Water & Wood
Proverb
There are always ears on the far side of any wall.
Poem
My heart is no stone
You cannot roll it
My heart is no mat
You cannot fold it away
I have performed all the rites –
More than you could number!
Oh, sun, ah, moon,
Why have you dimmed?
Sadness clings to me
Like an unwashed dress
In the still night I think of it
Longing to leap up and fly away.
Meditation
The ancient poems of China, like the ancient poems of Egypt or Israel,
as found in the Psalms, are often deeply moving.
The pain and sorrow of those betrayed or hurt echoes down the millennia.
The poems speak directly to us, person to person,
despite the untold centuries between.
They ask us to reflect on the eternal difficulty
of living, loving, longing and hoping.
Hold this poem in your mind and think of all those who today feel the same –
perhaps even you yourself, or someone close to you.
©Loes Raaphorst 10/2005