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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Whew! I sense resonation with this
poem.....thank you!<br>
Tracey<br>
<br>
On 4/3/24 4:31 PM, Ed Balldinger via Thespiritexpress wrote:<br>
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cite="mid:CABRwNSb0ukoF7kYb3a1_hrowARzeokmAy=1QXQcRcwq8cajFOg@mail.gmail.com">
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<div dir="ltr">Here's the Stanley Kunitz poem I read in Pathwork
class last week that a couple of folks asked me to post.
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<div>Many blessings, </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>~ Ed </div>
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<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in 0in 3pt;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><u><span
style="font-size:24pt;color:black">The Layers</span></u></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">I have walked through
many lives, </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">some of them my own,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">and I am not who I was,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">though some principle
of being</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">abides, from which I
struggle</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">not to stray.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">When I look behind,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">as I am compelled to
look</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">before I can gather
strength</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">to proceed on my
journey,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">I see the milestones
dwindling</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">toward the horizon</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">and the slow fires
trailing</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">from the abandoned
camp-sites,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">over which scavenger
angels</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">wheel on heavy wings.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">Oh, I have made myself
a tribe</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">out of my true
affections,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">and my tribe is
scattered!</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">How shall the heart be
reconciled</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">to its feast of losses?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">In a rising wind</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">the manic dust of my
friends,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">those who fell along
the way,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">bitterly stings my
face.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">Yet I turn, I turn,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">exulting somewhat,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">with my will intact to
go</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">wherever I need to go,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">and every stone on the
road</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">precious to me.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">In my darkest night,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">when the moon was
covered</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">and I roamed through
wreckage,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">a nimbus-clouded voice</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">directed me:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">“Live in the layers,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">not on the litter.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">Though I lack the art</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">to decipher it,</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">no doubt the next
chapter</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">in my book of
transformations</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="margin:0in;line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">is already written.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;margin:0in 0in 8pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black">I
am not done with my changes.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;margin:0in 0in 8pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"
style="line-height:normal;vertical-align:baseline;margin:0in 0in 8pt;font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><span
style="font-size:14pt;color:black"> ~ </span><i><span
style="font-size:16.5pt;font-family:"Gill Sans MT",sans-serif;color:rgb(73,73,73);text-transform:uppercase;letter-spacing:1.05pt;border:1pt none windowtext;padding:0in"><a
href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/stanley-kunitz"
moz-do-not-send="true"><span
style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"inherit",serif;color:black;text-decoration-line:none">STANLEY
KUNITZ</span></a></span></i><i><span
style="font-size:16.5pt;font-family:"inherit",serif"></span></i></p>
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