Art and Remembrance

Driving to my workshop today, my 12^th day in a row of teaching and still with energy to do so, I still had Mary Oliver on my mind. A first draft poem popped into my head and at a stoplight, took my i-Phone and dictated it into the Notes feature. Well, there’s an interesting use of that technology! Here’s the poem:

Art and Remembrance

What is art but the breadcrumbs

         we leave behind as we enter the dark forest,

              in hope that we will be found—

                        or at least remembered.

Bach’s notes strewn along the path,

        Georgia O-Keefe’s flowers

                     

                   Mary Oliver’s perfect words

They will never be alone in the world to which they’ve flown

And they keep us company in our aloneness, give us comfort

as we step, cautiously,

 into the black woods,

               steering us away

                         from the witch’s cottage.