Image by hawaii via Flickr
Years ago we met an author who was giving a presentation at a Barnes and Noble. She had written a book about her son’s traumatic brain injury (I recommend Listening in the Silence, Seeing in the Dark :by Ruthann Knechel Johansen). She is, or was at that time, a professor of literature at the University of Notre Dame, and after her talk she invited people to talk informally. I was astounded when she asked me, “Have you ever considered your epilepsy as a gift?” I must have stood there with my jaw dropping. No, I couldn’t see anything about epilepsy that ever qualified as a gift. However, her remark carved out a niche in my mind, and eventually turned into this poem.
Consider your affliction as a gift,
polite suggestion came. I must revoke
the old for new to welcome such a shift.
An eighteen-wheeler’s easier to lift
than weighing this Could it be just a joke?
Consider your affliction. As a gift,
it possibly could set your ship adrift
into uncharted waters. Now, unyoke
the old so you can welcome such a shift.
Come to the shore, imagine you have sniffed
the fresh sea air, and in its fragrance soak.
Consider your affliction as a gift
that someone chose especially to uplift
you. Think how you might integrate, invoke
the old with new. To welcome such a shift
calls forth determination. In a swift
new river swim, see loftiness of oak.
Consider your affliction as a gift
of old and new while welcoming the shift.
© Maggie Mendus
Posted by auntiemwrites on 09/28/2011 at 1:30 pm
Great images; are you putting this one in the book?
Posted by Maggie on 09/28/2011 at 4:23 pm
I hadn’t thought I would. Do you think it merits inclusion?
Posted by thebardonthehill on 09/28/2011 at 11:02 am
I like this one, too! Lifting an 18-wheeler made an immediate impact. Good metaphors throughout. I’ve wrote a new villanelle two nights ago and posted it this morning. Don’t know if you’ve read it yet.
http://thebardonthehill.wordpress.com/2011/09/28/the-emperor-poem-by-dennis-lange/