Lazarus kisses the stars
Was Lazarus, upon awakening, filled with relief at his non-dead-ness,
Fingers wiggling, the warm wind blowing through his matted beard and hair
Or did he sense the return, the hope, the glorious life to come?
Was it just enough to be, once again, in the sun?
When spring riotously pushes forth, do the trees rejoice
At having a voice, of returning from the frozen ground?
Do they have a sense at all, of the fruition to come
The flowers, the fruit, roots deepening further into the ground?
The cooing baby gurgling, drooling, crooning to her mama
Feeling the stretch of skin, the new powers within
Each day, life unfolding more fully
Does she sense that this other-being-ness of mother
This alien form of “woman”, is already pulling her inexorably forth
After a long winter
A drought
A death in the family
or a battened down heart
rebirth can seem inconceivable
unbelievable
But one day
The breeze feels different
The flowers more vibrant
The air, suddenly sweet
When the grim monotony of the habit of survival recedes
Promising the prospect of life
When the shell cracking open reveals the green grass, blue sky and birdsong
And the miracle of non-dead-ness is grasped
No further glory, no widening story, nor hopes or wishes or those fanciful dreams
None need further stir the soul
All glories are grasped, potentiality instantly seized,
The past and future made irrelevant
By the blinding passionate all consuming glory of LIFE! HERE! NOW!
Lazarus, don’t just take up your mat, brother – kiss the face of the stars! dance with God!
Weep with joy
And life
And light
~now~
There is too much to say about this.
Ah, then, Ms. Sara – grist for the conversational mill. Say all you like, madame! I’ll have to tell you the story of how this poem NAGGED at me til I took a drive down Country Club road to hasten its birth.
[...] can be just the fertile compost out of which we can be reborn. Now I’ll go reread Lazarus Kisses the Stars (a poem I wrote last year about just such rebirth) and greet the new day – in all my glorious [...]
[...] And I give you (again) the gift Country Club Road gave me awhile back – a wee poem about awakening and the spring – Lazarus Kisses the Stars [...]
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