“Temple” published on Gratefulness.org

how do we make peace with the aging body?

by rosemerryt@gmail.com

I LOVE Gratefulness.org–I love what inspires it, I love the poems they publish, I love the conversations they have and the questions they ask … and I am so grateful to have this poem, “Temple,” published on their site.

 

Temple

O body, cracked bell
that still sings when struck,
O leaky cup,
O broken stem,
I love you, body,
your crooked path,
your crumbling walls,
your faulty math.
I love the way
you stopped believing
you could ever
hold it all,
how you began
to let yourself
become the one
that’s being held.
I love the graffiti
on your inner halls—
scrawled names of all
who shaped you.
O body, my wreck,
my holey glove,
my street worn sole,
my crumpled page,
forgive me for years
of trying to fix you,
for believing the fable
of whole,
you, my perfect
wounded heart,
my stuttered hymn,
my sacred
begging bowl.

—Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer