occurs:
a baby catching its first breath
utters its protesting cry
at leaving its gloried heaven
to endure this planet's pain

Each time we celebrate with joy
a new soul's journey
is beginning
once again.

Every now and then I look up
beyond the burden and the blessings
at the vast and constant sky
and remember
what I'm doing here
and why



12 comments:

  1. I wanted to read your very first post - so I scrolled through the archives. It is just perfect, esepcially those last lines...sigh!

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  2. sherry, this is your first post? how incredibly apt. it is your song, i think.
    also, i LOVE the rainbow as gossamer valentine, what an image.
    p.s. i just had to come back and edit: when i clicked to post my comment, the word blogger asked me to type was PALIN. and you, my friend, are like the anti-palin. the antidote. hee! xoxo

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  3. I like your "window of miracles", Sherry, and what can be glimpsed if/when we allow ourselves to look. All those wonders you mention - heron, eagle, rainbow, ... birth - they do it for me too, like nothing else ever has.

    Is it me, or is life becoming less hobbled?

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  4. Beautiful reflection....I love your final paragraph...I have too often been consumed with my monotony to take time and just see life's beauty.

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  5. A journey from daybreak to full existence. Beautifully done.

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  6. I love it all, Sherry, the cedar, the eagle, the baby...but I hope I can always remember the heron, because that stanza cracked me up, and there are days when I need to laugh. After laughing, maybe I can "remember what I'm doing here and why".

    Kay, Alberta, Canada
    An Unfittie’s Guide to Adventurous Travel

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  7. I thought I was here to eat as much chocolate as humanly possible. You mean that's not why?

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  8. its those moments of transcendence. beyond burden and blessing alike. beyond every single thing and thought and motion, and even beyond beauty.
    that's where we find the resurgent song of our own identity and purpose.
    beautiful reminder.

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  9. You have the knack of capturing the natural world in wonderful lines.

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  10. Completely wonderful.. I so loved the image you created early on with the old heron.

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  11. Powerful image in the second stanza.

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  12. I really enjoyed all the contrasting images, but even more remarkable is the uniting thought. you are a unique voice and a wise one at that. thank you for sharing.

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