What an honor to have my friend Holly Grantham visiting today. I invited her to bring her words. And she graciously said yes. Holly and I have enjoyed working as poetry partners in the past. You may recall our project entitled Adagio.
We have plans to collaborate after the first of the new year, writing poetry, sharing the lines and space, creating and word weaving together.
Enjoy now, the words of this beautiful woman..
Of Things That Have Been
I finger them mindlessly most days,
These tokens of thanksgiving.
In some familiar corner of my brain I am
aware of their weight and
the anorexic string that
keeps them connected to a well
untended.
But something has shifted
inside of me and
I can’t remember
how to see.
+++++++++++++++++
I have a bowl that sits on my kitchen counter
and in it are the scraps and corners and pieces of
meals prepared and cooked and fed to
the people that I love.
The contents of that bowl get tossed,
mindlessly most days,
into a growling pile of dirt.
Layer upon layer of repasts
Just sitting there
Marinating
Giving themselves over to death.
+++++++++++++++++++
Most days since Spring
I feel a hollow ringing somewhere just
below my rib cage
as if my heart was suddenly deafened by
the weighted silence left in absence’s wake.
I long to be overwhelmed by wonder.
And then, one day, the memory, it returns
Joy, it grows in the humus of things that have been,
in the layers that settle at the bottom of my days.
I remember slowly
how to give thanks.
I remember, friends, how to see.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++
Holly Grantham, Bio
Holly is a wife, very relaxed homeschooling mom of three boys, snapper of photos, coming of age writer and a soul drowning in grace.
After years in Atlanta where she attended college, married the love of her life and lived in an intentional community, she found her way back to her home state of Missouri. She now lives in an antebellum stone house, raises chickens (sometimes) and pretends she lives in the country.
Holly may be found at her writing home A Lifetime of Days, on twitter @HollyAGrantham &
on her facebook writer page.
elizabeth w. marshall 
Dear one,
I am so grateful for your friendship and your generous, open heart. I do so hope that we can revisit our collaborating days. I am better for them. And I do believe that the world is a bit better for it, as well. 🙂
Beautiful work. I particularly love the line, “Joy, it grows in the humus of things that have been,” Well done.