At the Threshold of Silence
A poem for the week of All Souls Day and for all who mourn
Greetings, subscribers. Newcomers especially, I welcome you to Enchanted in America for a relatively somber post. The coming week is all over the place emotionally. On Tuesday, we put on funny clothes to worship high fructose corn syrup, and after that, depending on your tradition, you may devote a day or two to the memory of loved ones who have died. It’s understandable if most years, we observe either Hallowe’en or a Day of the Dead, but have trouble mustering the mood for both.1
This year, I will do my duty as a parent on Tuesday for Halloween, but my heart is getting ready for the feast days of All Saints and All Souls. This week I want to blow the kiss of a poem to friends who keep watch over loved ones’ final months or days and to friends who mourn.
The private griefs of friends are not the only weight on my mind. Prisoners of war, and the people of Gaza and Israel and Ukraine and Lewiston, Maine, are among the hallowed souls who live right now too close to death. The tunnel between this world and the next should be longer and more obscure.
I don’t know what I can do for them, except to lay a bouquet of words as near to the suffering and the bereavement as I can reach. This week, I’ll have three short pieces of writing to share with you for Halloween and the Days of the Dead. Today’s post is best by itself. The other two micro-stories I’ll save for tomorrow.
At the Threshold of Silence
Before you finish passing through the door of honeysuckle- scented light, let me change one thing in the name of earthly beauty. Let me hang this garland of my words like a white- flowering vine around the place where I last see you surging into life. At the threshold of the symphony of silence, wait! as I place these words In hope that this little piece of me hooks in your hair as you pass to the quiet magnificence where I am not going today.
Roman Catholics and Episcopalians observe All Saints Day on November 1 and All Souls Day on November 2. Some other Christian churches may combine those observances into one day to honor the dead on November 1.
Oh wow.
I felt this in every cell in my body.
Thank you dear friend❤
This is beautiful Tara. Blessings to you and yours this week.