for more offerings.
This summer I had the great honor of being invited to write a poem for our town’s 9/11 memorial program. In July I started my draft and soon hit a wall. Thumbing through one of my writer's notebooks, I found a note about the ancient Japanese art of joinery called Kintsugi (kin-tsugi).
In the art of Kintsugi, the artist applies layers of lacquer to adhere the pieces of broken pottery together. The final layer is laced with gold to illuminate, rather than hide, the breakage. The repaired object is more beautiful than the original. You can see this process here.
I felt that Kintsugi might hold meaning for the healing of America’s wound, and so my poem evolved.
Golden Seams
Remember the day a ruptured sky
spread emptied and silent over us?
Doves and their kindred spirits dared not fly.
Smoke billowed. Haunting words
dropped heavy as descending stones.
On a stage where some called out, “Revenge!”
we cleaned and dressed our nation’s wound,
reached out to any stranger’s pain
to bond with post-9/11 glue.
On widening trenches of mistrust
we heaped security and sacred creed,
a monument to our lost innocence;
a Maginot Line Band-aid.
Do we wear you like a proud tattoo,
America’s September scar,
vengeance, vigilance– emblazoned
on muscles we habitually flex?
What if our splintered self, instead, displayed
seams layered like Japanese Kintsugi art–
heroic deeds of that one day
now gilded by forgiving hearts?
Let gold-illuminated seams
embellish and adorn our fractured vessel.
Let doves fly in from wild skies
to roost at last in sunlit olive branches.
~ Joyce Ray
What a beautiful poem, Joyce. Pain, poignancy and hope woven together.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jama! I appreciate your comment.
ReplyDeleteLovely, Joyce - I'd heard of that Japanese art but the video helped me understand it. Thanks for offering it as a healing image. Love "...sunlit olive branches."
ReplyDeleteThanks, Robyn. Funny how these notebook entries come back just when we need them!
ReplyDeleteMay we fill our hearts with the promise you describe here, Joyce. This is such a hopeful poem, and the last stanza is hauntingly beautiful. There will always be a "September scar" but we can choose what to do with it. Thank you for this. A.
ReplyDeleteSpoken with such raw honesty - truth and optimism - that's rarely combined and achieved with such clarity.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite lines:
Let gold-illuminated seams
embellish and adorn our fractured vessel.
Let doves fly in from wild skies
to roost at last in sunlit olive branches.
Wounded, pained, and with 'gold-illuminated seams' - on its path to healing. Thank you for sharing this.
Amy and Myra,thank you for your discerning comments. I did try to be hopeful while acknowledging the awful pain.
ReplyDelete