The Light That Can Shine Out of a Life

A client gifted me with this poem last week (almost, almost as good as chocolate). She is in the midst of a tough divorce. Beauty and love have always been guiding lights for her, and Mary Oliver's poem "Singapore" brought her back to the grace of a light shining out of misery. Thankful, like Oliver says, that the world is not only pain and logic.

Singapore

 

In Singapore, in the airport,
A darkness was ripped from my eyes.
In the women’s restroom, one compartment stood open.
A woman knelt there, washing something
in the white bowl.

 

Disgust argued in my stomach
and I felt, in my pocket, for my ticket.

 

A poem should always have birds in it.
Kingfishers, say, with their bold eyes and gaudy wings.
Rivers are pleasant, and of course trees.
A waterfall, or if that’s not possible, a fountain
rising and falling.
A person wants to stand in a happy place, in a poem.

 

When the woman turned I could not answer her face.