by DENISE LEVERTOV
What are the 'courtiers', the distractions,
that deflect me from 'the quiet mystery'?
This question doesn't just nudge and probe -it hurts.
I have avoided it -
perhaps for most of my life.
The roller-coaster ride of every day life.
Cataclysmic global events.
The search for a place of belonging.
My attachment to things,
and the things of others.
The peregrinations of my heart.
The shattering of illusion and hope.
The volatility of hormones and emotions.
The search for my true calling.
I find - now and then -
that by naming the problems,
dialoguing with them,
offering them companionship,
sharing their yoke,
placing them on the altar of my heart,
that they become less a distraction
and more another door through which I enter into 'the quiet mystery'.
the mystery that is without and within.
Everything is veiled in mystery.
Live with it.
Embrace it.
Inhale its fragrance.
This figure has a short body with stuffed and hinged legs (sewn across at the knees),
a hand stitched heart,
knotted hair
and thin arms.