On Wednesday afternoon, Lynn Ungar - minister, dog trainer, little-known poet - sat down at the desk next to her kitchen table and began to type.
A friend had posted something on Facebook about how much we need poetry in this anxious corona virus age and she thought, "You're right".
Ungar had been thinking about social distancing, the idea that to keep the virus from spreading we need to stay away from one another. She'd been reflecting on a question. How do we physically distance ourselves without emotional distancing? In this strange and befuddling moment, she thought, we need to recognise that moving away from other people isn't an act of emotional disconnection but the opposite. It's something to do out of a sense of community and compassion for the vulnerable.
And so, with her two Australian shepherds by her side, she spent a little while turning her thoughts into a poem. When she was done, she typed her name and the date at the bottom and posted it on Facebook for her small following of friends and colleagues. It went like this :
Pandemic
What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath
the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now, on trying to
make the world
different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down.
And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now).
Know that our lives are in one another's hands.
(Surely, that has come clear).
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.
Promise this world your love -
for better or for worse,
In sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.
- Lynn Ungar, 11/3/20.
Tailpiece.
A quiet Saturday that was uneventful!
A friend had posted something on Facebook about how much we need poetry in this anxious corona virus age and she thought, "You're right".
Ungar had been thinking about social distancing, the idea that to keep the virus from spreading we need to stay away from one another. She'd been reflecting on a question. How do we physically distance ourselves without emotional distancing? In this strange and befuddling moment, she thought, we need to recognise that moving away from other people isn't an act of emotional disconnection but the opposite. It's something to do out of a sense of community and compassion for the vulnerable.
And so, with her two Australian shepherds by her side, she spent a little while turning her thoughts into a poem. When she was done, she typed her name and the date at the bottom and posted it on Facebook for her small following of friends and colleagues. It went like this :
Pandemic
What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath
the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now, on trying to
make the world
different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down.
And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now).
Know that our lives are in one another's hands.
(Surely, that has come clear).
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.
Promise this world your love -
for better or for worse,
In sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.
- Lynn Ungar, 11/3/20.
Tailpiece.
A quiet Saturday that was uneventful!
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