A friend of mine lives in a sweet little house
On the outskirts of a cool town in Vermont
With her beloved dog who is deaf and blind
She was hosting a giveaway
Of art and clothes and books
It was her 80th birthday
Two little boys who were brothers
Were play-fighting with some wooden swords that she gave them
Their mother assured me they are ceremonial swords
Someone was trying on a shirt that was way too big for her
How did you wear this shirt? she shouted over to my short friend
Why do you think I'm giving it away?
I'm moving on she said
That was when I walked behind the house where it was shady
And saw that the ground dropped precipitously
About 200 feet to a river
This would be a very dangerous place to live
For someone who sleep walks I thought
I returned to the party
And talked with a man who used to be homeless
He gave me his story
I gave him a story
It was getting late
My friend was getting tired
Many people had already left
I picked out a book of poems by Merwin
Something told me this would be a good book for me
Merwin was saying
"When what has helped us has helped us enough
It moves off and sits down
Not looking our way /
After every time we call it
It takes away one of the answers it had given us."
I thought of the steep drop-off in the back of the house
And I thought
What if Earth was the answer
That was now being taken away
My head began to spin
Which is why I can only read Merwin
Every few years
...................
Instead of working with what was given and being grateful we are never satisfied like an elephant who can't be happy without a longer tail or a spider asking for nine legs. And the giver of answers, instead of catering to such brattiness, loses patience according to Merwin, and starts taking back all the great stuff we took for granted, such as a livable climate. Merwin is seeing this great take-away as a recall of answers. But when I visited my friend with the precipitous drop-off right behind her house, I saw Earth itself as the answer to some great cosmic yearning for something that wasn't there before -- life and a home for life. By my interpretation of Merwin's poem it is Earth, our home for a million years, that is being taken back. And the irony is that I received this message from Merwin at my old friend's birthday celebration , where, instead of receiving gifts, she is the grateful giver. If we could learn from her example and all be so selfless on our birthdays, I wonder if the weary giver of answers would turn to face us and maybe even give us another chance.
(Article changed on Jul 24, 2023 at 9:39 AM EDT)
(Article changed on Jul 24, 2023 at 2:40 PM EDT)
(Article changed on Jul 25, 2023 at 9:51 AM EDT)
