The handle toward my hand?
~Wm. Shakespeare
I love Macbeth, and I love Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer...it would have been great to go with her to see the performance that inspired this poem:
Two Hours Upon the Stage
by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer
Again tonight Macbeth kills Duncan,
stabs him in his sleep as he has done
for four hundred twenty-five years,
as he’s destined to do for how many
hundreds of years more, never able
to break from what’s been written,
ever a victim of his flaws. As I walk
away from the blood-stained stage
into the warm night, I notice how
with every step across the damp grass
my story is still being written,
notice how unfinished I am—
a flawed human yet in service
to the human I will become.
Praise the power to evolve,
the chance to choose to be flower
and not the snake beneath it. Praise
the power to walk away from the script,
to walk away from prophesy, to walk
into the next scene as it comes. Praise
the chance to change, to transform, to turn
while the candle, though brief, still burns.
************
Michelle Kogan has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Michelle!
A poem for our friends who have suffered a loss this year: Blue Christmas by Barbara Crooker
My soul-filling bucket runneth over here this week, Tabatha - thank you for the wonderful Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer poem (& for introducing me to her!) and for the link to the Barbara Crooker poem, which I forwarded onto my hubby who does so much work with grief/end-of-life issues.
ReplyDelete--"Praise the chance" to change/transform/turn indeed!
Yes to Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer powerful poem,
ReplyDelete"Praise
the chance to change, to transform, to turn
while the candle, though brief, still burns."
And thanks for sharing Barbara Crooker poem–I hope it's viewed by many.
Love your pic of Preston–and wow to his melt-away eyes, thanks! ^-^
Tabatha this is an amazing poem:
ReplyDeletePraise the power to walk away from the script,
to walk away from prophesy.
Thanks for introducing me to Trommer.
These lines speak directly to me:
ReplyDelete"a flawed human yet in service
to the human I will become."
There's lots to consider about the gift of CHOICE in the Trommer poem. And the Barbara Crooker...oh my heart. What a poem for all who have (and those who surely will) suffered loss.
Wow, what a beautifully inspiring and thought provoking poem. So many great lines. Had never thought of life in quite these terms before. Fabulous!
ReplyDeletePraise
ReplyDeletethe power to walk away from the script,
to walk away from prophesy, to walk
into the next scene as it comes,"
even if you go limping and pained.
Thanks for these gifts, Tabatha. Are you a member of the Verse-Virtual community?
I am deeply touched by the poem you shared. I'm printing it for my notebook. To praise the chance to evolve is something I want to hold on to. We all have that chance. Not only do I need to notice how I have evolved, I want to praise how others in my life have as well. Recognizing this can bring forgiveness.
ReplyDeleteI love "Two Hours Upon the Stage"! Thanks for sharing it!
ReplyDeleteI, too, found the lines "a flawed human yet in service
ReplyDeleteto the human I will become" resonant - exactly what I needed to read today. Thanks, Tabs and give wee Preston a pupper hug for me. :)
Tabatha, the poem highlights the difference between the prescribed immutable script and the contrasting reality of our human existence. So cleverly conceived and presented. Thank you for sharing this thought-provoking poem.
ReplyDelete