GENEROUS
A Poem by Ibtisam Barakat
I have known a thousand kinds of death:
death of a plant on the window sill,
death of a pet that listened more than a mother,
death of a big dream because I could not find
a big warm room for it in cold weather. . .
Not even one death was kind as it took
without permission.
But all were generous: offering an absence --
a fierce sunset followed by a feared darkness
without which I would never have befriended
the moon,
and the guiding stars in myself.
death of a plant on the window sill,
death of a pet that listened more than a mother,
death of a big dream because I could not find
a big warm room for it in cold weather. . .
Not even one death was kind as it took
without permission.
But all were generous: offering an absence --
a fierce sunset followed by a feared darkness
without which I would never have befriended
the moon,
and the guiding stars in myself.
Note: the poem GENEROUS was written in response to an image by artist Therese Whang, titled Epilogue, in the context of the art-and-poetry show INTERPRETATIONS where artists interpreted text by images, and writers interpreted creative images by text. This poem was published in the anthology INTERPRETATIONS by the Columbia Art League, 2013.