How shall the heart be reconciled To its feast of losses?

On a search for words this morning after watching more of the footage from Japan.  I raced to the poets — their words are guiding stars for me and they can say what I cannot–here is just one that struck me.

As my colleague, Carol Ferris said in her post

The premise that we are all one, that everything touches us, that we are now entering a period where we experience the connectedness of everything, is emerging as reality in our eyes, ears, hearts and minds.

Parabola Magazine Spring 2011: Suffering

THE WORLD IS ON FIRE

by Joshua Boettiger

Stanley Kunitz’s poem “The Layers” is a midrash on suffering.

At the key juncture in the poem, Kunitz writes:

How shall the heart be reconciled

To its feast of losses?

In a rising wind

The manic dust of my friends,

Those who fell along the way,

Bitterly stings my face.

Yet I turn, I turn,

Exulting somewhat,

With my will intact to go

Wherever I need to go,

And every stone on the road

Precious to me.

Listen to him read the whole poem:  Stanley Kunitz reading his poem “The Layers”