The Medicine of Poetry

by ingrid on December 4, 2009

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“Poetry is a life-cherishing force.
  For poems are not words, after all,
but fires for the cold,
ropes let down to the lost,
something as necessary as bread
in the pockets of the hungry. 
Yes indeed.” ~Mary Oliver

 

 

 

Our poem which is Infinite

(A love poem for my husband)

 

 

Tonight your words draw me back

into the poem in which we are living.

It is a rich and merciful poem

and it spins its warm story around us

drawing our bodies down

into the urgency of our belonging.

How is it that we, neither holy nor wise,

could live in this beautiful poem?

It is the fire we tend with our kindling,

the table we cover with bread,

the altar we make bare for offerings,

the pitcher we empty and fill.

~Ingrid Goff-Maidoff

     This week I have been savoring Kim Rosen’s Book, Saved by a Poem.  If you love poetry, even if you fear poetry, this is a beautiful invitation to enrich your life through poems.  I am tongue-tied, in awe, and cannot recommend her work highly enough.

 

{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }

lori 12.10.09 at 8:39 pm

Your words draw me back also. I am getting lost in the richness of poetry lately. Can’t wait to read Kim’s book.

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