What to Throw Away

The craftsman knows
resurrection is slow work,
that it depends as much on the tearing down
as the rebuilding,

that it takes time to sit
with the brokenness,
to put your fingers into it’s wounds
and feel its soul,

Only then do you know
what bears fixing
and what bears celebrating.
Only then do you see

what parts are soul
and which is  flotsam,
what to keep
and what to throw away.

About this poem

Restoration, whether it is things or ourselves, is hard work, and we tend to want to hurry it. We don’t want the brokenness. We don’t want the pain. But without it, whatever we end up with is soulless.

Tom