Wendy Everard of New York is our host today for the sixth day of VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com, encouraging us to write forgiveness poems. You can visit the website for her original prompt, which I’m sharing in part here as she quotes Joseph Bruchac from his book A Year of Moons: “It’s January here in our Adirondack foothills. The time of Alamikos, the Abenaki term for the first moon of the new year. In English, it’s the New Year’s Greeting Moon. It’s the time when people would go from one wigwam to another – nowadays one house to another – and speak the New Year’s greeting,
Anhaldam mawi kassipalilawalan. Its meaning, translated into English, is, ‘Forgive me for any wrong I may have done you,’ a recognition of the fact that there is always more than one way to look at any situation, any human interaction, because it would be said not just to people you know you’ve wronged, but to everyone. Everyone.”
She goes on to describe the process we can take writing our poems:
“Your poem can take any form you wish. Bruchac urges us to ‘think of the times when your own feelings were injured by a word or deed from someone who was totally oblivious to the fact that they’d wounded you. It happens more often than we think. We’re in a hurry and we brush someone off. We make a remark offhandedly or say something that we may think is humorous but in fact cuts another person to the quick.’ Or think of a time that this happened to you. Or just write a general poem of forgiveness – giving it, asking for it, or struggling with it. Reflect, and write a poem that captures the spirit of “anhaldam mawi kassipalilawalan.”
I’m not gonna lie. I’ve forgiven some doozies, and I’ve been forgiven for some doozies, others of which I may never be forgiven for, but I’m struggling with one that needs a lot of head space and heart space. I’m still chiseling away at it, ten months later. And poetry helps me see that I’m not alone in my struggle.
Jesus, Take the Reese’s Rabbits
His first Easter in Heaven yesterday
and here I am
his child,
His child,
recipient of God’s
ultimate sacrificial forgiveness
~ in the forgivingest season of all ~
and yet I struggle
after all the trying
to make things right
clear his hoarding
clean his messes
he curmudgeonly says NO on repeat
I hum Jesus, Take the Wheel on repeat
I cuss on repeat too
even in the midst of prayers
….and then he up and dies
with all this unfinished business
no U-Haul behind the hearse
like a final take that!
and I hope to good gracious
he gets none of the feast
of the blessed Easter lamb
or the chocolate bunnies or
especially any of those Reese’s cup rabbits
until we get the rest of his stuff
cleaned up and that may
take a few more Easters
but if he’d just listened
to his children
we wouldn’t be praying he’s
in time out up there
having to watch all the angels
who weren’t so stubborn
eat of the lamb and the chocolate
licking their angel fingers
at him on his antique stool
in a corner of Heaven
Common Threads 