Posted by:
relievedtolearn
(
)
Date: June 23, 2017 05:37PM
One day on the way up to a place called Kolob Canyon, near Zion National Park, we stopped at a little bait-and-tackle shop partway up, and I found a wonderful little book of poetry and artwork self-published in 2010 by a lady who was at that time 90 years old. She died in Sept. 2014; I wish I'd bought out the books in the store, because since it is self-published, I don't know if there is any way to get more or keep it in print. I traced her kids listed in the obituary and wrote to each of them about how wonderful this book is, and saying I hoped they'd find a way to keep it in print. Not surprisingly, I didn't hear back from any of them. I'm quite sure this lady was DNA Mormon, and I'd bet that the kids I wrote to still are TBM.
Her name was LaBerta W.B. Altermatt
Anyway, here are a couple of my favorites; they sure resonated with me, and maybe they will with others on board as well.
The computer has changed the way she had the words arranged on the page, but not so much you can't see what she's saying.
For John Henry
I cry
For that child
who was never allowed
to be a child
For that young man
yearning
for an elusive something
For that embittered man
who destroys
without understanding how.
I cry
Because I see him
longing to laugh freely
still yearning
Shuffling around in the emptiness
looking
longing
searching for meaning
But unable
to shuck off
the imposed disciplines
forgive himself his failings
give up rigidly held principles
And emerge
whole and real
to the light.
Helpless to help
I cry.
The Cannibal
I watched a soul sicken and die
Married to a man whose word was "I!"
"I know better what's good for you."
This he really believed was true.
So he gave her what he thought he ought
Heedless to the need for what she hadn't got.
She bolted the door to her secret self,
Left her talents neatly packaged on the shelf
Of her "sometime place,"
Corroded within; now she's only an
Empty shadow of him.
And I see him wonder with a wistful smile
"Will she only be gone for a little while?"
I think this poem, especially, is unimaginably tragic; awful.
And I think that the courageous people who come to this board, no matter how awful the cost of choosing one's own truth---are better off than either person of this couple LaBerta described here. sniff.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/23/2017 06:15PM by relievedtolearn.