<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. <div><br></div><div>Many blessings, </div><div><br></div><div>~ Ed </div><div><br></div><div><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"><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></div></div>