The Space Inside*

“Tell me what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” – Mary Oliver, “The Summer Day” 

Pay attention (work hard), 

rest all that is not needed for the work, 

relax into the effort, 

feel how this pulse eases into hum, 

contributes to all others’ to make our lives more rich 

make us more joyful 

more alive to our gratitude 

more able to feel the ease from our troubles 

wash over us, 

leaving them sparkling, crystalline 

with salt. 

Invite them in, 

all those you think you cannot feed, 

who will fill themselves 

with exactly what you can give 

what they can receive 

from the basket of your compassion – 

your strengths, 

the limber moments 

between your daily plans – 

who will spice each bite 

with all you have learned 

to let go. 

Set the even table of your prayer for justice 

with the spirit you bring 

when flinging your loving arms 

to all you can reach, 

all you can harvest 

in this season that feeds us 

and the guests who bring us so much more 

than we can return. 

I will open the dark doors 

of my small home, 

feel the rooms grow 

as a vessel swells 

each time the water 

fills 

then hollows 

the space inside. 

*Interesting that I had forgotten a poem from 2005 called "The Space Between Us" Chapbook, anyone?

** I believe this poem was responding, in part, to the poems "To be of use" by Marge Piercy and "Love after Love" by Derek Wolcott.