Thursday, February 27, 2020

Thursday Poem - Become Becoming

Wait for evening.
Then you'll be alone.

Wait for the playground to empty.
Then call out those companions from childhood:

The one who closed his eyes
and pretended to be invisible.
The one to whom you told every secret.
The one who made a world of any hiding place.

And don't forget the one who listened in silence
while you wondered out loud:

Is the universe an empty mirror? A flowering tree?
Is the universe the sleep of a woman?

Wait for the sky's last blue
(the color of your homesickness).

Then you'll know the answer.

Wait for the air's first gold (that color of Amen).
Then you'll spy the wind's barefoot steps.

Then you'll recall that story beginning
with a child who strays in the woods.

The search for him goes on in the growing
shadow of the clock.

And the face behind the clock's face
is not his father's face.

And the hands behind the clock's hands
are not his mother's hands.

All of Time began when you first answered
to the names your mother and father gave you.

Soon, those names will travel with the leaves.
Then, you can trade places with the wind.

Then you'll remember your life
as a book of candles,
each page read by the light of its own burning.

Li-Young Lee
(from Behind My Eyes)

3 comments:

Guy said...

A beautiful poem, I believe I bought this collection after reading a quote here. I will have to check the book shelf. I do wonder about the children I went to public school with when we were all quite young and the world still seemed to hold the potential for magic.

Guy

Barbara Rogers said...

Such lovely metaphors...I think I probably closed my eyes to become invisible. Maybe I still do. Yes, there's still magic in the world, mostly in children and animals and nature.

R's Rue said...

Beautiful