That time<br />I thought I could not<br />go any closer to grief<br />without dying<br /><br />I went closer,<br />and I did not die.<br />Surely God<br />had his hand in this,<br /><br />as well as friends.<br />Still, I was bent,<br />and my laughter,<br />as the poet said,<br /><br />was nowhere to be found.<br />Then said my friend Daniel,<br />(brave even among lions),<br />“It’s not the weight you carry<br /><br />but how you carry it -<br />books, bricks, grief -<br />it’s all in the way<br />you embrace it, balance it, carry it<br /><br />when you cannot, and would not,<br />put it down.”<br />So I went practicing.<br />Have you noticed?<br /><br />Have you heard<br />the laughter<br />that comes, now and again,<br />out of my startled mouth?<br /><br />How I linger<br />to admire, admire, admire<br />the things of this world<br />that are kind, and maybe<br /><br />also troubled -<br />roses in the wind,<br />the sea geese on the steep waves,<br />a love<br />to which there is no reply?