Fertility

The heart is not a fragile thing
to hide away from this world.

Such a cost in bracing ourselves
against our experience,
keeping our heads
above the surface,
wondering why the desert
comes closer.

Much safer to strip naked,
break into a thousand pieces,
and discover what it is that
we are truly held by.

Grieve well to end the drought.

Water the fields
of all our relations
with these tears,
soften the hardened arteries
of empathic intelligence,
and here
where our rivers converge,
remember our pain is shared.

If you find yourself
in grief’s grey wasteland,
ignore the call to set up home
amidst the bitterness
and half measures,
keep on moving
toward the sword
that would pierce
your whole heart.

Grief unresisted
opens the chest,
til there’s no holding back
the treasure,
the clarity born
of what it is
that truly matters.

All the love we ever knew,
shared,
or even dreamed of,
was never lost.

It is right here now,
overflowing,
seeds to be planted
in the dark soil
at the center of our lives,
made fertile
by our willingness
to honor all that we grieve,
by never taking
this moment for granted.




~~Luke Anderson