filaments
tendrils
hardly anything at all
yet everything
holding from now to then
from here to there
from them to us
holding all that was loved
and beloved.
holding all that was lost
and holding all that had transpired.
the fragile lifeline
that leads us back
from our older selves
to our childhoods
and for you, my friend –
you told me:
“Where you are from
is who you are”.
you moved away from your beloved island,
that most lovely rock in the sea,
the tendrils
have that much
further to stretch.
breathlessly
we watch
and the ache grows deeper
the closer we travel
to our demise,
as we know we belong
and yearn for,
back where we started.
Reflection: Connections, and Poetry Connections by Cheryl Breslin
I think most of us, if not all of us, yearn for some kind of connection. We search for connection with place, connection with other people, family and strangers. Sometimes what we have is so frighteningly tenuous, sometimes so sturdy. I wrote this poem during a time of connection disruption in my own family.
Over time I have been so very fortunate to work with a range of people in many different settings. I couldn’t have planned it any better. Working in a state psychiatric hospital for a few years I got to know people receiving treatment for many illnesses in a variety of situations, and those people in turn shared with me some of their deepest thoughts. I worked with people in hospice receiving care in their homes and readying themselves for what may to some seem like the ultimate disconnection, death. I also had the opportunity to get to know people from different socioeconomic situations, various cultures and religions and places of origin. Many people I visited in their homes, and I took in a lot about connections, disconnections and reconnections. People filled with grace and courage.
My last twenty work years were spent as a fourth-grade teacher. Again, how could I have been so fortunate? I loved my job! I had the opportunity to get to know so many children and their families, what a web. One way the connections were revealed was through the poetry written by these earnest 10-year-olds. They described their families and how they all got along. They wrote about their favorite places, their feelings, the sports or activities they did, their grandparents and how they felt when their dog died, when their older sister went away to school. These poem connections were at once profound, deep and thoughtful, and also sometimes humorous, intentionally and not. They also were simple and commonly shared.
Not everyone has the relationships, or the wherewithal to get back to the place they started, even if they are lucky enough to know where that was. However, with poetry and new connections, people of all ages can learn to make and carry with them what they need and want, through transition times, times that are stable as well as times that are made of loss and change.
Cheryl Breslin