Bittersweet
Bittersweet
The pathway to my heart is open.
I have no protection against
The sadness that walks upon it.
Nor do I complain.
The movement happens:
It is sweet the grief
Like an old friend
Returning to claim its place
In the order of things.
It seems endless though,
Bottomless.
I fear I could drown in its vastness.
Down, down into the darkness
Where all grief meets
And belongs.
A great turbulence,
A living writhing tangle
In the belly of the world.
To ascend again
Cloaked with nothing
But a bittersweet knowing
That grief belongs,
That it bears
A precious gift.
That each journey down
Is a necessary yielding
To the ache in my body
For release and presence,
For joy and remembering,
Back into infinity.