Wednesday
As I think of those families mourning those children who died in the Uvalde Elementary School mass shooting, I find myself remembering, as though it were yesterday, when I lost my own son. Poetry could not stop the pain, but poetry gave me the only words that came anywhere close to addressing my agony. I therefore send out this Conrad Aiken poem to all who are experiencing wrenching heartbreak tonight.
God bless you all.
Bread and Music
By Conrad Aiken
Music I heard with you was more than music,
And bread I broke with you was more than bread;
Now that I am without you, all is desolate;
All that was once so beautiful is dead.
Your hands once touched this table and this silver,
And I have seen your fingers hold this glass.
These things do not remember you, belovèd,
And yet your touch upon them will not pass.
For it was in my heart you moved among them,
And blessed them with your hands and with your eyes;
And in my heart they will remember always,—
They knew you once, O beautiful and wise.
