Today's poem is Li-Young Lee's 'To Hold'. On my laptop is a folder of poems that I've read somewhere of the other and liked enough to copy down. Often, I've not provided myself with a link or a bibliography; bad habits.
This is one of those poems. It's also easy to see why I liked and saved it. There's an audio version here read by the poet.
To Hold
by Li-Young Lee
So we're dust. In the meantime, my
wife and I
make the bed. Holding opposite edges
of the sheet,
we raise it, billowing, then pull it
tight,
measuring by eye as it falls into
alignment
between us. We tug, fold, tuck. And
if I'm lucky,
she'll remember a recent dream and
tell me.
One day we'll lie down and not get
up.
One day, all we guard will be
surrendered.
Until then, we'll go on learning to
recognize
what we love, and what it takes
to tend what isn't for our having.
So often, fear has led me
to abandon what I know I must
relinquish
in time. But for the moment,
I'll listen to her dream,
and she to mine, our mutual hearing
calling
more and more detail into the light
of a joint and fragile keeping.
