Sunday, May 10, 2020
Mother Wakes Up––poem by Dorothy
Mother Wakes Up
So I must ask,
what would you do
if, some afternoon,
when you were ironing
or mending your husband's clothes
(do people still mend clothes?
Or do they just throw them away
and buy new ones, everybody seems
to have so much money these days),
or practicing for your church choir
(do people still sing in choirs,
or is everything piped in?)––
well, whatever it is you are doing––
and suddenly, everything gets interrupted
by a strange and wonderful feeling
and finally someone explains to you
that you are having ecstasy,
whatever that is,
you have no idea,
but how you love it as
it makes you feel connected, somehow,
to something much larger, vaster,
more real
than anything you have ever imagined,
only no one knows really
what this is,
where it is coming from,
why it is entering you,
of all people,
like something you may have read about
in a book somewhere
until you put down your iron
or your needle
and surrender to whatever it is,
something soft and sweet
and beautiful
almost like god himself
(or is it herself these days)
coming in
and yes, for a fact,
like god the invisible
making love to you inside
only now you don't really care
who this lost lover is,
you just want more,
and then more,
and then all,
as much as you can take,
even if you burn an iron image
on the clothes,
even if the children must go to school
with holes in their sweaters,
even if nothing matters, ever again,
but this, this ineffable feeling
that is more you than anything
you ever felt before.
Dorothy Walters
May 10, 2020
So I must ask,
what would you do
if, some afternoon,
when you were ironing
or mending your husband's clothes
(do people still mend clothes?
Or do they just throw them away
and buy new ones, everybody seems
to have so much money these days),
or practicing for your church choir
(do people still sing in choirs,
or is everything piped in?)––
well, whatever it is you are doing––
and suddenly, everything gets interrupted
by a strange and wonderful feeling
and finally someone explains to you
that you are having ecstasy,
whatever that is,
you have no idea,
but how you love it as
it makes you feel connected, somehow,
to something much larger, vaster,
more real
than anything you have ever imagined,
only no one knows really
what this is,
where it is coming from,
why it is entering you,
of all people,
like something you may have read about
in a book somewhere
until you put down your iron
or your needle
and surrender to whatever it is,
something soft and sweet
and beautiful
almost like god himself
(or is it herself these days)
coming in
and yes, for a fact,
like god the invisible
making love to you inside
only now you don't really care
who this lost lover is,
you just want more,
and then more,
and then all,
as much as you can take,
even if you burn an iron image
on the clothes,
even if the children must go to school
with holes in their sweaters,
even if nothing matters, ever again,
but this, this ineffable feeling
that is more you than anything
you ever felt before.
Dorothy Walters
May 10, 2020
