Notes from the Other Side

Today's post is from Jane Kenyon, one of my favorite contemporary American poets. Jane was born in 1947 and died in 1995 after a 15-month battle with leukemia.



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Notes from the Other Side

I divested myself of despair
and fear when I came here.

Now there is no more catching
one's own eye in the mirror,

there are no bad books, no plastic,
no insurance premiums, and of course

no illness. Contrition
does not exist, nor gnashing

of teeth. No one howls as the first
clod of earth hits the casket.

The poor we no longer have with us.
Our calm hearts strike only the hour,

and God, as promised, proves
to be mercy clothed in light.


Jane Kenyon