My Divine Comedy

They say you can learn a lot about a person from knowing their favorite poem.

Okay, I don’t actually know anyone who said that, I just made it up. But it seems like it’d be true. The power of words is near absolute – the pen is mightier. Somebody actually did say that, I’m almost certain. In any case, rather than wax eloquent at one o’clock in the morning or trying to sound poetic and philosophical (I’m not and I can’t), I figured I would post here what is one of my two favorite poems.

This poem was introduced to me by a dear friend several years ago when, for a variety of reasons, I very much needed it. I find myself back in similar circumstances now, and this poem once again is comforting. Empowering. It’s the kind that begs to be read aloud to oneself in a quiet room, with nothing but the whir of the fan churning overhead.

But without further introduction:

THE THING IS

to love life, to love it even
when you have no stomach for it
and everything you’ve held dear
crumbles like burnt paper in your hands,
your throat filled with the silt of it.
When grief sits with you, its tropical heat
thickening the air, heavy as water
more fit for gills than lungs;
when grief weights you like your own flesh
only more of it, an obesity of grief,
you think, How can a body withstand this?
Then you hold life like a face
between your palms, a plain face,
no charming smile, no violet eyes,
and you say, yes, I will take you
I will love you, again.

ELLEN BASS