Susan Fantl Spivack, Storyteller/Writer/Teaching Artist brings us into the “murmuring deep” with her poetry, to the Real Presence that contains us all. You can read more at https://singingfrogpress.com/2022/11/12/the-secret-life-of-words/
Secret Life of Words by Susan Fantl Spivack
More than half-way through the movie
the woman—survivor of atrocities
during the Balkan wars—breaks
her silence to tell the burn
patient she bathes
her story.
Unable to close our ears or eyes,
so joined are we to their fortunes,
we take in her wounded words, his
tears—staring and clutching each
other—your arm, my knee….
It’s a suffering that keeps throbbing
at midnight as we lie down
wrapped in questions,
and wake at dawn seeking
each other’s soothing
hands across our backs
and breasts, our faces….
What goodness can possibly
equal the cruelty she suffered?
What gentleness can surpass
the raw horrific warp of it?
Your sudden weeping?
My whispered comfort words?
Do I have the right to say
this? Only kindness
will save us.
11/22/2009-11/11/202
