When pain is sweet and joy is serious
we have learned to live wide open,
unafraid of circumstance,
aware of all
that may befall
as gifts uncovered,
as ministries in themselves,
in how they anchor us,
or free us, empty us in flood.
When pain is deep and joy is wide
we have learned to live expanded,
undeterred by fear of failure,
aware of loss
as the bell in the bell tower,
ringing,
sounding the hours.
This echoing back and forth
upon the mountain’s pass.
How the moment we meet
we hold between us
the thought of departure.
How providential
separation is,
that we live in the moments
in between—
praying and
stringing them as rubber-bands,
balancing them as knucklebones.
It being
not so much what falls,
as what is still held
in the hand.
How we drop them,
these stones,
to then catch them air-borne.
How joy causes us to tear up,
and pain to bow down.
We are proceeding with a holy solemnity,
and joy our passage home.
Ana Lisa de Jong
Living Tree Poetry
January 2023
‘Ye shall have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept, and goodness of heart, as in when one goeth with a pipe to come into the mountain of the Lord, to the mighty one of Israel.’
Isaiah 30:29
Living Tree Poetry 
This poem, of all so far, wraps me in the deepest grief and joy all at once! This is true being alive, true seeing, true feeling, – all in their essences. It fills my whole body with soft tingling, head to foot!
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Oh thank you Brenda, yes, the wonder of feeling. So appreciate you! xx
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