A Powerful Poem

This powerful poem,  Allowing Grace, by Judith E Prest  invited me to allow grace today.

I am dancing
balanced on the edge
between worlds,
memories telescoping
playing simultaneously
with dreams and reality
a festival of images

I accept death
inviting it as a beginning
I am watching my mother's illusions
collapse around her
piling high in the hospital bed
filling the space so she barely has room
I am watching her hang on,
hands clawed with arthritis,
frozen on the wheel of her life
grasping, seeking, resisting...

I sing lullabies in my head
I float above the room
out the window, between bare branches
follow the river of migrating blackbirds,
rise with the moon
dance with the wind

Somewhere the child I was is wailing
I grieve the loss of mother
accept that for now I am mothering her
and myself as well

I hold her hands
feel the bones so near the surface
sense her spirit not yet unbound
release my claim on her being
releasing with love
enduring, dreaming, dancing with spirit

I imagine heartbeats:  hers fainter, mine steady
all centered, aligned with the universe
praying for patience, praying for endurance
praying for the gift of
allowing grace.

bleoved on the earth:  150 poems of grief and gratitude