A few days ago, Jendi Reiter sent me this Jean Nordhaus poem.
A lot of us know what it is like to contemplate leaving duties and lives and loved ones; a lot of us know what it is like to do it; a lot of us, of course, know what it is like to not go through a door which has fallen open. Anyhow, it’s a good TSP choice.
I Was Always Leaving
I was always leaving, I was
about to get up and go, I was
on my way, not sure where.
Somewhere else. Not here.
Nothing here was good enough.
It would be better there, where I
was going. Not sure how or why.
The dome I cowered under
would be raised, and I would be released
into my true life. I would meet there
the ones I was destined to meet.
They would make an opening for me
among the flutes and boulders,
and I would be taken up. That this
might be a form of death
did not occur to me. I only know
that something held me back,
a doubt, a debt, a face I could not
leave behind. When the door
fell open, I did not go through.
Glad you liked the poem – full publication credits for it are here:
http://www.americanlifeinpoetry.org/current.html