A Lack of Words

As I feel your hand clasp mine,
smooth against the roughness of my palm,
a perfect fit, unlikely, unexpected,
rich and warm, I look at you,
sure that to call you beautiful
falls so short that the words would be a lie.

How to explain how you brought life
to a dry husk, a miracle worker,
grace dressed in raven hair
and a voice so quiet I have to lean in
to hear your words? That your brokenness
matched mine, miraculous and laughing,
able to speak for hours without tiring,
able to voice my flaws
as lovingly as my glory?

And that then is the poet’s challenge,
to give words to a life so beyond
my ability to speak that I too often flounder
in bad cliche’s and words that say so little
but mean so much.

About this poem

I write poetry to sort out things that I often have trouble expressing in regular life. Sometimes it is because I have not figured those things out yet. At other times I have almost figured them out, but in the moment I am experiencing them, I have trouble expressing them. And so I sort them out in my head, in poems, edging closer and closer to the tapestry of emotions, be they love, anger, grief, frustration, faith….

Some days I get close. Other days I am not so close. But I keep trying.

Tom

PS – The picture is of radio transmisssion towers. Yes, the link to the poem is oblique, but it was the best I had in my collection of photographs.