The Big Heart by Anne Sexton

A tree that wears its hearts like leaves....

(Thank you, Annie, for sending me this poem a few moons back on the beautiful scroll.)  

THE BIG HEART
By Anne Sexton

"Too many things are occurring for even a big heart to hold."  ~From an essay by W. B. Yeats

Big heart,
wide as a watermelon,
but wise as birth,
there is so much abundance
in the people I have:
Max, Lois, Joe, Louise,
Joan, Marie, Dawn,
Arlene, Father Dunne,
and all in their short lives
give to me repeatedly,
in the way the sea
places its many fingers on the shore,
again and again
and they know me,
they help me unravel,
they listen with ears made of conch shells,
they speak back with the wine of the best region.
They are my staff.
They comfort me.

They hear how
the artery of my soul has been severed
and soul is spurting out upon them,
bleeding on them,
messing up their clothes,
dirtying their shoes.
And God is filling me,
though there are times of doubt
as hollow as the Grand Canyon,
still God is filling me.
He is giving me the thoughts of dogs,
the spider in its intricate web,
the sun
in all its amazement,
and a slain ram
that is the glory,
the mystery of great cost,
and my heart,
which is very big,
I promise it is very large,
a monster of sorts,
takes it all in--
all in comes the fury of love.

----------------------------

"Birth is nothing but death begun......"  ~Stephen King, The Dark Tower VII, page 588

--------------------------

My 7 year old granddaughter, Mary Mace, calls me almost every night.  As she says, 'We have a LOT in common . . . We both love dolls and fairies and have big imaginations.'  She's the light of my life.

Mary Mace:  Grammy, are you a crazy cat lady?
Me:  No, Mary, you have to have 20 cats to be a crazy cat lady and I only have six."
Mary Mace:  Oh, okay!!

-------------------------

"A child needs a grandparent, anybody's grandparent, to grow a little more securely into an unfamiliar world." ~Charles and Ann Morse

------------------------