the restaurant i worked at in Vermont
got destroyed by Peace ( Irene )
after Hope came to live there
Am I made for endings?
I keep hearing the end of all is at hand
I live off decaying roots,
dead vegetable matter
Admit, discover, understand, claim:
I thrive off (of) death
Now nothing can disturb me anymore.
I have found my vocation.
In the heart of the Church I will be death!
My fan whirs.
Connie has come home to clean up the kitchen-
a vegetable juice factory to delay death.
Every day mounds of carrots and Kale and
exotic greens get stripped of their form
and become liquid bouquets
My fungus factory sits quietly on the counter
trying to harmonize with all the
deformation going on.
Whatever it is it's capable
of breathing it in
transforming it into harmonizing elixir.
The Whole Catastrophe.
I should not have written these thoughts down
The thoughts that come to me are stupid
- anonymous
.....well not completely, my dear
the mention of
ReplyDeletethe vegetable juice factory to delay death
brings back memories
of my leukemia
and puts the rest of the poem (letter)
in context for me
i never set up a vegetable juice factory
though that was recommended
by many of the books that i read
but i was working
and researching cancer treatments
i didn't have time
to follow the juicing regimen
though i half-worried
that i should be doing that
as one does at times like that
am i doing the right thing?
will this or that decision
spell the difference
between succumbing and survival?
understanding the context now
i suppose that
admit discover understand claim
is the latest psychological approach
to facing death
i can see how facing death
could be a vocation
one that each of us
is called to
sooner or later
united with Christ
in his death
breathing it in
and
the whole catastrophe
are also familiar to me
both being phrases that pema chodron uses
with regard to facing life
or death
though she attributes the latter phrase
to zorba the greek
and jon kabat-zinn
my heart goes out
to the writer of this letter
in solidarity
and in gratitude for writing down
her thoughts
though i could have sworn
she stole that last thought
from me
a pilgrim girl in seattle thanks you
ReplyDeletealbeit
she wonders oblivious to our references
i found the lines as particualrly interesting for
relating something about the mystery of our existence
and our relationship to nourishment
things like this become sacramental to societies
people all agree on methods of survival
and we tend to bless them
that coupled with the self berating in the
last two lines made the think a poem
as i read it
food glorious food
jh