This morning’s post is contributed by our good friend Gil George, whose pregnant wife recently had emergency surgery. It moved me to tears especially when I clicked the link and listened to Gil recite his poem with music in the background.
——————————————————————————
This poem has been stirring in me since my wife had to have emergency surgery last week. At the hospital that my wife had her surgery in there is a labyrinth laid out in the cobblestones of their “Healing Garden” located in the courtyard between the wings of the hospital. She is recovering well, and our unborn daughter appears to be unaffected by the surgery. Still, it has been a very difficult time emotionally and it took me a little while to process enough to write.
*UPDATE*
Rich Mutua has put my poem to music. Listen at emotionandmusic.
Labyrinth
I look down at the Labyrinth
That sits in the middle of the courtyard
Of the hospital in which my wife lies
Recovering from a surgery that was successful
To see the pain in her eyes and the pale, drawn visage
Of one whose being has been woven with mine
Over the last eleven years and five months
Having no ability to do anything to assuage her pain
Seeing that there is nothing I can do but wait, I sit
I say “I love you.” as I prepare to go home and try to sleep
As I walk to the elevator I see the labyrinth again in the courtyard
In a very real way it seems to invite me to walk its cobbled path
To a center that I cannot find.
I take the first step with a sense of longing and as I walk I feel
I feel that here is something I can do
Something in which I can have some illusion of control.
I walk slowly, not wanting the illusion to end
I walk towards and away from the center as I follow
A path laid out by someone else, a path walked by others
I approach the center and look out to the West as the
Setting sun sheds its last light of the day
On me, standing in the center of a labyrinth
In the courtyard of the hospital
Searching for a center in me
Labyrinth by Gilbert George is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at extrovertedquaker.wordpress.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available athttp://extrovertedquaker.wordpress.com/.
1 comment
[…] George wrote this beautiful labyrinth prayer while visiting his wife in hospital a few years ago. I particularly love the […]