The 60-Second Sabbath

Loss

  • Absence

    Life fills with absences,mostly unexcused.Why-ever you left,I don't recall signing the slip:    anger? fear? boredom?    distraction? inertia? death? Life is Swiss cheesewithout you. Text and image © 2014 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. Continue reading

  • Remembering

    i sit at a windowin the restauranton the 20th floor of my nyc hotel    cold, february night    snow piles in gutters below    frozen streets reflect homeward headlights i look down on the 9/11 memorial park    two… Continue reading

  • Pines

    This was my stand of pines,my sanctuary,my refuge from adolescent angst.Here I kneltand inhaled stability. Now they are stumps. Do slaughtered trees leave ghosts?I am haunted by the stickiness of pitchand the scent of sun-warmed needles. Text and image ©… Continue reading

  • Christmas Cozy

    I told himthat each year at ChristmasI like to read Christmas stories and Christmas poems. He said,"No one does Christmas cozy like Dirk!" And I thought of the story by Dickens I'd just read,about poverty and injustice in 19th-century London.I… Continue reading

  • Impermanence

    Even the finest things,those we treasure most,are meant to fray, unravel and pass away:     my grandmother's hand-stitched coverlet,    the scarf I knitted for my mother in third grade,    my father's favorite flannel shirt,     friendships, … Continue reading

  • She returns to the houseafter the funeral,alone for the first timein weeks.She exhales onto the couch;a sadness of flowerssurrounds her. This is the silencethat is not silence:    the refrigerator hums;    the traffic grumbles;     her heart beats. This… Continue reading

  • On the Loss of a Friend

    I take stockof sadness. How is itmeasured? At timesit fills this chipped cup. At timesit fills the sea. Text and image © 2013 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. Continue reading

  • Good Friday, 2013

    Train mein the fine and necessary grace    of dying. Teach meto paint the watercolor wash    of my own decay,to draw in delicate detail    my inevitable deterioration,to compose my private melody    of loneliness and loss. Then I shall be ready    for resurrection,to be the me    imagined at the… Continue reading

  • No Warranty

    I'm sorry,but who told you,life should be easy? Clearly you have not readthe instruction manual. For the first two years or soit will appear is ifit's all about you,and those around youwill allow you this illusion.But from then on,you'll be… Continue reading

  • Pain

    Pain takes my hand."Come," she whispers."Let me lead you somewhere new.If you let me,I will teach you." Text and image © 2013 by Dirk deVries. All rights reserved. Continue reading